Hayloft hoist electrical cable getting tangled

[stgarrity]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum (equipment?), but I’m trying to figure out a solution for our new-to-us barn with a hayloft. The previous owners hung an i beam from the ceiling of the second-floor hayloft out the door and attached a rolling hoist so we can load bales directly from the truck up into the hay loft (yay!)

Unfortunately power to the hoist is just hard wired into some romex with one end attached to the middle of one wall, and the other to the hoist...so the wire gets tangled, tripped on, etc. as the hoist is rolled back and forth along the i beam.

it seems as if there must be a clever solution to this problem with either a cable tensioner or equivalent, but my googling skills haven’t turned up anything.

Anyone seen this issue and have a good idea, or even the right term for what I’m looking for? Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

Ha! Yeah... we would probably be stupid and have one person just stand there and hold the cable.

Otherwise... get a pully, stick it close to where the wire goes into the wall/furthest away from the winch. Attach a weight to the bit of cable between the pully and the wall.

Have someone move the winch back and forth while you adjust the weight on the cable until the cable is moving like you want.

Might need to make a hole in the loft floor to hang the weight and cable through.

 

[stgarrity]

Haha yeah that's what we've been doing but it's annoying when one person has to load down below and the little one isn't big enough yet

Good idea re the pulley ... I'll either give that a try or just use a normal retractable overhead reel (like for garage ceilings), and just deal with the brake set/release for a little while. Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah... age 7 is the magical age where they start getting really useful