Pulley setup to raise a laundry drying bar levelly

Question

I bought a bike hoist which I modified to use to raise and lower a bar that acts as a drying rack for damp clothes in my laundry room. I now have the following setup: The problem is that when I pull on the rope attached to the wall, the right side of the bar goes up while the left side stays down. Eventually the left side of the bar also starts to go up, but by this point all the clothes on hangars have slipped down to the left side.

Is there a way to modify this pulley setup in order to have the bar raise and lower levelly?

Answer 1

As both bib and Johnny have said, the simplest way to do this is to use two separate ropes. You can either manually pull on both ropes at the same time, or the ropes can be tied together prior to each reaching its first pulley away from the wall (A & B in the image below). Alternately, as Alchymist mentioned in a comment, you can use a single rope with the middle of the rope at the wall and the two ends the attachment points at the ceiling.

Using the pulleys you already have, and keeping the location you are pulling from the same as you are currently using, you can do something like:

Pulleys A and B can be located adjacent to each other. You could, of course, use one double-pulley block for A+B. However, I assumed you would want to use the materials you already have on hand.

Answer 2

In theory, a perfectly balanced load and frictionless pulleys would result in a level rise.

But lack of balance and friction are always with us.

The simplest way to ensure a level rise is to use two separate ropes, tied together on the pulling end, similar to the mechanism for venetian blinds. Note that the load is divided by 4 in the current setup (two movable pulleys in series). If you use two ropes each with one movable pulley not in series, the load will only be divided by 2, but will move up twice as fast.

Answer 3

While I don't disagree with Bib, Johnny, or Makyen, you could just terminate the ropes to the ceiling at both ends of the clothes bar, and tie a pull rope to the center of the rope like this:

the result will pull the bar up in a generally level fashion, so long as the load on the bar is fairly evenly distributed. Fewer pulleys, less rope.

Answer 4

OR you can use deep notches in the bar to separate and fix the clothes hangers in their places and when the second pulley starts to work and bar levels up in the topmost position your hangers are where you left them.

Answer 5

There is a method for rigging this, but it's not simple. ropes go up from each corner. The two end corners go to pulleys, then get tied to each other leaving only one lead. Both ends are tied in a v. The leads from each end meet up and go to another pulley. The two get tied together to a final pulley that goes down at one end. I wish I could make a diagram but it makes my eyes crazy. I may have made a mistake somewhere. There is limited pull height by nature, about 3-4 foot. I had one of these in our bathroom to dry clothes when I was growing up.