i think all the Chinese ones are about the same now days. i bought one probably 15 or more years ago and havent had any issue with it. i HATED to keep giving money to the rental place, being put in a time crunch and dealing with picking it up and dropping it back off.

Hate to tell my HF story again, but about 5 years ago I went to the local HF to buy a hoist, they were out of stock so they suggested ordering online. I ordered one and when it came the box was open and there were parts missing. The local store refused to take it back, even though it is written in their online policy. I had to ship it back and their Asian customer service people were either complete imbeciles or were dodging me intentionally. I had to file with my bank to get the charges removed, which took about 5 weeks. Needless to say I have never looked at another HF ad nor gone into the store.

I did find a hoist exactly like the 6-wheel one Challenger1 shows above, it was in stock at Autozone just 5 miles from my house!

I have an Arcan CEH-41 foldable crane 4000 pound unit I bought at the turkey rod run about 25 years ago. I use it many times every day, at work. I replace anywhere from 1 to 3 engines a day.
I've replaced the rams about 4 times, just get the 8 ton ram. Last one I bought is air operated so it's a real pleasure compared to having to pump that thing.

I have a HF 2 ton fold-able I bought a year ago on sale for 169.00.
Works fine, has pulled BBC and SBC engines so far.
Assembly was easy and parts were marked for install.
Either buy it on sale, use the 20% off coupons or check craigslist for used. Never pay full price at HF.

I didn't see one in their latest flier...

I saw this thread earlier and went to HF for some gloves, thats the only thing I buy there. So I went and looked at the engine hoist selection and they had one thing in common, all the welds sucked! HF tools, for when it doesn't matter if the job gets done today!

Those import cranes like you have are fine for small engines like what you work on. But not enough crane to lift a big block V8 and transmission in our old muscle cars. IMO Plus too many places for it(import) to wear out and become unsafe.

I have HF 1/4 mile from the house, only go in there every couple years to buy gloves like said above! lol

I bought a bunch of HF equipment 25 years ago, like drill presses, hydraulic press, porta power and plenty more for home and at work. Today that same equipment is so cheaply made it is not funny. Sad And I thought it was cheap stuff 25 years ago but now it looks good compared to what they sell now.

Bought a 1000# capacity jib crane 10 years ago at an industrial auction... $75.00. I was buying/selling lots of vintage Hemi and flathead Ford stuff so it really paid for itself. Sold it last year to a local wood processing shop for $1800.00...

Now I use a small engine hoist I bought at a marine going out of biz sale for $20.00....

If you look at the welds on most of the fold up cranes under 300.00, they all have the same hit and miss welds.

I'm renting a hoist for $92 for a week, but will look into purchasing something in the future.

Thanks for all the responses. - Brad

I have a Sun International cherry picker that I bought out the back of a pick up truck with South Carolina tags years ago. I think the stuff was made in the Carolinas. Old guys on the east coast know who I'm talking about. Thing is heavy made, works great. Had to put a cylinder on it a while back. Don't know if they can still be had or maybe find one for sale. Then there's OTC or some of the professional stuff.