Table saw delivery options

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I am going to be placing an order for a new TS, and delivery to my house is not bad ($60) - except they only have a box truck without a lift gate, and I don't have a loading dock at my house :rolleyes:

I suppose the options are pick it up myself (I have a utility trailer and a hand truck); have them deliver it and somehow lift it down; or rent a truck with a lift gate and pick it up.


Has anyone here faced this issue? I'm leaning towards picking it up (on trailer or renting a lift-gate truck), as I don't see how we'd be able to 'lift it' down from a standard box truck...

[Dave Wagner]

Any friends with a business that has a lift/fork truck, have it delivered there if possible. I had to do that with my Grizzly shaper.
Do you have a truck? Maybe back up against the box truck and slide it over?

[Jacob Mac]

What type of TS? My brothers and my dad have lifted some fairly heavy machinery off of a truck. But, there is obviously a limit to that approach.

If it is a slider or a cabinet saw, picking it up might be easier.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Cabinet saw. I know some people that have pickups and one or two that have box trucks, but none with lift gates.

I'm thinking of just trailering it....it's only about 10 miles, and I have a hand truck rated to 800 lbs.

[Don Morris]

Don't know if this is OK for your situation, but I got my 400lb jointer off a non lift gate truck by slidding it down a couple long 2 x 8 boards. Put it on the boards in the truck then moved it slowly to the edge. Took two people but it worked. Would feel more comfortable with a rented fork lift though if that's possible. I was too cheap to rent one. My LOML gave me a budget for the jointer and I promised to keep to it.

[Lee Schierer]

Ryder rents trucks with lift gates, what would a partial day rental cost you??

[Bruce Moir]

I faced the same problem. My saw weighed about 350lbs! After first minutes of panic, I went around the corner where a landscaping crew was at work. Offered them some cold beer if they helped me lift the saw off the back of my rented pickup truck. Instead the foreman said, "Why don't we put the forks on our Bobcat and lift it off that way."

Problem soved and a happy ending!

Maybe you can find a crew at work doing landscaping or construction in your neighbourhood and have the same luck as I did.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I just called a place nearby. $30 for the day, and $.89/mile. it'll be about $50 total, a tad less than having them deliver it. I was a little confused by the Budget website - it seemed to indicate that liftgates were only available for "business rentals". Not the case, according to the woman on the phone. It's actually right on the way to the place where I'll be buying it, so it works out great.

[Jason Strauss]

I had a new Grizzly TS delivered a couple of months ago. It was a nightmare. I paid extra for a lift gate delivery from UPS, but forgot to inquire about the size of the truck. They showed up (3 hours later than the 1pm-5pm window they gave me) in a full size tractor trailer. I thought they’d come with a smaller box van for residential delivery. My driveway is 10 ft wide and over 500 feet long. Needless to say they couldn’t get up it.

The driver put the TS on the lift gate then lowered it down to the bed of my F150. This still didn’t solve the problem of getting it off my truck. After about two hours, lots of frustration, and one hacked-off wife, we managed to basically cantilever it off the tailgate without dropping it.

Of course, being a brand new toy…er, saw, I had to stay up half the night setting it up!

Having lived through this nightmare, either have 4-6 willing friends/neighbors at the ready to assist you with a home delivery, or rent a lift gate truck and pick it up yourself.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Jason - thanks for the advice, and sorry to hear you went through so much trouble. A friend of mine went through the same issue - a delivery via 18 wheeler instead of a "normal" truck. His worked out OK, but these delivery folks need to understand that most people do not have a shipping dock @ home.

I will most likely rent a liftgate.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Delivery from the manufacturer is to Beaver Woodworking (in Brockton). From there, BWW delivers, but using their own box truck. The $60 for it doesn't bother me at all. But having to "get it off their truck" (their words) is a non-starter for me. And they definitely will NOT move it into place (down into the basement) because of liability concerns. That doesn't bother me too much either, but I do intend on trying to get them to come out and inspect it and help align/adjust it.

