How to Move a Large Tool Box

[yooperdave]

Wifey and I are moving 1 hour south of our current location. We are moving the boxes and clutter ourselves with our 3/4 ton pickup truck and 2 trailers. We are hiring a local moving Company to move the Furniture and large heavy items - like 4 tool boxes.

1 tool box in particular is a 6' x 6' x 2' 2-piece Husky Tool Box in an adjacent shed. I bought it new and it came on a couple skids and delivered to my house. I just emptied it and was almost unable to pick it up with my LG 25hp CUT. Since it can pick up over 1,000#, this was an eye-opener. I then tried to move the tool box and the rear wheels could not grab the gravel, so I had to engage 4wd to get the tool box moved to the Garage staging area.

How can I expect the moving Company to get the large and heavy tool box into their truck? Should I expect them to have a winch and an anchor point? Should I remove the top portion of the tool box? Any experience and input would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Yooper Dave

 

[workinonit]

You don't have a front end loader and forks on anything?

 

[WinterDeere]

I had so much shop equipment and machinery, that when I moved into this house years ago, I hired a rigging company. They sent four trucks and two crews, split roughly equally for house and shop. The rigging crew for the shop brought a heavy-duty forklift, as some of my machines weighed several thousand pounds each, and we just picked up the tool chests and set them directly on the truck with the forklift.

If moving on my own, I'd just unload the damn thing into milk crates or totes. Easier to move a dozen 60# milk crates and an empty 150 lb. tool chest, than loaded. Maybe even separate upper and lower cabinets, for easy lifting.

 

[newbury]

Split it, subdivide it.
I've been moving down to Mississippi for a decade. I've had to break down a lot of stuff into smaller packages.

 

[deezler]

Empty out the tool box. Like winterDeere said. You dont want to take a chance on all your tools getting spilled/jostled/lost anyway.

Do you have SSQA on your XJ2025? And pallet forks? Proper rear ballast? You already have the means to do this properly, if so.

 

[newbury]

Empty out the tool box. Like winterDeere said. You dont want to take a chance on all your tools getting spilled/jostled/lost anyway.

Do you have SSQA on your XJ2025? And pallet forks? Proper rear ballast? You already have the means to do this properly, if so.

I just emptied it and was almost unable to pick it up with my LG 25hp CUT.

 

[deezler]

Oh duh. haha. Yes, separate the two pieces then. Make it lighter however you need to. Still curious about your lifting setup (forks/ballast)

 

[yooperdave]

I had so much shop equipment and machinery, that when I moved into this house years ago, I hired a rigging company. They sent four trucks and two crews, split roughly equally for house and shop. The rigging crew for the shop brought a heavy-duty forklift, as some of my machines weighed several thousand pounds each, and we just picked up the tool chests and set them directly on the truck with the forklift.

If moving on my own, I'd just unload the damn thing into milk crates or totes. Easier to move a dozen 60# milk crates and an empty 150 lb. tool chest, than loaded. Maybe even separate upper and lower cabinets, for easy lifting.

I used more than a dozen 5 gallon pails to load up the contents of the tool box. I can separate the upper and lower with the understanding the crew will need to restack at the new location as I do not have the resource to restore. Big reason for moving is due to deteriorating health and ADA access.

 

[yooperdave]

Oh duh. haha. Yes, separate the two pieces then. Make it lighter however you need to. Still curious about your lifting setup (forks/ballast)

I have forks. However, I had to remove my 3-pt hitch PHD to haul away as my new place does not have a shed yet. I miss the ballast.

Yooper Dave

 

[deezler]

Any other 3-pt attachments you could put on for ballast? Pretty important when lifting heavy.

Too bad you have to change your user name to "northern wisconsin Dave" now. Farewell to MI eh

 

[sea2summit]

I had so much shop equipment and machinery, that when I moved into this house years ago, I hired a rigging company. They sent four trucks and two crews, split roughly equally for house and shop. The rigging crew for the shop brought a heavy-duty forklift, as some of my machines weighed several thousand pounds each, and we just picked up the tool chests and set them directly on the truck with the forklift.

You are my hero! That is a shop!

 

[yooperdave]

Any other 3-pt attachments you could put on for ballast? Pretty important when lifting heavy.

Too bad you have to change your user name to "northern wisconsin Dave" now. Farewell to MI eh

I still have a cottage in the U.P. about 90 minutes away. Been in the family for 3 generations. I am a half yooper, as my Dad was from Detroit. People still ask which half?, and I reply 'Front Half'.

 

[WinterDeere]

I used more than a dozen 5 gallon pails to load up the contents of the tool box. I can separate the upper and lower with the understanding the crew will need to restack at the new location as I do not have the resource to restore. Big reason for moving is due to deteriorating health and ADA access.

Another good reason to unload it is that those casters are probably NOT rated to handle that load on a truck bouncing down the road. Shock loads can be easily 5x higher than static loads, and could easily cave the bottom of your toolbox at the caster attachment plates, if moved loaded. When I moved mine loaded, I set it up on blocks, so the weight was not on the casters themselves.

 

[WinterDeere]

You are my hero! That is a shop!

I used to be into collecting and restoring old woodworking machinery. My 1903 table saw weighed 2200 lb., had a rolling table, tilting table, quadrants, and a rip fence that weighed as much as a complete modern table saw. The jointer was a 16" model with a total cutterhead width (babbit bearings) of 30" and a bed over 7 feet long. The bandsaw was 9 feet tall and weighed over 1200 lb. with the motor removed, and the radial saw was a very top-heavy 800 lb. beast, not to mention the many 500 lb. planers, smaller jointers, drill presses, etc.

I've since sold off pretty most of the stuff too big to move myself, in recent years. With a shop that's two floors of 20 x 30 feet, I needed to be able to move the heavy equipment aside when I needed to back a car or tractor into a bay to work on it. Now, other than one big bandsaw, my woodworking machinery is all stuff under 1000 lb., and I've built mobile bases for each so that I can move them around as needed for playing home-shop mechanic.

If I weren't married, the house I would've bought had separate barn spaces for woodworking, metalworking, and vehicle storage. But since marriage is compromise, I only got two out of those three, meaning my mechanic's shop is also full of sawdust. Not great for welding indoors.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

.

 

[Rockbadchild]

leave the tools inside the drawer but remove them from the tool box

 

[WinterDeere]

leave the tools inside the drawer but remove them from the tool box

You just reminded me that's how I moved shops back in 1998. I removed each drawer from my tool chest, set them in the bed of my pickup, and then threw the cabinet in last. Good for short moves in your own vehicle.

 

[jwmorris]

I know a lot of guys have them moved with a flatbed wrecker.

Its a lot cheaper to just rent one of these, roll it on, then lift it up.

https://www.unitedrentals.com/marketplace/equipment/trucks-trailers/trailers/hydraulic-ground-level-equipment-trailer-6-ft-14-ft-single-axle

 

[yooperdave]

I know a lot of guys have them moved with a flatbed wrecker.

Its a lot cheaper to just rent one of these, roll it on, then lift it up.

View attachment 822157

https://www.unitedrentals.com/marketplace/equipment/trucks-trailers/trailers/hydraulic-ground-level-equipment-trailer-6-ft-14-ft-single-axle

I got somewhat lucky. The movers came with a truck and a trailer. The bed of the trailer was much lower, and we just pushed the tool boxes on with no complications.

Yooper Dave

 

[WinterDeere]

Well, never hurts to plan, either way. Like washing your car makes it rain, if you hadn't a plan, they'd have shown up with a taller trailer.