Moving the shop - how to weigh stuff for trucking

I've never put anything on a tractor trailer before. I'm planning on getting a partial truckload but the shipper wants to know the weights of everything. I can estimate the bigger items (10EE, air compressor etc) but I'm also going to have pallets or crates of tooling, handtools, tool boxes, smaller equipment, etc. I was looking at cheap, non certified pallet scales online but they are probably close to $1000 with a ramp and I don't like the idea of trying to pull things up a ramp and then stop it on the scale. Next idea was rigging some kind of hanging scale. It looks like the hanging load cells can also be used in compression. What about getting 3 load cells. Lifting items up with the pallet jack. Setting them down on the three load cells and adding the readings? Looks like I could get a 5000lb load cell for $250 (which would be handy later) and two 1000lb cells for $200 each. 5 LB S-TYPE LOAD CELL & INDICATOR HANGING CRANE SCALE TENSION COMPRESSION NEW | eBay

I use a Siltec electronic scale, they have a 2000lb model -

Siltec Scale WS2000L Balance - Precision Weighing Balances

i use my best guess and go back to work

I am in the process of prepping my shop for a move too, my plan for the crates is to use scrap yard scale, get and empty weight on truck trailer, then roll across scale with the crates. Currently packing all my lathe/mill accessories and tooling into a 5' long, 3' wide, 2' tall crate, my guess at this point is that it will come in north of 3K.

To keep it all from getting beat to hell, rolling every piece in at least 3 layers of cardboard.

Thanks. I'm going to have at least 10 - 15 items plus I don't have access to truck / trailer / scale here. I like the idea of estimating and hoping!

If this your stuff and you are sending it somewhere THEN YOU ARE THE SHIPPER! Why is this so fucking hard? If the carrier is being a dick then shop around. Estes, Old Dominion, and ABF and probably others will drop a 28' trailer to let you load house hold goods. They don't give a shit what each item weighs. I'm sure that they would love to do the same for your shop stuff. You must understand that this is "Shipper Load and Count". There's no claiming a shortage and if you load a machine so that it falls thru the trailer wall you will own a fucked up machine and a fucked up trailer.

tdmidget said:

If this your stuff and you are sending it somewhere THEN YOU ARE THE SHIPPER! Why is this so fucking hard? If the carrier is being a dick then shop around. Estes, Old Dominion, and ABF and probably others will drop a 28' trailer to let you load house hold goods. They don't give a shit what each item weighs. I'm sure that they would love to do the same for your shop stuff. You must understand that this is "Shipper Load and Count". There's no claiming a shortage and if you load a machine so that it falls thru the trailer wall you will own a fucked up machine and a fucked up trailer.

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My mistake, by shipper I intended to say trucking company. Shop is in New York City on the 4th floor of a building with a freight elevator. I can't have a trailer or container sitting around while I leisurely load. Everything will go out and onto the truck in a few hours.

If this is all crated material, they want to know weight, if you guess, and it weighs more (they do check at the terminal) they bang you with extra fees. If you guess, and it weighs less, there is no refund on the quoted fee.

Nobody will just park a van trailer at what you are calling a "shop" that I'm sure is actually a house/garage and let you load it and then just drive away no questions asked. Nothing gets shipped anywhere by anyone without paperwork including a manifest or bill of lading. That paperwork will require a description, accurate weight, and quantity for anything that gets loaded. The trucking company has to have this information. The driver has to know the weight of is load and have paperwork to prove he is legally in possession.

You appear to be in a hugely populated area. I'd bet my lunch you can rent a pallet scale for a lot less than $1000.

will gilmore said:

Shop is in New York City on the 4th floor of a building with a freight elevator. I can't have a trailer or container sitting around while I leisurely load. Everything will go out and onto the truck in a few hours.

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Does not sound like a house/garage to me.

I have a 5000# hanging scale that I can suspend from forklift forks and use straps around the pallet to pick it up. You could do the same with the loadcell. Load pallet/crate weigh it and move aside. If you dont have a forklift up on #4 is there something you could put a strap to have an overhead hoist to use loadcell with? Even an A frame or good engine hoist might work.

I'm wondering if the OP can rent a pallet jack with a scale for a day. Surely in New York?

Get everything palletized, and weigh them on the way out the door.

ewlsey said:

Nobody will just park a van trailer at what you are calling a "shop" that I'm sure is actually a house/garage and let you load it and then just drive away no questions asked.

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ABF U-pack will. They drop off a 28' pup trailer and ramp. You load it, and put up a locking partition into the E-track. They bill you based on amount of trailer used (5' minimum).

They pick up the trailer, then use the remainder of the trailer for LTL freight they are moving anyway, with something like a 3 day delay guarantee (they'll still deliver your trailer with no more than a 3 day delay, even if they don't need the rest of the trailer for LTL freight).

