4FT x 4FT Celling Mounted Rack Garage Storage Rack hand Hoist Shelves Ceiling shelf

First off, I'm a pretty handy guy. So let's not blame the user this time.The instructions tell you where to locate the center of the 4 corner pulleys, and then to measure diagonally to check for square - a trick I learned from Norm Abrams on The New Yankee Workshop. After 30 minutes climbing up and down the ladder checking and double checking the placement, and always coming up wrong, I finally decided I couldn't be that far off and decided to check their math. THEY WERE WRONG!A squared + B squared = C squaredThey were off by over two inches. Once I corrected their geometry (thanks Mrs. Anderson from Bountiful Junior High!) I was able to properly locate the corners.The instructions are VERY specific and VERY clear that all measurements must be within .07 inches. They're also quite clear that the pulleys must be screwed into studs (by which I have to assume they mean ceiling joists) but provide hardware with holes 2 inches apart - forcing you to either choose which side to use or to install studs flat on the ceiling so provide enough surface area. Poor design decisions for sure.Once I'd gotten the pulleys installed, it was time to install the cable. For this step, they provide those little buckles/harnesses used for this purpose so no big deal right? For the life of me I can't figure out what size the nuts were on those things. All I know is they're somewhere between 1/4" and 5/16" and none of my metric wrenches worked either. So a pair of pliers had to suffice - and what a pain that was.Once that chore was done, I then anchored the crank platform to the wall. Again, the holes are such that at best, 2 of the 8 will hit a stud. More poor design decisions.Once the crank is installed, it's time to tie it all together.Unfortunately, you're supposed to run a loop of the cable through some pulleys with two channels. Try as I might, I couldn't get the cable to fit through the opening and was forced to disassemble the pulleys to get the loop through. I don't think that was by design, but it worked.Then I'm supposed to connect each loop to a bar that's connected to a single cable attached to the crank. This went okay and is actually a pretty cool design (hence the 2nd star).I cranked it up and down (empty) a couple of times and then loaded it up with a few boxes of Christmas decorations and started to crank it up until next winter when the entire rack fell from the ceiling onto the floor, missing me by inches.Needless to say, since I was standing right next to where it fell, I almost soiled myself when this thing nearly landed on my head. But I was uninjured and began searching for the problem. It didn't take long to find that the cable attached to the crank, which is connected to that really cool bar (remember the 2nd star?) Had become disconnected from that bar. The good news is that the loops I had worked so hard to attach had held strong, but the POS parts used by the manufacturer had failed.After a trip to Lowe's and $1.76 worth if parts, we are back in business. The decorations are back on the rack. But I'm not parking my car under it until the rack has been loaded for at least 24 hours.23 hours to go.

Overall, I’m very happy with this storage rack. It does exactly what it is designed to do and feels sturdy. Just a few comments—1. The dimensions do not correspond to rafter/stud placement. It is close, but not quite there. I had to first mount pieces of 2x4 to the studs, then attached the pulleys and crank to the 2x4, and it worked great!2. My ceilings are 9 feet tall. After following the installation instructions regarding correct spacing of the rack from the wall, when fully extended down, the rack is still about 4 feet off the ground. For most purposes this is fine, but I’m storing a sizeable Christmas tree on the rack and it takes two people to lift the tree 4 feet to place it onto the rack. If the wires extended closer to the ground, I would be able to load the tree by myself.3. When attaching the metal sides, be sure you pay close attention to how they are oriented. The sides are L-shaped and the bottom of the “L” should form a ledge where the rack rests. This isn’t clear in the instructions, but I’m saving you the trouble of starting over by telling you here. A rubber mallet is useful for attaching the sides together.4. There are two wire racks that sit side by side to form the storage space. I recommend that you attach the racks to each other and to the metal frame with twist ties or zip ties. Eliminating torque with twist ties makes the unit more sturdy and easier to use.

Thanks to the other reviews here, I was finally able to assemble mine. I put 200 pounds (max capacity) on it and could barely get it off the floor after two cranks the wire was tight as a piano string. Took all the weight off and made sure everything worked okay. Empty it was not exactly a piece of cake to crank. I then put 97 pounds (I was measuring with a scale each time) on it. I started cranking in earnest and at about 6 feet high, the cable on the winch snapped and the whole thing came crashing down narrowly missing me. I had already taken the precaution of putting an extra clamp on the winch cable at the top, the cable simply snapped roughly in the middle of the cable run! Thank god my wife had forbade me from installing this in our garage over our cars! Waste of a lot of time and money. I'm leaving this as a cautionary tale for anyone looking at this type of storage system. I wouldn't trust them with more than about 25 pounds.

Does exactly what it's supposed to do. Mounting wasn't that difficult, even though the manual is mostly drawings.