Unloading a new PM 209 - any ideas how?

[Nathan Conner]

Sorta long, here - I think I got carried away.

So, related to my thread of a few days ago, I am now the very proud but slightly miffed owner of a 775 lb. hunk of iron, the PM 209 20" planer. Proud because of the price (teensy gloat, but a gloat nonetheless) of sub-$1500 and the fact that I own my dream planer now. Miffed because it's still in the back of the truck.

As I explained yesterday on the tail end of another thread, I had some issues when I got home. I have a lifted F-250 as my "lumberyard truck", and with the topper off, the planer fit perfectly. They forked it on at the machinery shop. When I got home, though, after these several weeks of rain, and my grassy "path" up a hill through a copse of spruce, I got stuck trying to turn around. Took 3 runs to even get up there, and on the 4th, I made it but left a heck of a muddy trail behind me. At the top of the hill (at the shop), the truck got stuck, and I spent a couple of hours with the little Kubota 4x4 sub-compact yanking sideways on the truck while the neighbor goosed it in low, and we got it out and back down the hill, sliding most of the way.

So, the truck idea is out - it won't be able to get up there again (I have road tires on it) until it dries out. Which, around here, will be July. The planer spent the night OUTSIDE in 35 degree rain under several tarps. It was uncrated, wings removed.

I have a small tilt-down yard trailer that should theoretically hold the weight of the planer. (If it doesn't, no big loss - it's not much of a trailer, anyhow) My thought is that the tractor sloshed up that hill without so much as a slip. So I could use the tractor to pull the little trailer up to the shop. But it's a good 2' height drop from the truck bed to the trailer bed.

I'm by myself out here in a pretty rural area. My wife is under the weather and can't help, few of my neighbors are around on the weekends, but I may be able to get one to help out. I have loads of stout boards, 2x6s, 3/4" ply, etc.

I wrestled my 18" Jet bandsaw off of the truck and into place in the shop by myself, but I don't think we're even in the same weight league here, and the bandsaw was 2x the height, so it was easy to maneuver.

So, there it is. The tractor does fine by itself, don't know how it will do with the trailer. The tractor weighs in at about 1500 lbs by itself. There's a FEL on it, but the height is only 6', and max weight is only 500 lbs. (At 510 lbs, it will start to tip forward slowly...don't ask how I know)

With a short (10') come-a-long, plenty of rope and straps, the tools at my disposal, and the 1/4 mile drive on the tractor & trailer, I'm sure this is feasible. Maybe use the come-a-long on a tree branch to winch it up out of the truck and back down to the trailer? I'm trying to picture a strong enough tree I have...maybe not. Is there some A-Frame I can knock together around the truck to winch it up and then drive the trailer underneath? Rent an engine hoist? Rent a forklift? Get someone with a big tractor?

I'm willing to try anything at this point. My first instinct was to put a Craigslist ad up for a few strong guys - give them a hundred bucks plus a case of Hank's to just carry it to the shop, or devise a way to get it up there with a 4x4 with mud tires and a liftgate...but two fears. One is that I don't want them to damage it and then drive off into the sunset. Another is, I don't know them, and the last thing I need is some guys eyeballing all the tools to come back at 3am tomorrow and clean me out of thousands in hand and small power tools.

Any thoughts? Am I just ridiculously over-thinking this? Gees, it's a gorgeous planer and it won't spend another night outside. (Truck is too big for either garage) I just don't want to get hurt, and I don't want to hurt the planer. The truck/trailer? Meh.

Whatever I do, I'll be sure and post pictures. :)

[Nathan Conner]

There is a 500 lb truck lift at Harbor Freight - I can get there in 40 minutes. That may do some of the trick for me.

Anyone know if this is truly 500 lbs? Or is that "lifting" capacity? Because I only need to lower, not lift, and it would be handy to have.

Maybe I could take some parts off of the planer? The wings are off...are there other heavy parts I can remove? Anything cast that doesn't require precision realignment? Or does it all?

[Jim O'Dell]

WOW! What a dilemma! Could you borrow/rent a trailer that will easily handle the weight, hook up and go back to where you bought the planer and have them re-mount it on the trailer? Then back to the house and use the tractor to take the trailer to the shop? Trailer should be closer to the ground to slide it down a home built T style ramp of 2X10 material, then some wood dowels to roll it into place. Or an engine hoist or front end loader to take it off the trailer.
But like you said, whatever you do be careful! Jim.

[John-Paul Murphy]

Nathan congrats
At this point I would look at a partial disassembly. At lease take the cutter assembly off, the tables, then the base?
I wish I lived closer. I would bring the video camera and if all failed we could replace the truck, planer, tractor and barn with the 100,000 grand from FHV.:eek:
In any case the best of luck

[Nathan Conner]

I wish I lived closer. I would bring the video camera and if all failed we could replace the truck, planer, tractor and barn with the 100,000 grand from FHV.

Now that made SWMBO laugh and laugh. She likes the way you think and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Douglas Lee]

Nathan,

Any chance that you have neighbors with a larger tractor. If so, you have a couple of options depending upon what kind of equipment they have.

1. If they have either a set of clamp-on pallet forks for the bucket or a quick-attach with pallet forks, then you can move it off the truck the same way that it was loaded on.

2. Lacking any pallet forks, if the bucket has hooks for lift chains (a typical thing), then you can rig up an appropriate lifting arrangement. Some details and pictures on the planer's lifting points would help refine any input from forum members.

Doug

[Roger Bell]

An ordinary engine hoist should enable you to offload it from the truck and then onto your trailer. If you can back the trailer into the shop you can offload it inside the shop with the hoist as well. Use good quality strapping.

