moving 1-ton; first time trying

Bernard, I think your best bet would be to pay the quarry to load the large stone onto the truck and trailer for you. (Safer, and easier,by far). Remove the truck cap, and take a couple of heavy wood pallets with you. (free, or very cheap at stores, factories). Cut a sheet of 1/2" OSB sheathing or plywood in half to nail onto the pallets, to keep stone from hanging into the fork area of the pallets. Get there, unhook trailer, roll smaller stones onto pallets as tightly as possible (try to get some stretch wrap from campus shipping). Have the quarry load these into truck bed for a fee, tickets to a campus event, beer or whatever. Play up the poor, creative student angle. Take a campus hottie or two with you, keep her in sight. More powerful than beer or money. Rehook trailer and get the quarry to load the large stone for you, centered ever so slightly forward of the trailer axle centerline(s), so the trailer is not tail-heavy. (causes weaving vehicle). Strap load down with ratchet strapping or chains and binders. Take pictures of hotties with quarry workers, posed in front of loaded stone. (They will forget all about money) Drive home carefully and at a lower speed than normal. Get the campus forklift to unload everything for you, and consider drawing attention to the event via professors, the school newspaper, etc., to enhance the possibility of getting the forklift service and other needed help for free. Now that your stone is on pallets, further movement is much simpler. A pallet jack may possibly be borrowed from campus shipping/receiving to move the stones around inside the work area. With this system, you face lesser physical danger in meeting your goal. My motto is "Work Smarter, not Harder". The above methods are known as "Social Engineering" and are as important in life, or more so, than physical skills. Look at the pretty lady with a flat tire. SOMEONE will change that tire for her!

Just my take. RJ

"Bernard Arnest" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@h25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

Pay the quarry to load the stone. Pay the guys on campus to unload it. That way it's their responsibility, not yours. It will be easier, safer and probably cheaper. You'll be amazed at how much money you'll spend trying to do something like this if you don't already have the equipment.

Your forklift which can lift 3000 lbs and weighs under 1000 lbs sounds like a stacker truck. A real forklift which can lift 3000 lbs will probably weigh at least 3000 lbs. A stacker truck will be useless on a rough or muddy surface.

How did you get on moving that lathe across the MIT campus?

Best wishes,

Chris

Hi, Bernard. I can see dozens, if not hundreds of regulars on this group wringing their hands over the possibilities of you and your friends ending up in wheel chairs or worse over this one. Many of us are having visions of our first such attempt watching as some little unforseen thing goes wrong; at least spoiling the day, likley damaging the thing we got the "deal" on, or, worse than that causing permanent personal injury.

I like "backlash"es recommendations.

Please do not try to move this stuff in mud even with plywood. The wheels on your "forklift" (is it a pallet truck) are 'way too small. The plywood will be pushed by the wheels wherever there is a joint and so the load will drop down below the level of the next sheet. Think about the poor mechanical advantage of trying to get that wheel back up onto the plywood. I know that you wouldn't use any foul language at this point, but I know that I have been sorely tempted.

Here's a slightly different take: Look up "riggers" in the phone book. Try to work out a deal where they do the heavy work on your end in trade for a sculpture that you do for them. Everybody wins. They get something of value; you get more practice at your art.

Also, I think I saw a disconnect between trailer capacity and stone size. Get more trailer than you need, not less. Most general dyi rental companies have 2 axle trailers for rent. They generally can hold about 5000 pounds net. That way you could bring even more stuff home. Make sure the trailer has (at least surge) brakes and DO spend the extra rental money for tie downs. It your buddy doesn't have experience driving the truck with a heavily loaded trailer behind, implore him or her to drive carefully and drive way, way out in front! It's easy to be going along having a good conversation, and having to do a panic stop from inattention to the road. Without the loaded trailer, no problem, but------.

Once a load that heavy gets out of control, there's no going back. Don't ask me how I know this.

Think about medical costs and liabilities. After all, we do live in litigious America. A healthy friend, even slightly damaged, becomes a courtroom nightmare when his parents are presented with the medical bill.

Pete Stanaitis

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Go to a local equipment rental company and rent a dump truck and have the quarry load it for you. Pay the $75 fee for campus facilities. I think you'll come out cheaper in the long run, especially when you add in the cost to repair the damage to the friends truck and the hospital bills for the hernias and other injuries.

Jim

Thanks-- Will call the quarry this morning about their forklift and the terrain and weather conditions, walk over to Campus Facilities and inquire about unloading with them, and then call up some rental places about a bigger truck (can I get better rates than the flat $200 that home depot wants, for a 3000# pickup?)

may come back with more questions after the above phone calls, and will also let you know how it goes after Tuesday!

-Bernard

Around here, the guys selling palletrized stone use chickenwire as a wrap. A roll of chickenwire is cheap... --Glenn Lyford

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:28:52 -0700 (PDT), with neither quill nor qualm, " snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com" quickly quoth:

I'm doing several pallets full of flagstone for a client and they come wrapped in regular field fencing wire. It's 20ga wire in 6x6" squares down to 2x6" rectangular openings at the bottom. Top and bottom have

-- The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man. -- Euripides

On Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:32:46 -0800, Bernard Arnest wrote: [re 1-ton piece of marble]

... Apparently you are looking at the 5x9 ramp trailer,

I've seen some 5x9 ramp trailers loaded at least a thousand pounds over the weight that UHaul recommends; they towed just fine, but of course you shouldn't do that if going any distance.

that's a good idea....

turns out the quarry will not help me with a forklift, not even for a price. How about getting a car trailer, which should tilt to the ground; a come-along, a couple crowbars, a bunch of cut-up PVC pipes, and rolling it up onto the trailer?? Never need to lift it off the ground.

not hold 3000# in the

trailer,

You also haven't said how far you need to move the stone. If it's a short distance, you might have more options.

Best wishes,

Chris

On Mar 10, 4:48=A0pm, Bernard Arnest wrote: , a bunch of cut-up PVC pipes,

A bunch of cut-up PVC pipes? Why not just take along someone with a modicum of common sense? Or hire someone to transport it for you?

John Martin

not hold 3000# in the

trailer,

I get the impression that these are right off the road, so we can move them practically no distance at all, back the trailer right up to the blocks. It was the lifting bit that was hard; a ramped trailer promises to solve that. If for any reason they're not right off the road, as in down a slope, then I have bigger issues anyway!

I hear that the weather is poor, so I'll do this in 2 weeks.

Apologies, I thought that among a couple dozen, small-diameter ones that pvc would hold up; maybe even work better if it can flex. I can probably find some cheap scrap steel pipe though.

Should I taper the boards on a bandsaw?

Thinking that I might try practicing with that surface grinder first :-)

-Bernard