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

From: SUPRDAVE_at_aol.com <(SUPRDAVE_at_aol.com)>
Date: Mon Oct 20 22:10:16 2003

In a message dated 10/20/2003 7:42:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
jplist_at_kiwigeek.com writes:
> Perhaps you can rent a car towing trailer? Those are very low to the
> ground generally and you may be able to push it onto the tracks. Renting
> one may well be much cheaper than a truck with a lift gate.
Tempted. For reasons I won't go into, I've been told that I cannot use a
trailor by the person who actually owns the vehicle - I only drive it.
Transmissions and various reasons like that. Asides from whether or not I
agree or believe this - I'm just trying to make do with what I have.

I believe I'll probably put together a pair of sturdy oak ramps, maybe
12" wide, that hook to the bumper of the truck. Then I'll use a winch to
pull the IBM up the incline - although I'm not sure yet what to use under
the lower end to stop it grating on the ground once its picked up off its
casters... Perhaps a skateboard? :)

I've moved some heavy things before including an extremely heavy player piano
and might be able to off some suggestions.
Being able to use a tilt bed trailer is a big help. You can find some low
cost tiltbed trailer kits pretty cheaply if you know the capacity of what you're
carrying is less or equal to the trailer's.
Carpeted furniture dollies are cheap and can take a lot of weight and abuse.
get a few of those. As someone said, a come-along is handy for loading or
moving up a ramp.
There's a thing called a Johnson bar that works great for moving heavy
things. it's basically a 6 foot long wooden pry bar with a metal angled end and
wheels on one end, so you can lever up something extremely heavy and then move it
around because of the wheels. Any rental place should have those.
Pallet jacks are nice too. too bad they don't go up higher though. I've seen
some companies sell a small motorized lift to raise something like a
motorcycle for service. can something like that be rented?
If you plan to unload from a pickup's bed, see if there's a ditch or a low
spot you can back into to make it lower. barring that, it might be helpful to
use whatever you can to make a platform at a height halfway between the truck
and the ground so you can manouver onto that first. trying to lower something
heavy 2 feet at once is not easy to do.
Received on Mon Oct 20 2003 - 22:10:16 BST