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Moving heavy things... on the cheap

Dabbler

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
This guy did very well to think this move out, even though it was as dodgy as hell. The thing is, he knew how bad it was, and did some reasonable things - I'd have done it differently, but success speaks for itself - read the disclaimers at the end, they are hilarious!

 
Haha that was good. When I moved my Dad’s lathe ( not sure but between 15,000 & 17,000 lbs.) to my place I had the big tractor and picked it up and put it on the trailer. At my place I had the smaller tractor (150 hp) and started lifting. Nothing went up although I did move only it was down. The front wheels had sunk and the tires were flat ( only on the bottom though). So I repositioned the tractor over the tail end, after over inflating the tires, and pulled the trailer forward (on a steel deck). I set that end on some timber’s and proceeded to the heavy end. Well that tractor’s hydraulics screamed and grunted to get some of the weight off the trailer. I felt as though any further and I would tip onto the trailer so I timbered right up to the trailer and moved it ahead. The lathe dropped about 3” onto the timber’s, tractor teetering on its now almost flat tires as I ran from the truck to the tractor to release the pressure. Needless to say I brought big brother home to move it into the shop. I’m sure we all have stories like that, maybe we can start telling them here. Haha
 
As you all know, I spent quite a bit of time around drill rig moves in 70's-80's. Lots of time working around Jin-pole bed trucks & picker trucks. Very common for the front wheels of a short (300 inch or so) bed truck to come off the ground during a lift, we had a # of "remedies" to complete the wanted task...( if the "truck push" asked for it that's what he got, no bitching or questions asked...git-er-done or go home ). If there was a cat on site then, when front wheels started to wave in the air we would just chain the front oilfield bumper to the dozer so it wouldn't lift any higher, and the cat would move in unison with the bed when required...if no cat available just back a winch tractor up and do the same but it was harder to maneuver. The last resort was to wait for the "big bed" to become available, the length of a 400 inch bed took a lot more weight to lift the wheels off the ground.

Buddy of mine, after working 20 yrs as a bed truck-picker truck operator was forced to take the Union approved "Hoisting Ticket" for a new place of employment. When asked by the Occupational Safety instructor "how do you know when you've reached the weight limit on a crane or lifting devise, Lance truthfully answered "when the wheels come off the ground or the picker boom starts to bend like a fishing rod"...no flex warning buzzers in his day.
 
Amateur. I could have had it unloaded in 15 minutes. Unhook trailer from truck, jack up front of trailer until back end is on ground, skid container off. Easy Peasy.
 
6.5 Fan said:
Amateur. I could have had it unloaded in 15 minutes. Unhook trailer from truck, jack up front of trailer until back end is on ground, skid container off. Easy Peasy.
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LOL.

That's how small countries that used to have a military offloaded high explosives. Once.
 
historicalarms said:
As you all know, I spent quite a bit of time around drill rig moves in 70's-80's. Lots of time working around Jin-pole bed trucks & picker trucks. Very common for the front wheels of a short (300 inch or so) bed truck to come off the ground during a lift, we had a # of "remedies" to complete the wanted task...( if the "truck push" asked for it that's what he got, no bitching or questions asked...git-er-done or go home ). If there was a cat on site then, when front wheels started to wave in the air we would just chain the front oilfield bumper to the dozer so it wouldn't lift any higher, and the cat would move in unison with the bed when required...if no cat available just back a winch tractor up and do the same but it was harder to maneuver. The last resort was to wait for the "big bed" to become available, the length of a 400 inch bed took a lot more weight to lift the wheels off the ground.

