Stair climber on steep stairs

[Steve Wurster]

Anyone use one of those battery powered stair climbers (e.g. Powermate, Elektro Truck) to go down steep stairs? All the pictures and videos I see seem to be either on "typical" stairs (e.g. ~37 degrees), or where the operator has plenty of room to tilt the dolly backwards when preparing to go to the next steps. My Bilco stairs are ~45 degrees down and have about a 7.5" rise per step. It's a pain to get anything down them, and holding onto a dolly when the item is that far below you is never any fun.

For reference, my Harvey bandsaw was delivered yesterday and it looks great in my garage. My shop is in the basement however and the direct route down there is via those Bilco stairs. I've moved large tools down those stairs before (Hammer A3, Hammer K3), however for those I built a ramp onto the stairs and we lowered the items down using ropes tied to a truck. Gravity does most of the work in those scenarios, but both of those tools are short and not anywhere near as top heavy. A bandsaw is a different beast, especially when it weighs around 400 pounds. My moving crew also isn't readily available anymore, so I was thinking about renting one of those stair climbers. I've found a few posts here on the Creek where people used those, but the situations seem a little different than mine thanks to the steepness of these stairs.

[Rod Sheridan]

I take the table, wheels and motor off, then move them downstairs….Regards, Rod

[Steve Wurster]

I take the table, wheels and motor off, then move them downstairs….Regards, Rod

The table is already off; it's packaged "separately" in a vertical position and I already carried it down into my basement. It probably weighs about 100-125 pounds on its own.

I thought about removing the motor but haven't yet looked at how it's attached. There's still a good bit of plastic wrapping around the entire saw, which means I haven't opened either of the doors yet. If the motor is attached from inside the lower section then I'll have to get into there first.

I don't think I'm up for removing the wheels; that seems like a lot of work.

Regardless of the above, I still have to find a way to get this thing down into my basement.

[Paul F Franklin]

Is your saw upright on a pallet? My laguna came horizontal in a box on a pallet, so it was easy enough to slide it down a temporary ramp on my bilco stairs. I use a 12 volt winch attached to my trucks hitch to do the lowering.

Can you strap it to an appliance dolly and then use the rope and/or winch trick to slowly let the dolly slide down your ramp?

I've never used a stair climber, although I considered it before I worked out the ramp/winch deal. I'm sure if you visit the manufacturers site for whatever brand of climber is available for rental in your area it will have a spec on min/max rise/run of the stairs. When I was researching these, I saw a model with a corded remote control so you control it while safely out of danger.

If none of that works out, I'd think about building a simple sled that would let you lay the saw down and then use your ramp.

[Rick Potter]

This..........^^^^

[George Yetka]

Not since I was moving a 900 lb unit ventilator up a set of stairs at work and the battery died 3/4 of the way up.

Going down stairs look at refrigerator dollies. I brought a bunch of 500+ lb things down the stairs usually with 2 people.

Alternatively build a ramp put it on wheels and use a come along to let it down if you have somewhere to attach it.

[Gary Thinglum]

About 20 years ago I purchased a stair climber for our department at work. They are fantastic. One issue is, if the battery is not charged like George said the climber will run out of power. However, ours was designed that if it runs out of power going up, you can bring the climber back down to charge the battery. You are not stuck in the middle of the stairs. I took it home several times to move heavy things. I move a 16 cu. ft refrigerator by myself without any effort. One thing to be aware of if you are going up a stairs and have to turn to go up another set of stairs, you have to lift up on the ref to make sure you don't get pinned against the wall, like happened to me one time. Hope this is clear.

[Rod Sheridan]

Once the items I suggested be removed are off the saw, it’s easy to take it down the stairs on a hand cart, one person above, one below….Regards, Rod

[Steve Wurster]

Is your saw upright on a pallet? My laguna came horizontal in a box on a pallet, so it was easy enough to slide it down a temporary ramp on my bilco stairs. I use a 12 volt winch attached to my trucks hitch to do the lowering.

Can you strap it to an appliance dolly and then use the rope and/or winch trick to slowly let the dolly slide down your ramp?

I've never used a stair climber, although I considered it before I worked out the ramp/winch deal. I'm sure if you visit the manufacturers site for whatever brand of climber is available for rental in your area it will have a spec on min/max rise/run of the stairs. When I was researching these, I saw a model with a corded remote control so you control it while safely out of danger.

If none of that works out, I'd think about building a simple sled that would let you lay the saw down and then use your ramp.

It's standing upright. The saw is about 72" tall on its own, and it arrives bolted to a pallet that's only slightly wider than the base of the saw. That was then placed on top of a larger standard-size pallet, most likely by the shipping company. It's no longer strapped to that larger pallet but it's still sitting on it; I plan on getting it off of there later today.

There's no ramp present on the stairs anymore; separate ones were purpose-built for lowering down the A3 in 2016 and the K3 in 2018 and then later taken apart. You can't use the stairs otherwise with the ramps present (not that we use those stairs that often, but I also have no place to store the ramp material after the fact). Plus the ramps are a pain to construct because you can't just lay material down on the stairs and be done with it. The stairs are too steep for that and you have no way to get things into the house once they reach the bottom because they end up sitting slightly below the level of the floor and at a 45 degree angle. Both times I had to construct a second less-steep ramp that extended into the house and met the main ramp down near the bottom. Moving a bandsaw down a simple ramp might actually be easier since in theory I would just have to tip it upright once it's at the bottom (although I will need to check door height there). Regardless, I was hoping to avoid constructing a ramp for this move. If I do build a ramp I was thinking about building one that's open in the middle so that you could still walk up and down even with the ramp in place.

