Lifting Chain

Im going to pull the motor on my Farmall M, do I need to get Grade 80 chain or can I go with a lesser grade? What would you guys recommend....

thanks, Anthony

Hello Big Tone,
You did not say how much weight you are dealing with! Grade 80 chain in the 1/4 In. size is rated at a working load limit of 3,650 Lbs.
Grade 70 of the same size is rated at 3,100 Lbs.
Guido.

Just to lift an engine you don't need grade 80 chain but make sure to use a suitable size of chain in good condition.

(quoted from post at 22:06:34 07/30/12) Hello Big Tone,
You did not say how much weight you are dealing with! Grade 80 chain in the 1/4 In. size is rated at a working load limit of 3,650 Lbs.
Grade 70 of the same size is rated at 3,100 Lbs.
Guido.

Click to expand...

I am guessing he is dealing with about 500#.

Grab any good 5/16 chain and have at it.

The only proper possible answer to a question like that is of course you need a chain rated for lifting overhead. Which is at least an 80 right?

Now, if you didn't ask and just did it, you'd be like most folk......

--->Paul

yes--use grade 80--be sure to check the rating on the lifting device----

Get the best that you can get. Too much at risk to use a lesser strength chain. If a chain breaks and injures you or someone else, there is no "do-over".

Given that the engine is going to be somewhere between say 300 and 500 lbs - there's really not much concern.

That's like you and a friend hanging on the chain. Prety much ANY chain large enough to fit over a 1/2" head stud is going to be more than enough.

Where you get into trouble is when you make a mistake. Say your doing more pulling than lifting to get the engine off the tractor, and it suddenly falls hard against the chain.

Dropping a 500 lb object from 1 foot has about 800lbs in kinetic energy - but a WHOLE lot more impact force - hard to calculate with chain - but safe to say it reaches levels where you start worrying about the weakest link...

So the answer is if you don't plan on making any mistakes, use any old chain you have laying around.

If you want to be safer, get some good chain. You can never have too much chain.

If for some reason you want to lift it over head, or in any way where dropping it could cause injury - you need the 80 no question about it. That's what the rating is for.

More likely you're somewhere in between. 70 should work just fine - again going on the assumption that the link has to fit over a 1/2" bolt - your talking sizes that should be plenty strong enough for the job to be safe.