Have you brushed up on your hoisting vocabulary lately? Knowing what each of these 3 terms mean can mean the difference between a successful hoisting job and an unsuccessful one!

1. A portable crane

With its angled beam and sturdy vertical base that can pop up just about anywhere, a portable crane can help make the most out of every inch of your job site. In fact, these cranes can even be set up to hoist and suspend multiple items — going in multiple directions — all at once.

Another name for a portable crane that you’re likely to hear out at a job site? A davit crane. Luckily, no matter what you call it, you’ll get great performance out of it!

2. A ratchet hoist

It sounds so technical, doesn’t it? A ratchet hoist is a hand-powered tool that’s designed to make clean-up a breeze. It gets its name from the ratchet levers inside of it. When you use a ratchet hoist, it only takes a few minutes to gather up your heavy-duty hoisting cables, smooth out any kinks, and wind them up neatly, so that you can load them up and take them to the next job site. If you tried to do all of that work by hand, it would take hours!

Want to add a little bit of fun to your clean-up? Call a ratchet hoist by its nickname — the “come along”. After all when you think about it, when you use a ratchet hoist, you’re really telling your heavy-duty cables to “come along”!

3. A hand chain hoist

If you’re looking for the strength of 10 men — but don’t want to put 10 of your men all on one project — you need a hand chain hoist. These tools use basic science to get heavy-duty loads as high in the air as you need them to be. Then, they’ll suspend them in mid-air for as long as you need.

Because it’s as easy to use as a pulley, a hand chain hoist is a cheaper alternative to expensive electric-powered hoists. In fact, with the money you save, you can have a job site full of hand chain hoists. As a result, all of your heavy lifting can be done in a fraction of the time!

If you’ve never heard of a hand chain hoist, you’ve probably heard it called by its other name — a “chain block”.

No matter what you call ’em, Hoists Direct has all of the hoisting tools you need to get the job done right!