Help with moving a gunsafe

[Denis]

I'd appreciate some advice - particularly from those with experience in moving heavy objects...

Some time ago, I won an online auction for a German-army surplus safe. It's rather a monster - 2 metres tall, 1.2 metres wide (two doors) and 80cm deep (say 6'x 4'x 2.5'). It weights 900kilos (1980 pounds). It was cheap - 200 euro. I hope it will meet my gunsafe needs for quite some time to come.

So I consulted the yellow pages and called around for quotes from moving firms to pick it up in Germany and deliver it to my residence in Brussels. After some weeks of silence, the successful lowest bidder has sent me - without a word of explanation - a bill for a fruitless attempt to move the safe. They claim that I misinformed them about the task. Of course, that's nonsense; I have an e-mail from the vendor's representative on the spot, telling me that the moving company attempted to shift the safe with a single workman and a dolly - no wonder they couldn't do it... I will be declining their request for payment, in the nicest possible way.

Anyway - now I'm in the situation that I'll have to use another (much more expensive) moving company. Unfortunately, this alternative mover, while happy to pick up the safe from its present location, won't deliver it to Brussels. Instead, they will put the safe on a pallet, and have the pallet drop-shipped to my kerbside or another desination of my choice (such as a warehouse).

The question is this - what equipment and manpower would I realistically need to safely (a) get the 900kg safe off the pallet (b) down the slope to my basement garage (c) tilt it to go in the up-and-over door (d) bring it upright again (e) move it into the spot prepared for it against the wall.

Is this the kind of thing I can do with a band of willing, muscular Poles and some hand-tools, or should I just hire another safe-moving firm at this end?

Help!

[Bullspit]

1. Be sure the floor where you plan to put this will handle the load.

2. For a safe of that size you are going to need a very heavy duty dolly and three strong friends or you are going to need to hire movers. A piano mover might consider doing it if you can't find a mover that specializes in safes.

As for my experience moving heavy things, I'm the guy with the truck, a strong back and a weak mind that people call when they need stuff moved. In college I worked on a loading dock and moved a lot of big and heavy stuff. I can (and have three times) moved my 600+ pound safe by myself. The safe you are getting is seriously big though!

[HTRN]

As somebody who has moved some seriously heavy sh*t in the past(personal bugbear - a Cincinatti Toolmaster, roughly 2.5 tons, and a real pain in the ass to move), let me state a few things.

1)Riggers are expensive, in part because they have huge expenses - carrying several million dollars worth of liability insurance all the time means a coupla grand a month just to cover that.
2) Anything beyond a half ton or so, is past the point you can move with a hand truck
3)The method for moving such things on concrete floors isn't dollys, but rather pipe to roll on(cheap) or riggers skates($$$)
4)Is there a forklift on site?
5)Can you rent something with a liftgate with an appropriate rating?

How I would do it - get a pinch bar under it, and lift off the ground slightly. Slip a pipe under it. do the same under the other side. Roll towards the door, remembering to put the pipes back under the front, as they roll out the back. once there, get it onto the lift gate, lift onto the truck. Haul home, repeat the process in reverse.


HTRN

[Rumpshot]

Denis, I think they just said the best thing to do is have the safe appraised. Then plan to spend at least the difference between the purchase price and the appraisal price to get it moved.

[gandalf23]

I briefly helped out a locksmith friend install and move several safes, so I'm not an expert by any means.

Can you get the guys that put it on the pallet to orient it on the pallet before they ship it out so that it'll fit through the doorway? So that you don't have to fiddle around and do step (c)?

If you can borrow or rent a pallet jack(links are here for the pictures so you know what I'm talking about since they may be called something else in Europe), most of them are rated for 5,000 pounds (check to be sure, the one here at the office is only good for 2500!). You should be able to get the palleted safe into the garage with one assuming that the walkway in is paved. I have not had much luck with pallet jacks taking loads over gravel or dirt/grass. Then if you could borrow or rent an engine hoist, you could probably lift the safe up into the upright position and get it maneuvered where you want it to go. One of these will help in the maneuvering.

