Mike Draper
Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2008
- Messages
- 4,402
The little giant is an awesome HX, but it does have one weakness. The frame is not really made to be taking a beating in the back of an box truck. I got this idea from Stan Wynhof. I took the aluminum frame down to my machine shop and had them duplicate an exact makeup with 16 gauge stainless steel and then had them do some other alterations to make it stronger.
From this 1st pic you can see the old frame "left" and the new frame "right". Basically the hx sits inside of this lip and that is what holds it from tipping over. Little giant puts some small self tapping screws inside to hold it together, they might as well put tape and paper clips on it. I had the lips made much taller.
Then I mounted the hx up on a strong steel frame I had powder coated.
here is the final product, it cost me about $250.00 because they made a small mistake on the frame. Normally it would run about $350.00. This thing is built like a tank now and I can push with all my might and it wont even budge. Instead of using self tappers, I bolted everything together except for the middle area. I used large self tappers there.
From this 1st pic you can see the old frame "left" and the new frame "right". Basically the hx sits inside of this lip and that is what holds it from tipping over. Little giant puts some small self tapping screws inside to hold it together, they might as well put tape and paper clips on it. I had the lips made much taller.
Then I mounted the hx up on a strong steel frame I had powder coated.
here is the final product, it cost me about $250.00 because they made a small mistake on the frame. Normally it would run about $350.00. This thing is built like a tank now and I can push with all my might and it wont even budge. Instead of using self tappers, I bolted everything together except for the middle area. I used large self tappers there.
