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help getting a 2,500# surface grinder off my trailer.

diamond dogs

Plastic
Joined
Feb 24, 2019
hi, longtime lurker just joined. well the first major addition to my machine shop turned out to be too good of a deal not to pass up, even though i wasnt really ready for it.

so here is my situation,.its sitting on my trailer with a tarp on it and im not sure the best way to get it off. its a flatbed deckover trailer, deck is mabey 3' off the ground? currently dont have ramps that could handle the machine. i have a 5,500# pallet jack, so once on the ground im fine, and a 3 ton chain fall hoist, but no place currently built to rig it to that would support it. its going in a pole building with a 9' door, probably unloading outside perpendicular to that which is a level gravel driveway.

i guess id like to build a system where i could safely pick other machines off the trailer, but i dont want to spend allot of money or take up a huge amount of shop space with a steel mobile gantry or something. It occured to me that i could build a treated wood overbuilt stationary gantry that i could keep outside, that i could pull the trailer under, pick the machine up with the chain hoist and drive away / drop it down on some plywood and then get it with my pallet jack. there is a place just past the shop door that i use pretty much for junk at this point and could clear that away and that could be a home for the gantry. i could also move it around if i needed to.

any ideas? what design of treated wood gantry would be so over built as to be safe for say 5,000#?

any help or better ideas would be much appreceated, thanks.
 
thanks for the replies. i was thinking wooden gantry for ease of assembly and cost. was thinking of some laminated 2x6 or 2x8's in a truss layout suspended between two simalar laminated posts with some bracing. i have framing nailers so it would be verry easy to nail it together then lag screw it all for strength. i could weld a steel one wirh an I beam as well, but i thought that would cost a fair amount more and take alot longer. this might be a good idea however if i want to turn it into a mobile crane in the future, something im on the fence about.

My future goal is to get some heavy duty wheeled lifts from rol-a-lift and use those in combination with long heavy duty ramps and an electric winch. that way, i could bring the whole setup to the place im going to pick up machines if i need to, if they dont have a forklift etc. altho, i can certanly see the benifit of a jib crane too.
 
if you are going to load up your new shed with old iron,then get yourself an old forklift.....a 4 ton Hyster or Clark being ideal ,and can be found for scrap price..........after your new fork is delivered,unload your machine and place it in your shed.........what could be simpler.
 
I'm not a big fan of wood, especially something you are going to leave outside. Even if you use treated wood, the fasteners will still rust, and even treated wood will deteriorate to some degree, unless you stay on top of keeping it sealed.

Cost wise, I think you will also find that wood won't be that much cheaper than steel, especially if you can find salvage steel such as old I beams and whatnot.
 
i could pretty easily throw a tarp on it, and i was planning on using galvanized fastners. but your right, mabey i should focus on steel and building one that could be mobile one day.
 
Last time I used a wrecker to unload a machine he didn't even charge me for it. Called an independent guy, explain what I was doing and he said 'Cool, I'll come help.'

I'm going to have a heavy wrecker unload a VMC for me in the coming weeks. $400 for a mobile crane with dual 15k hooks? Sure thing!
 
I made something similar to take a Cincinnati 2M off my trailer. That weighed around 3000 lbs. I did the Tyrone Shoelace cuppa tea test. Meaning, let it hover an inch or so above your trailer while you have a cup of tea. If it is still hovering after you have finished then move the trailer and lower it. That move was inside the shop on the slab.

Here it is outside the shop after taking an 1100 lb optical comparitor off a truck bed.

John Nils Lien on Instagram: “$150 internet auction win! Screaming good deal? Well, not so much. Have to add in 21% auction house and credit card fee. Two tanks of…”

It took longer than expected to build. The beam is a treated 6x6 with a thick piece of angle iron screwed into it for extra strength. The ends are 1/4 inch welded iron pipe.

I've used it to unload several pieces of equipment over the last couple of years. Kind of a pain to use because the trailer barely fits inside. I'm not crazy about it but it will do until I build something better out of steel.

John
 
Pretty sure a cincy 2m is closer to 7000lbs?

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned using lumber and pry bars. We took a very top heavy mill off a trailer that way, winch it slowly off the trailer onto a setup of wood blocks, then once it’s levitated up there use pry bars or jacks to slowly take out the wood blocks 1” at a time (or less) and despite being slow, it seemed pretty safe and easy. I’m a big fan of Egyptian methods. Just remember, you don’t have to move it all at once, just 1mm at a time, repeated.

Btw, it was a hitachi 2M, which is a copy of a Cincinnati, which is why I questioned that weight.
 
My Cincinnati 2M was made around 1925. I'm looking at a 1926 catalog and it has the 2M weighing in at a little over 4000 lbs. So, yeah, I might have been underestimating a bit.

I totally agree with 1" wood blocks method. I raised my 11,000 lb. planer 6 inches a half inch at a time so I could put it on a 6x6 sled.

John
 
Few months ago had tow-truck unload a Cincinnati #2 tool & cutter grinder ( around 2200-2400lbs) from my pickup. Had no problems. Used solid steel bar stock (per manufacturer's rigging recommendation) inserted through bed casting and lifted with slings. Can't recal the rating on the slings but IIRC it was 12K.

Even though manufacturer's manual did not spec it, I drilled holes about 6" in from the corners, of both bars, then inserted threaded bolts that were held in place with nuts. Just making sure the slings wouldn't slide off.

2m-pic-1.jpg


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