rwchatham Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Looking to buy a new rotisserie that can handle large car bodies and wanted to see if anybody has recommendations on one that turns easily and safely . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinmass Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) Make it yourself. I have never seen anything I would use that was off the shelf. Edited February 24, 2019 by edinmass (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W_Higgins Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 I own a rotisserie built by Accessible Systems and it is excellent, however it seems they have recently gone out of business: https://www.accessiblesystems.com/history.php If you could find one of their units second-hand, that is what I would recommend. I shopped that pretty hard when I bought mine and it is spec'ed to hold one of my unibody Lincolns should I ever want to. I have had two Shoebox woodie bodies on it and it has enough clearance to spin one of those 360 without the roof hitting the tie bar and have it balanced so it can be stopped in any position without it drifting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick8086 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) Here is one : I do not own one.. http://www.rollerhoop.com/ Edited February 24, 2019 by nick8086 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe_padavano Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) If 20 people respond, you'll get 30 recommendations... I'll add to that with my own. I have a Greg Smith rotisserie with hydraulic jacks for raising or lowering the body. I like it. The one drawback (and I suspect most have this) is that the casters aren't that great and rolling the loaded unit, even on smooth concrete, is not easy. I'll also add that I paid about $900 brand new for mine. Greg Smith sells at large swap meets and brings display models. They will sell those at a discount at the end of the show to avoid having to drag them home. I arranged to buy their display model at Carlisle ahead of time, with the only restriction that I couldn't take it until Sat afternoon. Edited February 24, 2019 by joe_padavano (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinneyhill Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Matt Harwood made his own. Here is the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W_Higgins Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Here is a photo of my Accessible Systems rotisserie with pneumatic tire upgrade so you can go across unpaved surfaces without issues and also facilitate loading onto a trailer. Another one of their selling points was being built to a safety factor of 2. I believe my unit was rated at 3,500 lbs, so failure would be 7,000 lbs. Cheaper units can fail at not much above their stated rating. They were keen to point out that when you see another unit that has every right angle gusseted, that is an indication of it being of poor design and when I started looking at the hard details, there were notable differences in the size and wall thickness of the square tubing used on what is commonly available. The owner / designer was an engineer and very interesting to talk to. It is a shame they have quit making them. I'm not sure there is another U.S. made rotisserie out there that matches their level of quality. I've had mine about ten years now. I later purchased their differential dolly and wish I would have purchased some of their other accessories now that they have gone out of business. For what their products cost vs. rounding up the raw materials to make one, it wasn't worth all the time to reinvent the wheel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe_padavano Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 1 hour ago, W_Higgins said: For what their products cost vs. rounding up the raw materials to make one, it wasn't worth all the time to reinvent the wheel. ^^^This. I'm not criticizing anyone who wants to build their own - more power to you. I my own case, I have very limited free time to work on my projects, and I'd rather spend it actually working on my projects as opposed to building tools to let me work on my projects. That's not a knock on anyone, just my personal situation. Your mileage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W_Higgins Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 1 hour ago, joe_padavano said: ^^^This. I'm not criticizing anyone who wants to build their own - more power to you. I my own case, I have very limited free time to work on my projects, and I'd rather spend it actually working on my projects as opposed to building tools to let me work on my projects. That's not a knock on anyone, just my personal situation. Your mileage may vary. Same here. The rough estimate for materials came out to be something like 2/3rds the cost of a ready made unit. I think part of the profit for the manufacturers is that they get much better pricing on steel by buying large quantities. I'm sure it's a fun project but I didn't need to prove to myself that I could perform tasks that I already know how to do while my personal projects go unfinished. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8E45E Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 I also costed it out over buying this unit: https://www.resto-revolver.ca/ Not worth my labor to search for components, and then have to cut, fit and weld it up myself afterwards. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friartuck Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 What could you put on a rotisserie? T-Bird, Falcon, Lark......I couldn't resist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8E45E Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Friartuck said: What could you put on a rotisserie? T-Bird, Falcon, Lark......I couldn't resist. Good call!! I have a Hawk on my rotisserie! Craig Edited February 25, 2019 by 8E45E (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACK M Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 4 hours ago, Friartuck said: What could you put on a rotisserie? T-Bird, Falcon, Lark......I couldn't resist. Impala, Gazelle, Mustang ??? Cougar,,,,, Cobra !!!~ I have a large BBQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntiqueCraftsman Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 On 2/23/2019 at 7:57 PM, rwchatham said: Looking to buy a new rotisserie that can handle large car bodies and wanted to see if anybody has recommendations on one that turns easily and safely . I was looking for a safe and affordable rotisserie myself. I never thought of making one out of wood. After seeing the following YouTube videos I will definitely be building my own wooden rotisserie. Especially considering that I have a sawmill and so lumber is next to nothing for me. It's obviously not as nice as an expensive rotisserie, but considering the price difference, functionality wins the day. If it works and it's inexpensive you won't get any complaints from me. And how long could it take to build one? There isn't even any welding involved. Just bolt it together. What could be simpler? I don't know how they built these but I would use large bolts with through-holes and large washers nuts on each side. I wouldn't trust lag bolts or wood screws. Just my thoughts. The one in the first video appears to be bolted together with large bolts. The one in the second video appears to be screwed together with lots of wood screws. I'm going for the large bolt construction myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntiqueCraftsman Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Here's an article that goes into a bit more detail of how to actually build the wooden rotisserie. (or roll-to-one-side type) https://brainpowermotorsports.com/rust-removal-simple-solution-ugly-job/ Here's another wooden rotisserie that is more conventional. However, this one requires that you are able to run a steel pipe clear through your car. It may also be picky about having that pipe in the center of balance lest the car might want to flip over due to being off balance. https://www.minimania.com/How_To___Build_a_Mini_Rotisserie_for_less_than__200 I'm going to personally go for just rolling the car over on one side. You can always modify it to roll over in the other direction too if that might be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friartuck Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 One vote for wood, though a bare frame is not the same as a whole car body: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Schramm Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 On 2/25/2019 at 8:11 AM, Friartuck said: What could you put on a rotisserie? T-Bird, Falcon, Lark......I couldn't resist. I know of a 1958 Buick Caballero station wagon that was on one for almost a year while it had the metal repaired. Look on pages 5 & 6. In fact this one might be for sale. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/241934-1958-caballero/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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