Buddy of mine, after working 20 yrs as a bed truck-picker truck operator was forced to take the Union approved "Hoisting Ticket" for a new place of employment. When asked by the Occupational Safety instructor "how do you know when you've reached the weight limit on a crane or lifting devise, Lance truthfully answered "when the wheels come off the ground or the picker boom starts to bend like a fishing rod"...no flex warning buzzers in his day.
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Last week in Colorado they were loading me with steel to come home. I didn’t look too close at the forklift but the back wheels were 2-3 feet in the air on the first lift. They didn’t seem fussed by it so that must be a common occurrence there. Makes it a little hard to steer but I’m not gonna tell another man how to run his forklift
 
Chicken lights said:
Last week in Colorado they were loading me with steel to come home. I didn’t look too close at the forklift but the back wheels were 2-3 feet in the air on the first lift. They didn’t seem fussed by it so that must be a common occurrence there. Makes it a little hard to steer but I’m not gonna tell another man how to run his forklift
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I ran large wheeled machinery for 15 years and balancing load and machine was tricky but fun, specially Bobcats. Had one short haul driver try and tell me how to run a forklift...once.
 
6.5 Fan said:
Amateur. I could have had it unloaded in 15 minutes. Unhook trailer from truck, jack up front of trailer until back end is on ground, skid container off. Easy Peasy.
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We didn't unhook the trailer to unload ever. Just back up as fast as you could in the length you had to work with and stand on the brakes, thousands of oilfield float loads unloaded this way, floats all have a "live roll" on the back to make this happen. Might take 3 or 4 shakes to git er off but very seldom did we have to hook a chain to something else and pull. proper procedure was to get the load tetering off the live roll and then hook up the winch line to let er down easy but if we had a "hard skidded" load that was indestructible we just dropped them off the back.
When the drilling rigs started to be computer controlled the boys had to be carful they weren't dropping a CCS unit...the first guy that dropped one ended up with a $1.5 million insurance claim by the time he was done...CCS buildings were clearly marked after that one.
 
A090B595-1320-48A5-AA2F-6D6A88B7A6BE.jpeg

Helped a friend move his pickup frame over to his shop today. 8’x8’ trailer and a 20’ frame means there was a little overhang. Used a ratchet strap to hold the tailgate up.
Little sketchy :D
 
3B2553DB-474D-4F96-AD34-52FD491DFBEA.jpeg

Picked up a Duramax and Allison today. No way to unload that until someone suggested the car hoist. Probably 13-1400 pounds, as a guess
 
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
Unload it or Load it? What's a Duramax and Allison? What are you going to do with it?
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Unload it. Loading was done with a John Deere tractor.

Duramax is Chevy’s diesel from about 2002-2011, might be a bit off on the years, Allison make transmissions

It’s going in my Geriatric Assistant’s next project truck that we’ve been working on
 
In the 80s I put a 6.9 diesel into a Ford truck but I couldn’t lift The motor and transmission with a 2 ton hoist without it buckling.
 
I know it's not as massive an object as some others mentioned here but here's my $0.02 - 5 years ago at the Chrysler dealer I worked at I had to replace an engine. Problem was that the engine crane could not reach the engine once it was dropped onto supports when removed with the transmission from under the car as an assembly. Out came my trusty Power Fist long pry bar, some old seat belt buckle loops (buckles themselves removed) I use for lifting straps, and a pair of vise grips. Thankfully it was a smaller car engine, I certainly would not have done this with a V8. It did work, with care. OH&S would have not been amused but we all got a chuckle out of it in the shop.
IMG_2932.jpg
 
Everett said:
I know it's not as massive an object as some others mentioned here but here's my $0.02 - 5 years ago at the Chrysler dealer I worked at I had to replace an engine. Problem was that the engine crane could not reach the engine once it was dropped onto supports when removed with the transmission from under the car as an assembly. Out came my trusty Power Fist long pry bar, some old seat belt buckle loops (buckles themselves removed) I use for lifting straps, and a pair of vise grips. Thankfully it was a smaller car engine, I certainly would not have done this with a V8. It did work, with care. OH&S would have not been amused but we all got a chuckle out of it in the shop.
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I like it! As you said, probably best to do when nobody is looking but it worked is all that mattered. Good farm boy engineering
 
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