[Don Morris]

Wow, you expect the people who sold you the TS to come out and help set-up align and adjust the saw??? I guess I didn't ask the right questions when I bought mine. Wonder how many creekers had the people who sold them their saws had the sellers come out and help set-up, adjust and align their saws. Or did I misunderstand your statement.

[Dan Forman]

I picked up my Uni from the store in my pickup truck. Three of us got it down off the truck, on to an appliance dolly, and down into the basement without that much trouble. I wouldn't try it with a regular hand truck though, the appliance dolly cost about $100, but was money well spent, as it has been used for a number of other heavy, unwieldy things as well. You will need the extra height of the dolly as you will be bending over going down the stairs, and the integral locking strap keeps the load tight to the dolly preventing it from falling off. The dolly will also have something like brakes on the wheels which help ease it down more slowly over the stairs. It will also prove useful when bringing up the heavy furniture that you will be making down there in the basement.

If you have a couple of able bodied friends to help, shouldn't be a problem, three would make it a piece of cake, at least for getting it off the truck. The advantage of picking it up yourself, is that you can know exactly when to have your friends there.

You might want to measure your basement entry door, mine just barely fit through without taking the door off.

Dan

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Wow, you expect the people who sold you the TS to come out and help set-up align and adjust the saw??? I guess I didn't ask the right questions when I bought mine. Wonder how many creekers had the people who sold them their saws had the sellers come out and help set-up, adjust and align their saws. Or did I misunderstand your statement.

I learned a long time ago - it doesn't hurt to ask.

I don't expect them to agree, but I'll express my concerns about getting it set up and see what they say. I have read some posts where the seller provided true door-to-door service (including setup), but I agree it's not common.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Good advice - thanks Dan.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Wow, you expect the people who sold you the TS to come out and help set-up align and adjust the saw??? I guess I didn't ask the right questions when I bought mine. Wonder how many creekers had the people who sold them their saws had the sellers come out and help set-up, adjust and align their saws. Or did I misunderstand your statement.


Don - check out Don Bullock's post in this thread....I think this is where I got the ide to ask them to set it up.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1169712

[Charles Frankenhoff]

Maybe call around to landscapers in your area, and see if someone will take it off your utility trailer with their forks on their way to or from work?

A lot of guys in your neck of the woods have forks, maybe someone in your neighborhood has a bobcat or a tractor? I'd do it for someone in my neighborhood just to help out.

[Richard Andersen]

Last week I unloaded my PM 2000 from the back of my Pickup with the help of a neigbor and an engine hoist he uses for pulling engines out of cars. Take some measurements first to make sure it can lift high enough to clear your pickup bed, I had less than an inch to spare. Drove the truck out from under the raised saw and pallet then lowered it down some and we rolled the whole set-up into my garage.

[glenn bradley]

I just called a place nearby. $30 for the day, and $.89/mile. it'll be about $50 total, a tad less than having them deliver it. I was a little confused by the Budget website - it seemed to indicate that liftgates were only available for "business rentals". Not the case, according to the woman on the phone. It's actually right on the way to the place where I'll be buying it, so it works out great.

Sounds like the best bet yet.

[Harry Hagan]

With the exception of one item, all of the heavy stationary equipment I've purchase has been delivered inside my garage at no charge. That one item was delivered to a local shipping terminal and loaded onto my pickup truck at no charge because I preferred to store it in the truck for a few days. Your purchase price might enable you to absorb the cost of a lift-gate delivery and still be a good deal but I would encourage you to not settle for anything less than free lift-gate curbside delivery.

My purchases were made three and four years ago from Amazon and Woodcraft during different market conditions but I'm thinking you should have even more leverage today. Some of those free deliveries were offered up front and the others were negotiated as a condition of the sale. You are the customer and you do have the final say in the process.

[David Prince]

Grizzly specifically sent me an email that I had to respond to prior to shipping. Stated something to the effect that I am aware that the item is being truck shipped and it was my responsibility to get it off the truck!

When I made the initial purchase, I could have elected to pay an additional $30 for the optional "lift-gate" service.

[Kent A Bathurst]

My TS, jointer, planer got off the truck, thru the garage, through the kitchen, and down the stairs with 3 friends - BIG friends - and 2 cases of Labatts Blue. The beer was in a cooler downstairs, where the equipment went. The "carrot" approach. Just sayin........

[Richard Andersen]

With my tablesaw purchase from Equipment Sales and Surplus they where willing the do residential liftgate service for $85 (good deal in hind-sight). I turned it down figuring they where overcharging to make a little more profit in addition to my tablesaw purchase. SO to keep the overall saw purchase at minimal cost I decided I could pick it up my self and save. Once the saw arrived the weather was very cold and snowing and my driveway was icy. I called the delivery company (YRC) for a delivery quote. I thought going directly thru them would be cheaper. NOT SO MUCH!! YRC quoted me $85 residential delivery and if I wanted lift gate service it would cost an ADDITIONAL $129...for a total delivery charge of $214. I decided to get the saw and unload it myself as originally planned......that evening with the help of my neighbor in single digit temp weather. Took about an hour to finally get it done and we where both frozen and my neighbor was late for a dinner date. I was sure kicking myself for not originally spending the extra $85 when I purchased the saw!

[Lee Schierer]

Years ago when I was on active duty with the Navy we were sent to Egypt. We were stationed on land at temporary sites in remote areas and we had lots of heavy equipment. In the early days before all our support equipment arrived a truck (Egyptian military) with several table saw sized pieces of equipment on it arrived at our site. We had no loading dock or a forklift. The workers gathered a half dozen mattresses and placed them in a pile behind the truck. They then man handled the heavy pieces to the back of the truck and pushed them off onto the pile. Workers on the ground would guide piece as it bounced so it didn't fall off the mattresses. Once the bouncing stopped they would roll it off the mattresses onto the ground and take it where it needed to go. They did this at least a half dozen times and nothing was dropped or broken in the process. YMMV.

[brian c miller]

I Loaded and Unloaded a Unisaw my self. I simply cantilevered the saw and loaded it flat into my Rover, installation was reverse of removal.

I had to remove all the auxiliary stuff (fence, rails ect) but it was not as bad as you may think.


I did is basically the same way as this guy less the jack.

http://machines.2x.nu/unisaw_offloading/index.html

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

We have a Yukon XL, so we could do the same with that....but since I have a trailer and could just hand-truck it on and off, I'd probably do that. Depends on whether I prefer driving to pick it up (35-40 miles one way) or $100 for the lift gate delivery.

[Greg Wittler]

Has anyone here faced this issue? I'm leaning towards picking it up (on trailer or renting a lift-gate truck), as I don't see how we'd be able to 'lift it' down from a standard box truck...[/QUOTE]

A couple of moths ago I found a good deal on a Jet 15" Planer ($500.00 with noticeably little use). After wrestling that out of my Brother in law's truck, I decided I needed something to assist when I buy more large machinery. I came across a 1 ton Portable Crane that was on sale at HF for $99 from $180 and with their 20% off coupon, I got it for around $80.00 too bad you are not near me as I would let you use it. it is not even out of the boxes yet so I cannot vouch for how well it works.


GW

[ken gibbs]

I recently bought a Griz G0555X. Since I live on the side of a mountain, I met the delivery van and just slid the cartons onto the bed of my pickup. When I got back to the shop, I used a 1/2 sheet of 3/4 plywood and slid the saw down the back of the pickup onto a scrap pallet. I put the mobile base together and added the saw base. I used a come-a-long chained to my shop rafters and uploaded the saw onto the base.

Using a sheet of plywood is easy and not that hard on your back. It worked like a charm.

[Eric Sayre]

Cabinet saw. I know some people that have pickups and one or two that have box trucks, but none with lift gates.

I'm thinking of just trailering it....it's only about 10 miles, and I have a hand truck rated to 800 lbs.

John, you can build a makeshift ramp to get it out of the trailer. I've helped others unload some pretty large equipment that way.

Or if you know someone with a "tilt" trailer you can borrow. That is what I used to unload my JET cabinet saw and Shop Fox 20" planer that was over 850 lbs. The saw was easy to unload by myself. Don't ask about the planer......!

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Eric - I'm all set. My trailer has a ramp, and I managed to 'walk' and drag the pallet off and into my garage.