MaxxHaul 70238 Hydraulic Receiver Hitch Mounted Crane – 1000 lb. Capacity – Portable Swivel Pickup Truck Hoist with 360° Rotation and Adjustable Support Legs – Fits 2" Class III & IV Hitches

I have an engine hoist/crane in my shop. But I had several engines and other parts that I needed to move from one shop a few towns away to another. Taking my full-size engine hoist for that would have been a pain in the butt (I've done it before, so I know what a pain it is). So, I bought this Maxxhaul hitch-mounted crane. And it works pretty slick. I will say that it's way heavier than I expected ... but that can't really be avoided: it's lifting heavy stuff, so it has to be pretty heavy duty, itself. And, even when "broken down" for traveling, it's still a bunch of pieces. But it all goes together pretty quickly -- maybe takes me 2 minutes to set it all up on-site, and another 2 to take it apart when I'm done. One thing I learned quickly: plan on positioning the tail end of your truck right BESIDE the item that you need to lift. The crane doesn't have a long reach, so basically you're just going to pick up your engine or whatever, and swing it 180-degrees to set it down about 3 feet from where it was when you lifted it, into your truck bed. That seemed to be the most stable way to use it. Speaking of which ... make sure your truck is on pretty flat, solid, stable ground when you use this thing; if you're on a hill, it'll be tougher to swing your heavy item around ... or it'll quickly get away from you and might smash into your truck, damaging it. One last thing: it doesn't come with chains or straps to connect your heavy item to the crane. I had chains from my engine hoist, so used them. But if you don't have chains or straps already, plan on getting some with it. Some folks use serpentine belts to lift engine blocks and such, which probably would work fine with this, but I'm not sure whether those belts would lift an entire, fully-dressed engine safely. And it seems well-built. I'm amazed at how smooth and effortlessly the crane pivots on its bearings. Really nice action. Despite all that praise, I probably won't use this terribly often -- only when I'm delivering or picking up engines. But it's super helpful for that use-case, so I consider it a great addition to my "toolbox." If that's something you have a need for, it'd probably be a good addition to your toolbox, too.

This is a hunk! Arrived with box undamaged but with cover unfastened and able to be opened as if looking at it in a store. But nothing missing, nothing bruised, no problem. Didn't have to go thru a lot of opening to load it PIECE BY PIECE into my truck from whre UPS deposited it. It is very well made, very strong and HEAVY. Just kidding, but you might need another, smaller crane to load and unload this crane...and another tiny crane for that one, etc. Each boxed item is very manageable even for a 70 year old, just wear gloves and think ahead and don't pinch your fingers. The bolts are well made and the nuts screw on easily. Put it on the truck in a LEVEL place; I don't think you could use it anyplace much off level. The clip pins work well, if you lose one you can get them at a tractor store. I lubricated pivot points with some heavy grease, and sprayed some moly grease in the bottom bearing and around that upper bearing and shaft area but probably didn't need to. There is a protective bag for the two bearings on the bottom of the finished yellow part; that area is the only place that might suffer from exposure to the weather, on sealed bearing and one sort of open one at the bottom. I used it to lift an old perhaps 180lb TV into the truck for its final ride, not only saving my back but making something possible that probably wasn't before. I just used a nylon loop around the TV and balanced it by hand as i pumped it up.You'd want to make a better arrangement for very heavy items. (Don't forget when to tighten and loosen the hydraulic valve!) Now, once you disassemble it for the first time, the yellow part is all assembled, three previously separate parts which were previously easily handled. But now it is all together and VERY heavy for a normal person. To move it easily most anywere is a two person job. (Unless you buy a smaller movable crane to move this one.....ha ha ha). I suppose if you were very concerned about the total assembled weight, you COULD disassemble the yellow part piece by piece as you assembed it, tedious but no big deal if you only use it once in a while, and the big bolts and nuts COULD work just hand tightened. Makes things possible that weren't before you got it. Mike