HF has two-ton hoists on sale all the time for about $150...or you can rent one. I would think that any trailer should be able to haul 500#.

If the little tractor gets stuck, then your come-along should be able to pull it out if you have enough trees as tail-holds.

[Joe Chritz]

Cherry picker engine hoist. I have used it for taking things off trucks and will most likely be doing so again Monday.

Use the lift to off load from the truck. Lift it up with strapping, pull truck away and pull trailer in. Set the unit on the trailer, beg it up to the shop and off load there.

Or you may be able to find someone with a backhoe with big bucket to haul it up for you but that would cost.

Joe

[Brodie Brickey]

Is there a Big Box store near you or someone who has a fork lift? Take it over there, get it out of the truck and into the trailer. Drive it back over and have the tracter take it up the hill.

If you can't get that done within 3 hours, start taking it apart. You also no matter what, will need at least 2 other guys. If only to drink beer with later and say what a pain it was to get into the shop.

[Douglas Lee]

Since you indicated that Harbor Freight is within 40 minutes, another option is investing in a gantry crane - could set you back around $500 though.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/GIFS/CAMERA.GIF (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41188)

[Mike Spanbauer]

Nathan, I think if I were you I would look at the engine hoists that Harbor Freight carries. They have a rated capacity of around 1k or 1500.

Those 500lb units are not going to cut it for that beauty. The only other suggestion would be to see what it would cost to rent one of the 4wheel drive forklifts that are used in construction as it would likely handle your hill with ease AND they have a 5k+ rated capacity.

G'luck and congrats!

mike

[mike wacker]

What Doug said

[Jim Solomon]

Gee, wish I where closer to you then Pa. I have a JD 410 4x4 backhoe with pallet forks. Is there any construction companies near you? An equipment rental place? A automobile scrap yard? I'm a firm believer of lift once place once. Each time you handle it the more your risk goes up for damage of some sort. Especially in the conditions you have to work in. I learned a long time ago Murphy's Law seemed to have been written specifically for me:o While there are many ways to skin the cat, the cat does not necessarily come out the same:rolleyes:

[John-Paul Murphy]

Nathan I read through your post one more time and saw you had plenty of heavy boards. If you are comfortable with the construction build your own gantry. Stacked 2x6s should easily support the load.

[Bob Feeser]

Hook the trailer up to the truck.
Take truck to place with forklift.
Either detach trailer so forklift can access rear of bed for lifting under the planer, or use lift eyes, or rods if it has them, and then access from the side, simply lifting up and placing on the trailer.
Position planer on trailer so it is as near a perfect balance over the wheels as possible with a 50 pound heavier balance toward the front.
Return home with planer on trailer.
Hook trailer up to tractor.
Take it up to the garage with tractor and trailer.
With trailer in garage, detach from tractor, and let tail end rest on shop floor.
Use come along to assist you in slowly lowering the planer by sliding it down the trailer onto floor. (If it is a dual axle trailer with 4 wheels, you may want to consider removing the 2 rear most wheels so you can tilt the trailer. If the tilt line would get the rear axle in the way, then you need to figure out a way of sliding it off of the trailer, which is a very difficult thing to do. This is where a rented engine hoist may come into play. Putting down a sheet of 3/4" ply is not going to help you as a ramp with a 700 pound hunk of cast iron.

By the way I spoke with Powermatic about removing the bed for transport down the steps into my basement, and they advised me not to do that. The gearing, and alignment from side to side of the bed requires a lot of adjusting, fine tuning and such. I stared at that same planer, so I called them. Great unit.
The above ideas are based on what limited information available. The challenges of the access in front of the garage. Do you have overhead beams once in the garage. How big is the tractor? Is the trailer good for over the road carrying that kind of weight, and a lot of others. I thought I would throw some general input, then you can go from there.
PS: Getting a bunch of guys over to help you is limited in what they can do. If you have 4 people lift it, at 700 pounds, that is about 175 per corner, but when the weight shifts, it is 700 in one corner, so that is out. A set of helping hands to steady it while offloading from the trailer, or the other changes is good, but not for lifting in any way.

[julie Graf]

With trailer in garage, detach from tractor, and let tail end rest on shop floor.
Use come along to assist you in slowly lowering the planer by sliding it down the trailer onto floor.

i have used this technique a number of times - with a 20"planer, table saw, ect and it works surprisingly well. seemed very safe and in control.

we put the planer on a mobile base before we tilted the bed. also, we used a jack to slowly lower the tail end of the trailer, so it didn't crash to the floor.

it was just me and my parter (the strongman).

[Dick Strauss]

Nathan,
Did you try taking the truck tire pressure down for added surface area? I've used this trick many times for mud. The same trick can be used for your tractor.

MY BIL fills a spreader with liquid and mounts it on the back when has a heavy front load to keep the tractor from tipping (back ballast to offset the front ballast).


Good luck,
Dick

[Nathan Conner]

Holy CROW. It's in the shop after 9 hours of work. Winching and lifting with an engine hoist (great advice guys) out of the truck and then using the tractor and a little trailer (which is in pieces, now) on top of a field full of MDF for traction, I got near enough the door that I could winch off the trailer and into the shop.

Not much rust damage after the overnight stint. I'll clean it up, take some more photos of the mess, and fill in the story in case anyone cares.

Thanks a LOT, guys. Great advice all around.

I think I need some slee(*snore*)

[John-Paul Murphy]

Congratulations glad it all worked out. look forward to the photos:D