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Need machine moved/shipped... suggestions?

Fasto

Hot Rolled
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Location
Central MA
I'm looking at buying a bed mill, it's about 8'x11' by 9' tall, probably 6500 pounds or so. It's in Southern NJ (just south of Camden), I'm just east of Worcester, MA. Distance is just about 300 miles. A rigger is available at the seller's location, and I can handle unloading from a dock-height truck here, or my neighbor has a fork truck for a lower trailer. The mill doesn't run presently, and it's pretty inexpensive, so I'd rather not spend $thousands$ on moving it in case it can't be fixed.

I have a box truck that would handle the weight, it's good for almost 11.5k payload. But... I'm concerned about securing the thing inside my truck. I haven't got any other way to move a machine this big.

I think the best idea is get it shipped. I've not shipped anything this big before. Presumably this would have to go on a flatbed. Suggestions on who I should call for a quote, and what info they'll need?
Thanks, Aaron
 
Go to the website Yesterdays Tractors, they have a advertising section there for shipping needed or for those that offer their services for shipping and moving items. They do more than tractors. I have posted there to get quotes on moving items and have gotten responses in a matter of hours. YMMV. If you can ensure loading and unloading arrangements it should not be that big a problem.

tim
 
Unishippers - 800-377-3105. They have been excellent for me.

If you want to haul it in your box truck, bolt it to some planks and lag bolt the planks to the floor of the truck. I use an impact wrench to drive the lag bolts, works OK for me. Alternately you can put some fold down or removeable eyebolts in the floor, sounds like you might use them again
 
I would say this machine is going to be shipped by a flatbed trailer or a truck with a flatbed on it. Even if you had a 102" wide truck body it would still be a pain to get that machine in it.

Post to YT and find someone with a flat open trailer, gooseneck, etc going your direction. Even the load brokers watch YT due to the high volume of stuff that is looking to be moved and alot of it is just extra $$ filling out a trailer.

tim
 
Thanks for the thoughts, guys!
Mud, bolting it to some heavy planks is how I've moved smaller machines in my truck before. It works well. I'll keep this one in my back pocket, though.
Tim Alcosteam, had a look at that site yesterday.
JB @ C and L machine, I'd like to get the contact info for your shipper.

Thanks,
Aaron
 
Unishippers - 800-377-3105. They have been excellent for me.

If you want to haul it in your box truck, bolt it to some planks and lag bolt the planks to the floor of the truck. I use an impact wrench to drive the lag bolts, works OK for me. Alternately you can put some fold down or removeable eyebolts in the floor, sounds like you might use them again

I don't trust lags to either keep a top hevy machine from tipping, or deciding to come up and join me in the cab if I have to brake hard. :bawling: Chains and binders are definitely the way to go.

When I bought my first injection molding press more than a few years ago, I hauled it myself in a Ryder rental truck. I had reserved a stake bed, but at the last moment it became "unavailable" (read went to a contractor on long term lease) :angry: and I was stuck with a box.. The machine was 13' long, 5' high, and about 3.5' wide; 6300 lbs. if I remember correctly.

I had two problems to solve on short notice: how to stuff the machine in through the rear door, and how to restrain it, since tying it to the walls of the box would just wreck the box if the machine moved. The plant where it was coming from told me they had a dock and would make skates and a forklift available, but the forklift could not pick up the entire machine.

I had them lift the machine one end at a time and place it on 4X6 timbers, lengthwise, and I lagged them to the machine feet. Crosswise would have been better for keeping the narrow machine from tipping, but lengthwise made it easier to skid along the floor. This really came in handy when we got to the dock; the drive came down at such a steep angle that the truck bed was about 18" below the dock, and the top of the box was only 6' above it. We skated the machine in line with the truck, lowered the leading end off the skates, then pushed with the forklift, sliding the skids on the edge of the dock until it landed gently on the truck bed We the picked up the ass end with the tips of the forks, and blocked between the fork plate and the skids so we could push it past the dock and entirely into the truck, then blocked to to get the forks out. We then lifted from higher up on the machine to remove the blocking and lowered it to the floor.

I then lagged a block to the truck bed, BEHIND the skids. I wasn't worried about the machine sliding forward, as I was going to chain it to the rear of the truck frame, but didn't want it to creep back and allow the chains to become slack. I put four chains and binders on it: two low on the machine to the end of the chassis rails of the truck, and two from as high up on the machine as I could, diagonal down to the corners of the truck bed frame at the rear door. Owning your own truck gives you the option of using a hole saw to put some "pass-through" holes through the floor next to major framing members to drop chains through and hook them on the chassis rails; I didn't think the rental place would be too thrilled with this, but chaining out the back door worked just fine. When all the binders were locked down, I pulled the back door down and wired it shut, and except for the chains sneaking out from under the door, looked for all the world like Harvey Homeowner moving his furniture, except the truck was pretty low on its springs. :skep:


[FONT=&quot]Dennis[/FONT]
 
Thanks for the thoughts, guys!
Mud, bolting it to some heavy planks is how I've moved smaller machines in my truck before. It works well. I'll keep this one in my back pocket, though.
Tim Alcosteam, had a look at that site yesterday.
JB @ C and L machine, I'd like to get the contact info for your shipper.

Thanks,
Aaron

Aaron..sent ya an e-mail...let me know if I can help.

Jay
 
Wanted to follow up on this, I had the machine moved by RJH Services in Shrewsbury, MA. Their telephone, as of 2/2010 is 508-791-1833. I believe that RJH also does rigging.
Rigging on the New Jersey end was provided by Worthington Rigging at 856-881-3133.
Rigging on the Northborough, MA end was handled by Interstate Rigging at 978-689-7300 who I understand also does the rigging for Methods.

Now, just have to get the machine cleaned up, wired up, tested, serviced, ...
 
I forgot to mention that Jay of C and L made several very generous offers of help that I ended up not taking him up on.
This kind of generosity make it great to be a part of the PM community.
--
Aaron
 








 
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