I wish they would have mentioned that unless your truck is jacked up over standard height you will also need to buy their riser adapter for another fifty bucks. This crane is not flawlessly manufactured. I had to take a file to it to deburr some of the drilled holes to get the thing to slide together. It’s very heavy and awkward to assemble - almost as much work as just going ahead and lifting the load by hand. But in the case where the load is just too heavy for one person to lift... this kluge of a contraption will flat do the job. It’s plenty strong and sturdy once you get it all built. And it’s out of the way, over to the side instead of right in the middle of the tailgate like some. A considerable chore to assemble and disassemble each time you use it - you can’t move your truck with it attached. In hindsight I might rather have had the type that is permanently mounted in the corner of the bed, but I didn’t want to cut my bed liner so... kluge it is. It works reliably. It got the job done that I bought it for. I will be glad I have it the next time I need it. And I’ll be glad I don’t need it often. Not handy, but effective.

I needed a way to carry 2 mobility scooters. I own a RAM 1500 and considered multiple options. Buy or rent a small trailer? Buy an expensive electric powered lift which would require installing wiring. Then I found this product. Much cheaper and it assembles quickly and works. I was able to easily lift both of my scooters into the bed of my truck and go to Disney World. Having the 2 scooters made it so much easier for my wife & I to get around.

When our order arrived the packaging was absolutely destroyed, and the majority of the nuts and bolts along with the pins to assemble the hoist were all missing. Amazon immediately refunded our cost without any issues. I reached out to Maxx Haul via email. When they responded the original person was willing to replace all the missing pieces since they had so poorly packaged such a heavy item coming from a foreign country. Then another person wrote to tell me that they were not responsible for the mishandling of their product in shipping and therefore would not be replacing the missing parts. It was shipped in a normal weight cardboard box with a very thin plywood on top and bottom. Very poor customer service and support of their product. I assure you we will never order any other Maxx Haul products.

Very happy with this hitch crane as, it works perfectly and assembles on the job site within minutes! Bought this for lifting wood into my F250 that is typically to heavy for me to do with manual labor. This crane worked like a charm and without issue.... I can tell you that it lifted freshly cut oak rounds at about 3 feet in diameter without issue. A few things to note based on other comments. I have an F250 and the hitch height was perfect. However, I did notice that the legs are adjustable for height, so I don't see it being an issue for lower trucks. Disassembly from the truck when fully loaded, was easy and didn't run into the issue of not being able to disassemble like others mentioned. The pump action of the lift does make it a little slow but as mentioned, it lifted some fairly heavy rounds.... Also, construction seemed to be fairly strong as well, with good welds, as nothing flexed, even with the heaviest of loads. Now for first assembly, the instructions were absolutely horrible... As an example, there are four total bolts with three different sizes but the instructions only list "bolt" in the instructions, so it did take some guessing to proper assembly. Still, did not take long to assemble but something I wish the manufacture would fix. However, again, once the initial assembly is taken care of, this thing goes up in minutes on the job site.

