Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 16 to 30 of 33

Thread: Moving a 1600lbs machine?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Winterville, NC (eastern NC)
    Posts
    2,360
    Pallet jack and some cheap plywood. After the delivery driver placed my A3-41 onto my driveway I used a rented pallet jack to lift the pallet, laid some 3/8" plywood on the yard and pulled the box to the shop. Uncrated the machine and used the pallet jack to get it into the shop.
    You could also get some high school football players to assist if needed. Pizza payment usually works.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Lancaster, Ohio
    Posts
    1,346
    Talk with your (local) landscaper about receiving it at his place of business and then delivering it to you and setting it in place for you.
    They should be able to unload it and then use a skid steer with forks, load complete on a trailer and bring it to you. Unload, drive across yard and set in place.
    Should be comparable to renting a skid steer and trailer to move it
    Good luck
    Ron

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
    Posts
    2,282
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Wilkins View Post
    Pallet jack and some cheap plywood. After the delivery driver placed my A3-41 onto my driveway I used a rented pallet jack to lift the pallet, laid some 3/8" plywood on the yard and pulled the box to the shop. Uncrated the machine and used the pallet jack to get it into the shop.
    You could also get some high school football players to assist if needed. Pizza payment usually works.
    What's this cheap plywood you talk about? lol

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
    Posts
    2,282
    You can rent forklifts of any size. A telescoping forklift would easily do it and are very easy to operate. They are large but that just gives you a better feeling that the machine it's too heavy. Rough terrain isn't a concern and with their large tires neither is soft ground. A skid steer could work but I don't know where the weight will be balanced so there's a potential to be too far in from of it. If you had a skid steer I would try it but if I was renting (I'm guessing you would have to have it delivered) why not rent a real forklift?

  5. #20
    I have moved several machines around this size or heavier into my walkout basement, which is about 40’ away from my driveway across the (flat) yard. I have tried various methods depending on how much money and extra help I’ve had at the time of each machine acquisition. Skid steer with slings, lift the machine out of the truck and set it down right in front of the door with some steel wheels bolted to the bottom for mobility. Then the hardest thing was getting it down the homemade ramp that gets you over the door threshold and down on to the slab about 4” below. That was the 2000 lb jointer and I had another 2 sets of hand available to help navigate it down the ramp at a controlled pace.

    Ive also use a pallet jack on top of 3 sheets of plywood leapfrogged across the yard and this was easy peasy except for the transitions from trailer to ground (via wooden ramp) and the aforementioned yard to door threshold down to basement slab ramp.

    I’ve also used black pipe and long pry bars on plywood across the yard - Egyptian style. This was with a 1500# Tannewitz table saw and while I did manage to get it done with some selective help from my wife, it was the most physically difficult and took the most time.

    In your case, as long as your 100’ of cedar chips are dry and solid, I would hire a wrecker/roll back to meet the freight truck somewhere close (possibly even your house if there’s enough space) and have them transfer if via pallet jack (that they would almost certainly have onboard the truck) on to the roll back. Have the roll back back across your cedar chip yard and slide his bed right down into the opening of your shop door. Have some blocking or black pipe or something similar in place on your shop floor to set the machine on so you can move it further in...or rent / buy a used pallet jack and use it to move the crate wherever you need inside the shop.

    Shouldn’t be much $ (less than $250-300 total) for this setup and safer and cheaper than skid steer / forklift rental costs especially with an operator that isn’t 100% confident.

    It’s not rocket science, but move slowly and intentionally and think through all the steps and have supplies at the ready for the next steps and it should go smoothly.
    Still waters run deep.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Somewhere in the Land of Lincoln
    Posts
    2,546
    I think your 2 best options are the roll back or skid steer/all terrain fork lift like was mentioned by others. I would absolutely avoid a standard fork lift. Even one with pneumatic tires is easy to get stuck off solid surfaces and then you have a bigger issue. Standard forklifts are back heavy and rigid and basically helpless on such terrain. It sounds like this is all soft terrain. (grass is soft terrain) If there isn't any space constraints a roll back can line up straight with the door and put the lip of the bed inside the garage. If you have a pallet jack (rented or purchased) you can at this point lift it enough to roll and he can ease it down with the winch. Safest method because it's a controlled move. If you can hire someone with a skid steer to do it that works too. Unless you are comfortable with running equipment this isn't a time to learn. Whether it's tracked or wheeled it's going to tear up where it turns too. I know this has pretty much all been covered in the posts. How soon will it arrive? Getting a plan in place in advance is obviously a wise choice.