U-Pack Trailer Size and Capacity | U-Pack

Had a neighbor use it for a cross country move. They dropped a pup trailer in front of the place for a couple days.

will gilmore said:

My mistake, by shipper I intended to say trucking company. Shop is in New York City on the 4th floor of a building with a freight elevator. I can't have a trailer or container sitting around while I leisurely load. Everything will go out and onto the truck in a few hours.

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Well that would really suck to have that kind of time limit.

If and when I ever move I will buy 2 or 3 53’ van boxes semi trailers load when I want to. Resell them when and if I ever get them unloaded.

IME, carriers usually offer less-than-truckload (LTL) and half or full truckload. LTL is priced per piece and is moved from terminal to terminal, changing trucks along the way. For half or full truckload, the trailer that is loaded is taken directly to the destination. The driver does not help with loading or unloading and I think they usually assume you are using up to the maximum weight. They will want to know that you are not overloading the truck, usually about 20,000 pounds for a half or 40,000 pounds for a full truckload.

I put a pressure gauge on my forklift. To get anything near an accurate reading you need to lift, stop, take the reading, lower, stop, take the reading, and average the two readings to cancel out friction.

cg285 said:

i use my best guess and go back to work

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Steel weighs .283#/ 3"You could guess at the ratio of metal to air in each crate and multiply it out...???----------------------------Think Snow Eh!Ox

If you have an overhead hook, one of the crane scales sold on ebay and shipped from China might work for you. Before you get mad at such an idiotic suggestion, consider that I bought one myself and tested it and it works great. You can't extrapolate because one works they all will, but mine was well made and I recommend them.

Mine is a little one, only up to 600 pounds or so. And it cost me $29 including shipping. - metalmagpie

will gilmore said:

I've never put anything on a tractor trailer before. I'm planning on getting a partial truckload but the shipper wants to know the weights of everything. I can estimate the bigger items (10EE, air compressor etc) but I'm also going to have pallets or crates of tooling, handtools, tool boxes, smaller equipment, etc. I was looking at cheap, non certified pallet scales online but they are probably close to $1000 with a ramp and I don't like the idea of trying to pull things up a ramp and then stop it on the scale. Next idea was rigging some kind of hanging scale. It looks like the hanging load cells can also be used in compression. What about getting 3 load cells. Lifting items up with the pallet jack. Setting them down on the three load cells and adding the readings? Looks like I could get a 5000lb load cell for $250 (which would be handy later) and two 1000lb cells for $200 each. 5 LB S-TYPE LOAD CELL & INDICATOR HANGING CRANE SCALE TENSION COMPRESSION NEW | eBay

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Just how far are you moving?Could you make a second trip to save the time and ^%$#! of trying to weigh every last item?------------------Think Snow Eh!Ox

When I was ready to move 400 miles in 1988, I bought a road-tractor and several old semi-trailers, to use for storage on the other end as well as transport. First load went in a single-axle aluminum 32-footer from the 1940's...empty drums and tanks of various sorts , chicken nest boxes, some lumber, canning jars, sinks, insulation panels, vee belts..light stuff. A good test run, went well. Second load in a Dayton wheel tandem-axle 34-footer, Steel factory windows, unglazed, stacked flat and filled with bricks. Boxes of bolts and pipe-fittings. Hydraulic cylinders and pumps. Coils of wire. Grinding stones. Hammers. Iron stove parts, motors, sheaves, copper cable and switches, a 35 KW genset. I knew weight was important, I was registered for 80,000lb, so I carefully estimated the weight of each bit and kept a manifest. Set off down the road. Cripes, is my truck dying? What happened to the power? Gotta air up those tires, they look soft...but already have 100 PSI in them. I do not think I managed to stay in any gear for over 30 seconds on the whole trip. Every hundred miles or so i stopped for a walk-around and found wheel bolts broken and replaced them. The trip usually took 10 hours...this one took 22 hours. Regular fuel mileage 6 MPG, this trip 4.25. Finally got to my destination, set off up the first and steepest hill at 2250 RPM (on the governor) in Gear Number One of Fifteen, crested the hill at 1100 RPM, about to stall. Some calculations I did in my head to while away those long, sloloooow hill-climbs, based on horsepower and elevation suggested that I was grossing WAY over 100,000 lb. For the next load, I got a scale. My estimating was about 50% low on average. Get a scale. Antique platform scales are not hard to find at auctions, junk stores, cheap. They are nothing but a bunch of levers. A little cobweb-removal and oil usually gets one working..if it is accurate within 20% that will still keep you out of the trouble I got myself into. If your scale only will weigh 100 lb, put one end of a heavy plank on its platform and the other on a cinderblock,and place your load 10/11ths of the way from the scale to the cinderblock, and multiply your reading by 10. Or put a pressure gage on a tee at the base of the lift cylinder on your engine hoist, and do a little arithmetic. Get a scale.