Abstract: In response to the problems of large wheel mass, high production cost, and high operating energy consumption in the multi-rope friction hoist wheel system, in order to reduce the mass of the multi-rope friction hoist wheel system, taking the operating conditions of the JKMD2.8×4 multi-rope friction hoist as an example, the shortcomings of the system were analyzed. Finite element analysis was used to analyze the force and deformation of the wheel, and two lightweight optimization design schemes for the wheel were proposed. After comparing and analyzing these two schemes, scheme 2 was selected for the optimization of the wheel system, and engineering application verification was carried out. The verification results showed that using scheme 2 to remove the two spokes of the hoist wheel and increase the thickness of the wheel spokes to 110 mm, and after reducing the thickness of the wheel hub by 5 mm, the mass of the hoist wheel can be reduced by 5.72%, and the deformation of the wheel is only increased by 0.01 mm. The wheel system meets the requirements for safe operation, operates stably and reliably, and achieves good optimization results. This study can provide a reference for the lightweight design of the wheel system of a hoist.