Here in Texas I'd just head down to the local industrial rental place and for under $50 get the tools for the weekend (or borrow them from friends/neighbors), but I'm not sure if they are that easy to get a hold of in Belgium.

[HTRN]

The fun part would be getting it up on the pallet - I would be very leery of doing so. This is why I like the pipe roller method - 10 seconds with a pinch bar and it's on the "roller".


HTRN

[D5CAV]

+1 on HTRN's comments. I had a big one moved. It was done with a flatbed 20 ton truck, a 10 ton crane, about three riggers (one of them looked like a contestant from "Strongest Man"), and a bunch of 2" pipe. Once it was on the ground on the pipe, it was done like the Egyptian Pyramids 5000 years ago. Move safe forward, pick up a pipe, put in front of safe, move safe forward.

The safe was moved from the warehouse to my house (roll-up garage door) about 10 miles across town. The safe was free. The moving was $1500.

Here's my estimate on the move:
Move safe from German warehouse to Belgium warehouse (including loading onto drayage & offloading -- requires a crane or forklife with experienced operator, and drayage fees on road): $1500 if share the truck load (means you get the safe delivered sometime in the next few months)
Move safe from Belgian warehouse & install in your garage (including loading onto drayage & offloading -- requires a crane or forklift with experienced operator plus a few big guys to muscle into your garage): $2000

I haven't moved anything in Europe, so drayage may be higher than my experience in the US. You are looking at a total bill of $3000 to $4000, but it sounds like you got a nice safe!

[ButchS1066]

Is the slope down to your garage paved? I'd probably rent a forklift for the day. Agree with HTRN about rolling it into position on pipe.

[Frosch]

It weights 900kilos (1980 pounds). It was cheap - 200 euro.

That's right at 10 pounds per euro. Who knew the euro was that strong?

I don't have the expertise of some others here, but "slope" caught my eye. Moving
that puppy on rollers on a slope could be a life-ending experience.

[Aglifter]

Keep it on the pallet as long as you can, IMO. Would you be willing to post photos of where you're trying to take it? Laying down, and picking up a one-ton box is tricky. In your situation, I'd suggest hiring a safe moving company. Depending on the construction of your house, it may be easier to remove the door/trim, rather than laying it down.

If you can't rent a forklift, still keep it on the pallet -- you might be able to rent a braked hand pallet jack -- frankly, you can brake any pallet jack, if you have to -- just release the hydraulics.

Ask them if they can build a solid top on the pallet, before they put the safe on it. Say like a 1" piece of plywood, or whatever the metric equivalent is.

(What I'm thinking is that if you have a solid pallet, it will be easier to use a pinch bar and rollers to get it off the pallet.)

Perhaps different sizes of rollers -- very small rods to get it off the pallet/move it around inside, w. large pipe to take it from the pallet, then some graduations of sizes to go onto the rods.

As for laying it down, and moving it A) Make sure that it won't disturb the locking mechanism -- some safes can't go past a certain angle. B) If I had to, I think I would get a long piece of timber -- say a 2x4, and have some of those heavy Poles standing w. only one foot on the board, as you tilt it back, have them keep it pressed as far back against the safe as it will go. -- You don't want to have it be able to hurt someone if it kicks back, so make sure they keep clear. Perhaps use a boat winch, and a heavy ratcheting strap around the top, w. a shorter strap, or chain around the strap, to attach the winch cable to. No idea what you'd attach the winch to. Ideally, you'd want to rig up something to fix the strap, so that it can't slip up or down, as it's tilted.

That, or you'd have to build a framework around it, or loops some heavy ropes around it, so that you can attach a winch to it.

Really, unless you have some experience w. this type of thing, or a friend who has, it might be much better to hire a company to move it.