How to load a cargo container on trailer?

RayH · Sep 22, 2006

stumpfield said:
That would be nice if I can find someone to do it....The quote I got to have a delivery co. do the job was $1100. (haul it 300 miles from LA to my rural property). Also, they don't go on dirt road. The $1100 was to drop the container off at the end of the county maintained road. I have 2.6 miles of narrow dirt road to go. ...

Aaaand theres the rest of the story.
Ok, place a 10ft 6X6 under one end of the container. Go to Tractor supply and buy two Hi Lift jacks,(everyone should have one of these anyway) and jack one end of the container up. Back your trailer under it as far as you can, lay a few pieces of steel pipe on your trailer bed, lower the container down on the trailer. Once the container is on the trailer you can move the hi lift jacks to the sides of the container to lift it off the 6X6. Use a come a long or winch to pull the container up on the trailer. Make sure to place something under the rear of the trailer before putting the weight of the container on it. You can leave the steel pipes under the container but you must use boards or something nailed to the trailer deck to keep them from rolling. A better solution is to use the jacks to lift up one end of the container and remove the pipes. Throw some straps over the container and off you go.
Hey, you can even use your newly purchased Hi Lifts to pull the container up on the trailer

Michael_E_Tx · Sep 22, 2006

If the container is starting out in the LA area, short of hiring someone to haul it to your rural property, you might also check into hiring someone to bring in a forklift to load it on to your trailer. Seems like that would be a pretty easy task for a not too big of forklift. I don't know though, a lot of clever ideas have been offered.

When we moved to Texas we had a 40' loaded container off loaded by a crane, which was a whole lot easier than any other option and reasonably priced.

Mike

stevenf · Sep 23, 2006

Stumpfield, I like to use roll back trucks designed for this job and have used their services many times for this exact situation it has gottem more expensive over the years, I've currently got one at the print shop I'd like to move to the ranch its about 35 miles and part is down a road nobody wants to go down the charge will be $285 as quoted two weeks ago to my pad site.
If you must move it yourself I've got a pawn shop next door to me that moves them with a forklift all the time, a good sized rugged tire forklift can move them anywhere you want to go they have fork boxes in the sides for this purpose so rent a fork load the box on your trailer then load the forklift on just make sure your not overloaded two trips won't work unless you have two trailers. make sure to strap the box down very well and chain the forklift.
Steve

Dutch445 · Sep 23, 2006

What are the chances you can have a rollback come in and winch it up
on his flatbed, then from his flatbed slide it off onto your trailer?
using a few pipes to help it roll if needed..
then you can haul it yourself up to your place and
pull it off wherever you want....

PineRidge · Sep 23, 2006

My vote goes to the roll-back wrecker, better safe than sorry.

dancer · Sep 23, 2006

1bush2hog said:
... The 20ft dry van container will weigh appx. 5000-6500lbs empty so make sure your cross beams and jacks can handle that weight.

I have a 48-ft. cargo container. It still has its volume/weight/capacity labels on it and I just checked: the (empty) tare weight is 9320 pounds, which would make me think 1bush2hog's estimate of 5000-6500 pounds for your 20-footer was too high. For something less than 5K pounds, and maybe quite a bit less, there are quite a few wrecker designs that could haul it without problems as far as weight or length or width is concerned. Of course, a container is tall and maybe some haulers would have to worry about center of gravity, etc.

RayH · Sep 23, 2006

A 20' container weighs about 5000lbs, maybe slightly less but no more than that.
No doubt your basic rollback could handle it and would be the best solution, but, according to the original poster, they want over $1000 to do it and still be a couple miles short of completing the move so he would end up loading it on his trailer anyway to move it the last couple miles. If the rollback isnt going to complete the whole move, I dont see any reason to mess with them.
He may want to see what it would cost to have two smaller forklifts or one big forklift come out for a couple minutes to pick it up and just back the trailer under it. maybe if there are businesses around that have forklifts he can talk one of them (for a small fee) to help out.

California · Sep 23, 2006

stumpfield said:
I plan to buy a 20' cargo container from someone's backyard.

Thinking outside the box ...

... it might be cheaper to buy one from a dealer who will set it on your trailer.

stumpfield · Sep 24, 2006

Well, we did it!!! Thanks for all the sugguestions.
Tools used: 2 farm jacks, 2 come-a-longs, a floor jack, pick and shovel, 3 pieces of 2" pipe and chains. We did exactly what was sugguested in this thread. Jack it up, slide the trailer under and pull it with the come-a-long on to the trailer. The whole process took about 3 hours due a inexperience and some silly mistakes. If I have to do this again, I think I can do it under 1/2 hour. Here's a few detail that I would like to share.

1. Use something like farm jacks that can lift from the side of the container without the need to put the jacks underneath. I got these for $29.95 on sale now at harbor freight. We placed the jack at approx 2/5 the distance from the front. It acts like a seesaw and almost balance itself with a bit more weight to the rear. After I backed the trailer underneath, it didn't take much effort to tilt the container onto the trailer by lifting the back of the container slightly. Could have just lift it by hand but we used a floor jack instead.
2. Put pipes under the container as it sit on the trailer.
3. Use 2 come-a-longs to relay the pulling effort without letting the container rolling backward. The come-a-long I got can only pull about 3 ft at a time and have to reset.
4. Again, the farm jacks lifting from the side allow easy removal of the pipes under the container once it's sitting on the trailer. So, the best tool for the job here were the farm jacks.
Here are pictures of the steps: