Moving Old Truck 20' Cargo Box - Safely

[SJay]

Would like some suggestion on how to do this safely. We have a old truck the I am taking the box off of.

We are going to drive the truck to my house and then cut the brackets that hold the box to the truck frame. We can not drive it in where it needs to go so I will need to turn the box around and then move into place.

I would be able to have it positioned facing the right way - if I do that I will need to move about 50' when it is on the ground.

So my question is 1. What is the best way to get it on the ground from the truck frame? 2. How do we move it to its final location?

The final location is off the driveway about 20'

Thanks

 

[rd_macgregor]

Is the box pretty rigid? Any idea what it weighs?

 

[fidowanttobe]

Without seeing it, I would assume I would approach it as moving a building. Get it as close as possible while still level, timbers and bottle jacks on all 4 corners, jack it up, pull the truck out, let it down 1 timber at a time till I could set it on round posts and pull it into position.
OR!
Hire a large forklift or small crane. This would be the easiest and quickest while allowing you to position it up onto whatever you decide to use to keep it out of the dirt, without jacking it up again. My neighbor went the forklift (telehandler I believe, I wasn't there) route with his shipping container. Couldn't have been too expensive as he is veeery tight.

 

[Leejohn]

Call a tow truck, pull it onto the tow truck. Then slide it off where you want it.

 

[CharlieS]

We've set a couple of cargo boxes in place as well as moved and set several stick framed sheds through the years.
In all cases we've picked the structure up with two front end loaders, having a spotter visible to both operators, to assure we lifted/lowered evenly. in the case of a truck box lift just a few inch's, driven the truck out from underneath, and lowered the box down on to 5x5 skids.
The sheds were picked up far enough to back a trailer under them and driven to location then again lifted/set in place via the loader buckets.

In this case accessability would dictate the final placement method. Get the truck/box oriented properly as close as possible and get it set on skids either by using jacks/timbers or lifting as I described.
Once set on skids its a simple matter to tow it into place with a tractor if you have room manuver.

 

[tcartwri]

Call a tow truck, pull it onto the tow truck. Then slide it off where you want it.

Yup. The advantage being that the rollback will be able to put it wherever you want the first time.

 

[SJay]

The box weighs about 3000#. It is fairly rigid - not like a shipping container. Local crane company wants 490$ to place it - 3 hour minimum. Going to call the wrecker company we use for work - that roll off idea might work - I will keep everyone posted - thanks for the ideas.

 

[Sodo]

Roll-off wrecker would be easiest, but those guys bill something like $200/hour.
Other way is to put it on a car-trailer, on logs and roll it off yourself or drive out from under it. 3,000 is 1500lbs each end. An automotive floor jack can lift one end (1500lbs) easily. Actually can lift the whole thing. Can move it around with come-alongs if you can get a grip on it.

 

[GLyford]

Unfasten. Block up. Pull truck out, push in from other end. Set box back down, push truck where box needs to go. Jack/block box up again, pull out truck, set box down. Use the truck as a trailer, you already have a frame with the right spacing and an axle rated to hold it.

It's not like you need to haul it down the highway that way, just across your yard once you have unfastened it the first time, yes?

 

[SJay]

Glyford - correct, just moving it a few feet - interesting idea. Talked to a wrecker driver that was near my house - he said they charge about 125$ hr. I like the blocking idea, need to see how much blocking I have - it is a ways off the ground.