Attempting to Raise Trusses with Gin Pole

The week was shortened a bit by rain on Monday. The rest of the week was the same old pattern. There was dense fog until about 10 AM and then the heat, humidity and lack of wind made things quite uncomfortable while working. Nobody said it would be a picnic, but it sure would have been nice if there was a breeze.

The post and beam work was completed by Wednesday and then it was on to the trusses. I spent a good number of days mulling over how to raise the trusses. I had worked with gin poles before while constructing antenna towers, so I thought I’d make one and give it a try. I constructed a 19 foot pole by using two 14 foot 2 x 4’s and a 10 foot long pipe. I bought a hand crank winch and constructed the gin pole. I first tested it out on a few light weight items. I’m sure if anyone was driving by, they were probably scratching there heads wondering why I was raising a circular saw 18 feet above the site.

I bolted the gin pole to one of the center support posts and raised the first truss very slowly. As I lifted the truss, I positioned a brace underneath the truss in case something gave way with the gin pole. Although the gin pole made some moaning noises, it worked like a charm. So with the cable attached from above and bracing below, the first truss was erected and plumbed. This took all of Thursday to figure things out. By Friday, I was ready to raise the second truss. This time I elected to raise the truss using long 2 x 4 braces. Once the truss was up, it could lean against the heavily braced truss already in place. I slid the truss in place and up it went along with a gallon of sweat. I had the damn thing almost fall back, but I finally got it braced properly and slowly moved it into exact position. I spent the rest of the day figuring out how the heck I was going to brace the two trusses together. Because the roof is comprised of 16 wedges, the trusses are about 4 feet on center on the outside and practically on top of each other on the inside. As a matter of fact, two different trusses were fabricated (one longer, one shorter) to prevent any problems with them meeting in the center.