How do _you_ move equipment? What "tools" do you use?

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Mon Oct 20 19:10:59 2003

At 05:19 PM 10/20/03 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Greetings;
>I am faced with picking up a sizeable IBM some hours from where I live in
>the next few weeks.
>What I had originally planned to do has fallen through, and now I am left
>trying to work out how best to lift what has been estimated as 800+lbs of
>1978 IBM.
>
>I have a decent half-ton pickup truck, its more than plenty for carrying
>this machine home. The magic trick is - how do I get the heavy sucker into
>the deck?
>I was planning on "borrowing" another truck with a lift-gate on it, to
>lift the IBM up to the pickup deck height, and then waffling it into the
>pickup. That has fallen through, and actually renting one is, as far as
>I'm concerned, cost prohibitive ($78 + 29c/mile + $150 deposit).

   You should be aware that a lot of the lift gates are junk! They're
actually worse than that, they're downright dangerous! Many of them have a
steep ramp about 2 to 3" high before they reach the top. That makes it very
difficult to get heavy objects onto the lift gate. In addition, the tops
are sloped away from the truck and when you raise the lift gate the slope
increases. That makes things tend to slide completely off the ramp right at
the worst time! Just as you're lifting it up and have nowhere to go.
Finally, they have a hinge in them that makes it difficult to get heavy
loads off and on the ramp. Take a close look at any lift gate that you're
considering using, BEFORE you rent the truck. And if you don't have a fork
lift or other machinery to load the cargo, think THREE TIMES about using
one of them for heavy objects. Last year, I narrowly missing being crushed
under a 1800+ lb UPS that I was trying to load on one using those POS!

   Something you might consider is the use of one of the off-road type fork
lifts. A LOT of companies in this area (central Florida) use them to
unloading and moving pallets of sod (squares of grass used for landscaping)
and they can be rented quite reasonably and the rental companies have
trailors for them.

  I have moved a couple of big heavy computers by renting a low trailer and
then using 2 x 10" boards as ramps to load the puter. If it's real heavy
and you're short of man power then you can use a come-a-long to pull it
into the trailer. Loading is generally pretty easy but unloading is tricky!
A lot of times the load will run away from you and it will try to stop and
tip over when it gets to the ground. Also it will sometimes try to push the
boards out off the trailer. If that happens one side will drop to the
ground and the thing will tip over. Take your time and be careful
unloading. Use plenty of man power if you can get it.

   Joe

>
>If you were to move this IBM, how would you have done it?
>Keep in mind while I can cover $100 worth of gas for my pickup - more than
>that is a pinch.
>
>JP
>
>
Received on Mon Oct 20 2003 - 19:10:59 BST

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