http://www.princessauto.com/shop-garage ... able-hoistThat's pretty much the same one I got, although I got it on one of their "Price Smasher" sales, so it was REALLY cheap. Mine has a slightly different spec (330 lbs straight lift, 660 lbs with the pulley block), but otherwise it looks the same.
I see that Harbor Freight has the same hoist as the Princess Auto one for $99.99USD
http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisear ... &Submit=Go. They also have 880 lbs, 1100 lbs, and 1300 lbs models for $139, $159 and $139, respectively (don't know why the 1300 lb model is cheaper than the 1100 lb model, but...). Unfortunately, shipping can be a bear. I was going to get one of their tubing benders for doing headers, etc., but the shipping on the $119 unit was $200.
In my view, the beauty of the electric hoist is total control, and one-handed ease of use. You can use the other hand to guide the load as you go. If you're lifting an engine, you have one hand free to move stuff, rather than testing the tensile strength of a speedo cable or ground strap, for example (for some reason, these things have a habit of finding something on the motor to grip onto as you lift it out of the bay). The infinite control is really handy for, say, putting an engine onto an engine stand, too, as you can jockey it around easily (you can lift a motor 1mm at a time if you want to).
**SAFETY NOTE**
One thing I should add for anyone considering making a lifting rail system to a trussed ceiling - in mounting my overhead box-track rail, I decided to make a beefy hanger system, as the whole thing hangs from the trusses in my new shop (I was sure someone would have questioned this by now!). I probably went a little overkill on it. In the close-up photo, you can see one of the vertical hangers (3/16" X 3" steel) I made that goes up to one of the trusses. It's not just bolted through the truss, though. It goes up to a horizontal flat bar (3/16" thick, 3" wide, and 48" long), which was slotted for the hanger to fit through, then welded to it, like a capital "T". The truss was doubled up as well, sandwiching the hanger (the one you can see) inside, and giving the top of the "T" lots to sit on. In this way, the load is distributed over 4' of truss. There are four of these hangers ("T"'s) over the length of the rail system. I calculated the load on the trusses - at maximum possible lift load (660 lbs.),including the weight of the rail system itself, the load on the trusses averages less than 1.25 lbs. per square inch. Worst case scenario (all of the weight centered directly under a single hanger) - less than 5 lbs/sq. inch load on the truss. Considering that I can hang my not-inconsiderable 210 lbs from a single point on any one of the trusses without deformation, I figure my hoist isn't going to stress the trusses at all. The extra safety probably cost me about $10 in extra scrap steel.
Just something to think about...
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More likely I'll just start trolling Kijiji, and waiting for the next Princess Auto sale.
) has a 10' ceiling inside, my new (assembly/storage 
) shop is exactly 8' high inside (my budget wouldn't permit it being higher), so the cherry picker just wouldn't work. It's very tall with the boom out, and lifting a motor 2'-3' off the ground puts the top of the boom almost 9' high.