I've now used this quite a few times. I don't regret the purchase, but I wish the price reflected the product. It's about $200 more than it deserves to be. Pros: *It can pick up a gas snow blower with little issue *It lifts without using my back *Single man operation *It comes apart and the receiver piece can remain bolted in and tailgate lowered *Very slightly adjustable *Outrigger legs *Despite the weight, the yellow trunk will fit on the backseat floor of a 97 Silverado the long way, and the hitch and legs can pile on top, making it easy to transport and have ready for use without risk of being stolen attached to the hitch. *That's about it Cons: *Very bad welds, looks like potential safety issue if you try to use it for actually heavy things. *The arm doesn't go far enough out to put things any further than on your tailgate, and just barely. *The paint job is very poor and doesn't cost the inside which is rusty when you get it *There's only a single locking point for the arm. If you're not parked exactly level, the arm and whatever you're lifting will try to swing at you, and cannot be locked in place for assembled storage and driving like some variants of this crane do *The outrigger legs on mine were cut too short, so could not be assembled, and the customer service was not only hard to get a hold of, but completely denied that any mistake could have happened but that it's my fault for not owning a shorter truck. There was no list of approved trucks in the description, I own a 1997 Chevy k1500 Silverado. It's a VERY normal height. You can buy some square tube stock and drill holes where you want or place a jack stand under the base to take the weight. I would not trust it to hold without a support of some kind. *It comes in a very thin plywood box that will be half destroyed when you get it, but other than cosmetic dings, it's packed surprisingly securely. *The disassemblable parts are heavy. You can remove the legs easily, the black hitch assembly is 2 pieces fairly light, but the entire yellow trunk is not something the average person could or would want to remove or put back in every time you want to use it because it's very heavy and needs to be lifted fairly high to be placed in the base. I appreciate the weight knowing it's more solid steel, but I feel like there must be a way to let you remove the arm from the trunk quickly and split the weight easy, while remaining sturdy under heavy load. *I don't overall feel confident that this would last a year of frequent use, let alone regular use, but for someone with a bad back from labor jobs lifting stuff that tools exist for, this is cheaper than a medical bill, unless the welds pop in which case you might not need to worry about bills at all.

I don't own one of these (yet). But there's a pretty good video on YouTube that shows it in action. [...] For $300 this seems like a bargain if you occasionally find yourself loading and unloading heavy stuff in your pick up. I read the comments about the poor quality of the shipping box and the unit coming with some paint chipped off. I guess that would annoy me too for something new I'd purchased, but this looks like the kind of thing that would get dinged up pretty quickly with normal use. Looks like the bearings also need to be kept clean. Update 10/24/13 I did buy this item. My primary use would be to load and unload my almost 300 pound Honda generator in and out of my truck. Quality, function etc - This item is everything (good and bad) anyone who researches it should expect. It is big, heavy, and somewhat awkward for a single person to assemble on the vehicle. Everything went together relatively easilly, and I was able to hoist my generator which was standing on the ground up onto the tailgate of my truck by myself. As demonstrated by the youtube video I reference above, it takes many pump strokes to raise a load. Also, the main bearing is very smooth. As some others have said, almost too smooth. My set up was on a slight incline and you really have to hold the load while pumping. To be honest, its really a two person job to be completely safe. Of course, I knew I'd always have another person with me, we,d just lift this thing up into the truck bed (I've done it, but I dont recommend it). So for now, I stand by my original review in that for the price, this hoist does exactly what I expected. I did knock a star off for a couple of reasons. 1) When I received the box, it was not badly damaged, but was pretty dinged up. Upon opening it, I found a loose nut, bolt and washer laying inside the packing material. This turned out to be one of the bolts for assembling the hoist arm. I had doubts that all the pieces were in the box when I opened it. 2) The paint and finish of the hoist is not very good. Acceptable, but they could have done better 3) two of the spring pins that hold the adjustable legs on were damaged. The springs were crushed so you could not clip them on to safely retain the pins in during assembly. I used a couple of cotter pins as a temporary fix, and have emailed Maxxtow requesting replacements. I'll update my review to reflect how they resolve this issue. 4) The main bearing for the hoist shaft needs to have a nylon bag covering it after disassembly, presumably to protect it from damage. The bag is pretty flimsy, and already was halfway cut through from being shipped. I'm a bit concerned this bearing will rust causing issues with the crane operating properly 5) Although I was able to assemble the crane by inserting the bearing/hoist assembly into the mounting post fairly easily, when I went to disassemble the crane, I had a very difficult time removing the bearing/hoist assembly from the mount. Its very difficult to twist/ shake/lift the heavy assembly to get it out. It appears to be lubricated with a very thick oil (or thin grease). I'll add to this review if anything changes. Right now my main concern is if Maxxtow will send me the replacement parts that were damaged when I received the box Ok, another 10/24/13 update: 4 minutes after I sent Maxxtow an email telling them about the damaged pins I get an email back from them appologizing for my incovenience and saying they are putting 3 replacements in the mail today. So I stuck the 5th star back in.