I don't own a winch, nor do I have a place to attach a come-along. The stairs are 90 degrees to the driveway, so for the previous moves we had to have the truck driving across grass at a weird angle. It takes 3 people to move things in that scenario because whatever is going down the ramp wants to rotate due to the angle of the rope/chain/wire. I might be able to find someone with a winch and a smaller vehicle like a Jeep that could potentially get into that space facing the correct direction. That still requires building a ramp of some sort of course, but that's fine in this case.

[Steve Wurster]

Not since I was moving a 900 lb unit ventilator up a set of stairs at work and the battery died 3/4 of the way up.

Going down stairs look at refrigerator dollies. I brought a bunch of 500+ lb things down the stairs usually with 2 people.

Alternatively build a ramp put it on wheels and use a come along to let it down if you have somewhere to attach it.

I am definitely worried about the battery dying before completing the move; that would totally suck. lol

By refrigerator dolly, do you just mean one with a second set of wheels that let you support the item at ~45 degree angle? How would that help with getting down the stairs? Or are you thinking of something else?

No place to attach a come-along, unfortunately, but a winch-based setup like Paul suggested *might* be possible.

[Steve Wurster]

About 20 years ago I purchased a stair climber for our department at work. They are fantastic. One issue is, if the battery is not charged like George said the climber will run out of power. However, ours was designed that if it runs out of power going up, you can bring the climber back down to charge the battery. You are not stuck in the middle of the stairs. I took it home several times to move heavy things. I move a 16 cu. ft refrigerator by myself without any effort. One thing to be aware of if you are going up a stairs and have to turn to go up another set of stairs, you have to lift up on the ref to make sure you don't get pinned against the wall, like happened to me one time. Hope this is clear.

Do you happen to know what model still allowed you to go down stairs even when the battery died?

This is only one straight set of stairs, so no issues about turning.

[Steve Wurster]

Once the items I suggested be removed are off the saw, it’s easy to take it down the stairs on a hand cart, one person above, one below….Regards, Rod

I'm going to look at removing the motor and wheels later today when I get the unit off the shipping company's pallet. It does have cast iron wheels, so I imagine they weigh a decent amount on their own. If that works out then, yeah, I should be able to move it using my dolly with help from someone else.

[Jim Becker]

Reduce the weight and move it down on its spine if you can...some boards as a ramp and moving blankets or cardboard to protect. I can provide limited help moving it in if you need...three folks preferred because of the vertical drop.

[Steve Wurster]

Reduce the weight and move it down on its spine if you can...some boards as a ramp and moving blankets or cardboard to protect. I can provide limited help moving it in if you need...three folks preferred because of the vertical drop.

If I'm able to remove the motor and wheels as Rod suggests then it can probably come down on just my hand truck and without a ramp. I won't really know until I look at those parts later today.

I'll let you know if I need help. I'll probably try to wrangle my neighbor or my brother-in-law.

And of course my wife goes, "How are you going to get these things out whenever we move?!" That's a problem for future Steve!

[Gary Thinglum]

Steve, I don't recall what model it was. I tried to find it on the internet and couldn't recognize the one we had. Maybe not even made anymore?
All I know is they were a back saving machine. I will keep looking. I have been retired for 10 years so; I have no way of finding out the model.

Steve, just found the brand we had (Escalera) however, I could not see they was able to come back down if the battery went dead.
Escalera Electric Stair Climber Hand Truck, Best Price & Free Shipping (handtrucks2go.com) (https://handtrucks2go.com/Escalera-Electric-Stair-Climber.html)
We also had a plate which attached to the front (about 24" wide x 18" deep) so you could load larger items.

[Alan Lightstone]

Never heard of these before. Wow, this would have made things easier moving furniture into my tall house.

I found a youtube of a different unit that lifts in a different fashion than the treads. Fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rycfK_8o0lk

Good luck with your move, Steve. Stay safe, those really are top heavy and just plain heavy to move.

[Steve Wurster]

Never heard of these before. Wow, this would have made things easier moving furniture into my tall house.

I found a youtube of a different unit that lifts in a different fashion than the treads. Fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rycfK_8o0lk

Good luck with your move, Steve. Stay safe, those really are top heavy and just plain heavy to move.

I remember seeing that video years ago! In fact, that's the first thing I thought of when remembering that they made stair climbers.

I called a local tool rental place this morning but all of the stair climbers (they have Powermate brand) are out at the moment. I'm going to call back early next week to see if I can get one. If not, I might seriously consider calling a piano moving company.

I removed the motor yesterday, which probably weighs about 40 pounds if not more. I had to do a little bit of electrical work to free the motor itself by removing the crimped splices from inside the little housing on the motor. This saw has the switch built into the chassis itself, so I couldn't just remove the motor and take the switch and plug along with it. That's no big deal though, as I can easily re-splice the two lines that I disconnected.

I didn't bother to try removing the wheels; removing those looks like a major pain. I was able to get the saw off the shipper's pallet and then off the smaller Harvey-provided pallet using a ratchet strap with my hand truck and using the thick cardboard packaging as a ramp. So now the unit is just sitting in my garage. I might try to move it to the space between the cars so we can at least get my wife's car back into the garage. I can pull the unit just fine when it's strapped to the hand truck, but trying to tip it back in an attempt to move it forward is a bit difficult. This thing is quite top heavy.