Archie Cheda
Stainless
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
- Location
- San Luis Obispo, CA
I am in the process of "pulling up roots" and moving from MD to CA.
Eighteen years ago I moved from CA to MD, hauling many 5,000# loads on a tandem-axle trailer. This involved over fifteen trips spread over a three-year period, but at the end, I had to get the last 30,000# moved fast, so I used the services of a national moving company's 53-foot van. This service allowed for what is called a "live load" in the trucking business -- I had three hours at each end to do the loading/unloading while the driver waited. I prepped for this by palletizing everything on thirty pallets. I rented a digital platform scale and weighed every pallet to the nearest pound. Because the company wanted the load heavier in the front, I chalked the outline of the inside of the trailer on my shop floor and used a pallet jack to place the pallets (heavy items last) without violating the "walls" of the trailer. This was in reverse order, so that when the time came to load the trailer, all the fork-lift guy I hired had to do was to pick them up in order and place them in the trailer where his assistant rolled them to the front of the trailer. The whole loading operation took 1-1/2 hours. At the receiving end, I operated the forklift and the driver assisted me with the pallet jack -- the unloading operation only took a half hour.
I "ran the numbers", comparing the cost of my previous trailer-loads to the 53-foot van service and it was cheaper to use the professional service, even without including meals & lodging. With the prospect of moving the greater number of heavier machine tools I have acquired over the last 18 years, I checked moving options on the internet and there are more options out there now. This thread will document this project. Questions will be welcome -- I hope to provide options for those of you that may need to move.
Archie
P.S.: I enjoyed the time I spent on the road during my first move, but I am getting older and coast-to-coast trips in four days are a lot harder than they used to be. I only got my F-350 flat-bed near the end of my first move and have converted it into some of the machine tools I will be moving, so it is not an option for moving a few machines at a time. This is fine because the bulk move is much more efficient, even if it does take a lot more prep and planning to go smoothly. For fetching a machine at a time, the bulk move might not be so competitive.
More (a lot) to come . . .
Eighteen years ago I moved from CA to MD, hauling many 5,000# loads on a tandem-axle trailer. This involved over fifteen trips spread over a three-year period, but at the end, I had to get the last 30,000# moved fast, so I used the services of a national moving company's 53-foot van. This service allowed for what is called a "live load" in the trucking business -- I had three hours at each end to do the loading/unloading while the driver waited. I prepped for this by palletizing everything on thirty pallets. I rented a digital platform scale and weighed every pallet to the nearest pound. Because the company wanted the load heavier in the front, I chalked the outline of the inside of the trailer on my shop floor and used a pallet jack to place the pallets (heavy items last) without violating the "walls" of the trailer. This was in reverse order, so that when the time came to load the trailer, all the fork-lift guy I hired had to do was to pick them up in order and place them in the trailer where his assistant rolled them to the front of the trailer. The whole loading operation took 1-1/2 hours. At the receiving end, I operated the forklift and the driver assisted me with the pallet jack -- the unloading operation only took a half hour.
I "ran the numbers", comparing the cost of my previous trailer-loads to the 53-foot van service and it was cheaper to use the professional service, even without including meals & lodging. With the prospect of moving the greater number of heavier machine tools I have acquired over the last 18 years, I checked moving options on the internet and there are more options out there now. This thread will document this project. Questions will be welcome -- I hope to provide options for those of you that may need to move.
Archie
P.S.: I enjoyed the time I spent on the road during my first move, but I am getting older and coast-to-coast trips in four days are a lot harder than they used to be. I only got my F-350 flat-bed near the end of my first move and have converted it into some of the machine tools I will be moving, so it is not an option for moving a few machines at a time. This is fine because the bulk move is much more efficient, even if it does take a lot more prep and planning to go smoothly. For fetching a machine at a time, the bulk move might not be so competitive.
More (a lot) to come . . .