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Cost to have someone load / unload 1,700lb band saw into box truck?

Moto-Mucci

Plastic
Joined
Apr 10, 2020
Curious what it will cost to have a large machine loaded and unloaded from a box truck?

It's a 1,700 lb Doall V-36 bandsaw - 66" x 36" x 78".

I'm moving my motorcycle shop 700 miles and renting a 24' box truck to do it. This is the only thing I can't load on my own and I'm wondering if it's worth keeping or selling. I assume I would want to have it loaded first / put it towards the cab as much as possible.
 
Can you get a box truck with a lift gate? You will have to 'rig' it to the lift gate, so if you don't have the means to move it solo (pallet jack) then it's a no-go.

I got a boom wrecker to pick the hydraulic cylinder/top boom off two 4-post lifts and place them on a trailer for $100 total. I would say the boom wrecker method is possible if you can A) lift the saw in a way that stays within its overall height, and B) you can move the boom wrecker and the truck itself independently to get it inside gracefully, and C) back to the pallet jack to move it around the (hopefully very level) truck.

In your shoes, I'd add michiganbuck's open trailer to the rental ticket, and only deal with it in a way you have infinite of headroom and minimum altitude. The high-sided Uhaul utility should handle the weight, and is pretty easy to load from the top. From the back, with a forklift or pallet jack, the drop-down gate is in the way, unless you can take it off.
 
When I picked up shop and moved from the west coast to the east. I rented a fork truck from the local yard. Drove it to my place, loaded the mill and two lathes. Drove the machine back to the rental yard.

1/2 day. Money was worth more then. Not sure what charges are these days.

Unloading , I used a roll back car hauler and cribbing.
 
My brother hauled a Grob NS-18 about 400 miles from NH to western NY for me using a u-haul 5x9 Utility Trailer Rental with Ramp. The NS-18 is about 1500lbs, the trailer is rated for 1650, and the ramp for 1850. The ramp is NOT detachable. They had some trouble loading as they had planned to used a fork lift, but couldn't drive up the ramp. He said it trailed just fine, but it did clobber his mileage.

I had it placed on a sheet of 3/4 plywood when it was loaded.

At my destination, I hooked onto the plywood sheet with a winch attached to an anchor in the floor. I tipped the trailer up with a hi-lift jack until the floor and ramp were in a common plane and pulled the saw off the trailer with the winch. I did keep a safety line from the top of the saw back to the front of the trailer, as it was a little light in back when the trailer was tipped.

This move was done in the winter, and I used a pallet load cover from McMaster to cover the saw and had no issues with road spray.

A real worry about a box truck is how well the load can be secured. The trailer had heavy D rings in the 4 corners and the upper rails were very heavy as well.
 
I do not remember if it is Grob or Doall that have a 3/4 or maybe it is one inch threaded hole in the upper arm for a lift eye. Check to see if you have that hole or not. Even if it is there that may not work for a lifting point given the ceiling height inside a truck. It will for sure work as a tie down point. Some european saws have a smaller threaded hole as a tie point not big enough to lift with.
Bil lD
 
I appreciate all the use-a-trailer advice but unfortunately there will already be a car on a dolly out back.
I also live in Portland so driving a fork lift back to my place, although sounding exciting, is probably asking for trouble. I'd like to avoid run ins with the military police if possible.

I'm really just trying to figure out if the cost and hassle of getting this thing into the box truck and moving it 700 miles is better than selling it and buying something else at the new location.

It looks like the internal height of the box truck is 7'2" while the saw is 6'5". That's only 9" for a boom arm, I assume not enough?
 
What it costs to have it loaded up can vary quite a bit depending on location. I have lived places where that would be a $100 job, but where I live now it would probably cost $500. There is only one rigger within 50 miles and they charge sky high rates. If it were me and a box truck was my only option I would get one with a lift gate, I believe most are rated for 2500#. I just relocated a lathe in my shop the weight of your saw today all by myself with a crowbar, floor jack, and some 1 3/8" steel round bar. It was not fun due to a fused spine and two bad shoulders, it would have went a lot faster with a helper.
 
I also live in Portland so driving a fork lift back to my place, although sounding exciting, is probably asking for trouble. I'd like to avoid run ins with the military police if possible.

Then have the forklift company deliver it. They do that. Every day.


$175 for a daily rental. Don't know what delivery and pickup is, but figure a few hundred or so.
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$232 for a daily rental - $128 each way for delivery and pickup.
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Rent it for a day. Use it to load everything. Done.

Repeat at the other end.

Use your pallet jack at to roll it to the front of the truck. Don't have one? You should, but if not, have the rental company bring one of those as well.



By the time you sold it (how are you going to load it on the buyer's truck), found another bought it, paid to move it (because chances are it won't already be in your new shop), fixed up whatever it needed, the forklift rental sure seems cheap.
 
In a city like Portland a small rental forklift would be a couple hundred bucks delivered? The destination? If you rent a forklift put everything on pallets, it will make your move much easier. As far as the saw, what ever you do DON'T lift it by the table trunion. It should have a 3/4 hole for a lifting eye, the ceiling height in the truck may be an issue. I had to tip my 1612 to get into my garage, you could possibly do that to get it into the truck. I used several comealongs to tilt and right the saw. Thinking about the box truck body, there are no good places to anchor overhead, forget that idea.

Put the saw on 4X4 runners and use a forklift.

Steve
 
Perhaps rent a forklift for a day at both ends? That would allow you to palletize everything and unload it all at once instead of hand carrying it all.
The right rollback truck with a rear dock leveler "foot" can raise it's deck to match the box truck floor height, I've seen that used to load/unload more than one type of truck, and they can be had on short notice for a short period.
 
Don't sell that saw. Use a forklift with extended forks, lift under the top wheel. That saw has a 3/4-10 threaded hole on top that can be used as a central lift point or tie down location.
 
Using Google and looking at the model it looks like it could be slid along a flat concrete floor with a pinch bar pretty easily.
 
Call a towing company and see if they will doit for you.

Roll back/ramp/ flat bed whatever they call it in your area

Tilt the bed and winch the saw onto it
Level the bed and slide it into the box truck
 
I'll just add that if it's a good, properly working saw, I'd go through some effort to keep it. Used bandsaws are a crapshoot, and I'd pay a good deal to save myself from the headaches of selling a good one, then buying a unknown that I'd not run at the seller's.
 
I'm not familiar with this particular model, but it has been my experience that most don't have the lifting eye. We usually pick overhead by using a strap around the top of the "C", if the guards are made of heavy metal (most Do-Alls are). If the guards are not strong enough, you usually have to remove the guarding and go around the top wheel, and/or the frame that holds the wheel.
 
Lift getes can take off like crazy..good to opwn the down vales as low as you can move it.

Even worse is if they tip downward during movement, as I've seen some do. Having some sort of restraining strap to the backside of the gate is a good idea.

FWIW, moving my ~1973 1613 3speed off a flatbed by using some narrow steel beams as ramps, and balancing the saw on a pallet jack as each wheel rode on it's own beam stands out as the stupidest, most dangerous rigging I've ever done. Note to self, it worked, but don't do that again...
 








 
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