  7. #22
    Live in the country or city? Tractor with a loader and forks if a neighbor has one. I have one I use for that. I like the rollback idea, never thought of that.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    1,370
    Blog Entries
    3
    Under 1500lbs I've always just loaded (or had loaded) the machine in my pickup truck and unloaded with a engine hoist. Over 1500lbs has been a interesting mix, but the best (fastest and easiest) method was a hydraulic drop deck trailer and pallet jack assuming the machine would fit on one pallet jack.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Ouray Colorado
    Posts
    1,392
    1500 lbs is easy with a skid steer. They can be jerky to operate and require a soft touch on the controls but other than that easy to operate. A pallet jack ia a valuable tool once you get to the door and good to have for moving machines around the shop.

  10. #25
    I’m thinking hire a rigging crew. While a forklift might work, you’ll need to make sure that the mast will fit under your garage door. Riggers will know exactly what they need to do and should have insurance if there’s any damage.

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Central New Jersey
    Posts
    1,007
    Rent a Telhandler fork lift like this one: https://www.bigrentz.com/equipment-r...forklift-19-ft

    It has a boom that will give you some ability to get the machine into the garage door if the machine itself is too tall for the garage door height. The further into the garage you want to place it the larger the machine you will need. A 5000 lb capacity machine should be able to extend about 10 feet out or so with the tool you are moving.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Cedar Park, TX - Boulder Creek, CA
    Posts
    832
    A standard 3 foot liftgate is a scary proposition. Here's what mine looked like.

    I got it done. Along with my AD-741, FB-600, and a Lincoln 50 safe. Back breaking work, nerve racking to the extreme. Had a close call on the first one, the planer. Not with the gate, but it 'running away' on the casters once it was inside the truck. There's a slope up to the 'paved' section, and I had pulled the truck forward a bit so the liftgate would be a bit more level when it sagged under the weight. Not so much slope I couldn't stop it, but definitely not fun.

    Basic process was install the casters, roll it onto the liftgate. More like, pry it up onto the liftgate with a wrecking bar. Jack it up, remove casters. Raise lift gate, wrestle it into the truck with a wrecking bar. Install casters, roll it into place, remove casters. There was a forklift at the other end, so it was crawl underneath to install the casters, roll it back, forklift it into the warehouse. Reverse that procedure with the 22ft moving van a few days later.

    1700 miles later, my best option was a neighbor with a tractor (9N?). Chains over the bucket, wrapped around some sizable sticks of Bubinga slid under the pallets. Barely scratched them. The Bubinga that is. Everything else came thru unscathed. There's less to see in the dark, therefore less to worry about while you're doing it ;-)

    My original plan was to rent a liftgate truck with a long (6' or so) gate, back them together and adjust the height if needed with blocks under the tires. But the telecom wires running across the driveway were too low to get the truck backed in. So it had to be backed onto the 'lawn' where the wires were higher. Doing it all in the road wasn't practical.

    A rollback is a better solution. You just need to coordinate timing, or pay the guy to sit around for awhile if you have to. And have some chunks of 2x8 ready in case there's an issue with the delivery truck being higher than the rollback.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,884
    A lift gate will require the truck rear frame to be blocked so it does not tilt the entire truck nose up and slide the load off the gate. Regardless the load needs to be strapped to the gate or forks so it does not slide off as it moves. I would buy a used engine hoist or gantry crane to use for other stuff later. They are nice to hang stuff from for painting outside. You can rent a truck with a lift gate for about $100 but I never found out the gate capacity. You can rent an engine hoist and probably a gantry.
    Modern pickups have taller suspensions and a engine hoist may not be able to lift high enough to get it out without removing rear wheels. Is there any documentation about top lifting?
    Bill D.
    Last edited by Bill Dufour; 04-16-2021 at 10:38 AM.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,884
    If you do use an engine hoist or gantry most are not rated for moving with a load, static load only.
    Bill D.

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Cedar Park, TX - Boulder Creek, CA
    Posts
    832
    My take-down/fold-up engine hoist (typical auto parts store model) wasn't capable of lifting any of this stuff high enough to get in a box truck. In most cases, there was interference with the boom before it topped out. I modeled it all in SW to check. And looked at spec's on bigger rental units, which didn't appear to be much better.

    The only way to use the hoist was to build, and un-build, a platform to elevate the entire mess. Lift the load onto the platform, and then wrestle the hoist up there. And it wasn't possible to leave the entire platform in place, it had to be partially disassembled to enable access for the hoist to get the payload up on it. As it was, it took me the better part of 2 days to load and haul 4 pieces down the hill.

    The gate capacity on the truck I rented was adequate, but I was nearing the limits with the planer. BTW, there were no placards on the truck anywhere as to what it was rated at. I had to look up the lift itself to find out. And the rear suspension did compress as I raised it, but the flexing of the gate itself had a larger angular effect.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •