For many years, I have used a pair of crude tackles to raise or lower the stanley burner under my car. One tackle hooked onto the end of the vaporizor, the other used a bracket I had fixed at the diametrically opposite point on the burner shell. I used to tie off the rope to any convenient point, like a valve stem, when the burner had been hoisted into place.

This scheme worked reasonably well with the Stanley burner, but needed revision to work with the heavier and oddly shaped Cruban burner I am now trying. The Cruban vaporizor end is within a closed compartment, so the burner shell was fitted with two hoisting brackets. The burner is asymetrical, so the hoisting points are not on a diameter, but offset so the burner hangs nearly level as it is hoisted. This involved several tries using C-clamps as temporary brackets to find places where both ends of each tackle were conveniently located.

The Cruban burner is enough heavier than the Stanley that a quick and easy way of "tying off" was needed. So I made a pair of plates to serve as the upper end of each tackle. In use, these are hung on bolts fixed on the breeching over the boiler. A Ronstan Cam-Cleat is mounted on each of the plates. When hoisting, one runs the rope between the cams. When the rope is relaxed, the cams grip it; no fuss at all! To release, simply pull the rope from between the cams.

Considering how difficult it is to lift a Cruban burner, with its nearly external mixing tube, with any kind of jack, the effort put into making this hoisting gear seems trivial. It actually takes more time to connect the fuel lines after the burner is in place than to hoist the burner and fasten its mounting clips!

While dropping and replacing a burner is not a task that happens often, it may well pay a Stanley owner to fit something like this tackle on his car. It is a great convenience in the garage and almost essential if one has to do it on a tour, especially when the burner weighs more than a hundred pounds. (The Cruban weighs 108.)

D. K. Nergaard, 27 March 06

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