Moving long heavy skids manually

Maybe everyone does this already but I hadn’t discovered this method until recently. There are areas in our shop where it takes too long to clear a path for a forklift, so we try and move some things manually. Long heavy loads where one end stays on the floor when you raise a pallet jack under the other end are a problem. One pallet jack on either end may work as long as there’s no turning required; not usually our situation. We found that using a pallet jack under one end and a single “Roll-A-Lift” (RAL) machinery mover under the other seems to do the job. We have to study the skid and its load a bit to tell which end should get which device. The RAL feet are only say 6” long, so need to be put on the end that’s nearly right under a part of the load, to avoid just breaking the skid. We did this today to move nearly 3 tons of shaper and oak skid. We found it necessary to use an oak 2x4 lever to push the load across the floor, an inch per lever prying cycle. The lever worked best under the rear corners of the pallet jack, not the much-weaker skid. We didn’t find it necessary to strap the RAL onto the load in this situation.

Roll a lifts can be great for moving heavy awkward things. They can also be a pain in the @ss.


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