Lift pallet rack by hand ?

I've assembled a few, they're typically not that heavy. If it is the usual stuff it's made out of pretty thin steel.

I concur on the thin steel and light weight. The ones we got were origionally at a local Fred Meyer store and were used to hold building material. They remind me of giant Gorilla Racks. Three of us disassembled them and moved them to the plant. One man can easily carry any single piece. The racks are rated at 8000 lbs. Two of us put them back together.

Perhaps the racks you have been looking at are a different type, but I think all I have ever seen have been made up of posts, beams and bracing. All would come apart into individual pieces.

Paul

ATP* wrote:

pallet racks

including

professionals

There are some that are made out of structural steel, I've only seen one example of that type. The uprights for that type might get a little heavy, but not forklift heavy.

Al: The teardrop type racks that I bought were 12' end pieces. They weigh less than 100 poounds each if I remember correctly. The system I have will handle either 12,000 or 16,000 pounds per bay and has 12' crossbeams. My 68 year old dad and I raised up both sections and put in

10 sets of crossbeams with nothing more than one pair of light weight load straps. It too more work to cut and fit the plywood decking than it did to set the rest of the rack system up. If you feel that the racks are a bit too heavy for you, sounds like a great excuse for a pizza party in exchange for a little labor for a couple of the local high school or church kids....

What ever you buy, make sure you get something that is generlly available and not an orphaned rack design.\

Craig C. snipped-for-privacy@ev1.net

Got in late on this but I would agree. Most of the racks are not so heavy as to be a problem EXCEPT keeping the uprights in place temporarily while the cross beams go in. One man could probably fudge a system to do this but having a helper would definately make the job less of a bitch.

As to getting the racks, in western WA there is a company called "The rusty rack guys" who seem to price well, have a ton of parts for every imaginable rack style and deliver free locally.

is their website for comparison. Although most people are not lucky enough to be in their delivery area, I would assume some digging would pull up similar in most localities.

Koz

Al, It is no problem moving pallet racks one piece at a time. In the seventy's my family owned a public warehouse and we bought nearly 1000 sections of used racking. We move hundreds of the uprights by hand.

If you happen to buy used racking bundled, it is fairly easy to move the uprights by sliding the forks under the bundle,tilt the forks all the way forward,insert a tubafour(2x4) between front of the forks and the bottom of the bundle, run a chain (or strap)over the bundle and under the bottom of the forks (make sure the strap/chain is tight) and the tilt the forks backward. The bundle will act like very long fork extensions. i've done it many times. Just watch out for the swing on the front of the bundle.And drive the jeep slowly. IF my directions were unclear, send me an email and I will send you a drawing of how to do it.