Moving Old Truck 20' Cargo Box - Safely

jwmorris · Oct 14, 2016

What "tools" do you have to work with?

3000 lbs is a lot of weight to some and nothing for other folks. If all you have is a lawn tractor, you have more work cut out for yourself.

This might be worth watching if you don't have much to work with.

Note how much less he used the jack to "move" once he found out it had a balance point to move the "rollers" from front to back.

SJay · Oct 14, 2016

Once I get the OK from my boss, we are going to use a wrecker service with a flat bed truck. I will post pictures when it happens. :dance1:

SJay · Nov 2, 2016

Got the OK, site is prepared - going to get the truck here tomorrow ......

skyhook · Nov 3, 2016

Have the flat bed tow truck pull up behind it, level with the bed "box" and winch it directly onto his tow bed. Once at your place he can "tilt" his flat bed down and it should slide right off.

countrybumpkin · Nov 3, 2016

SJay said:
Got the OK, site is prepared - going to get the truck here tomorrow ......

Take plenty of pics, because you know we all love pics.

PILOON · Nov 3, 2016

Been there, done that!

Problems that I observed:
A truck 'box' is built on a steel rail that sits on the truck frame. That is 2" wide sitting on 2" frame so rolling or sliding the box off won't work as for sure the 'rail' will fall off of the frame.\I did consider welding side tabs to guide the slide off procedure but moving the distance I needed was also a problem.
What I ended up doing was to wrap a chain about mid point and jurry rigging a spreader bar at the roof level to prevent squishing the roof.
It just so happened that a decent sized excavator was handy and I hooked the chain on his bucket and he lifted and moved it to the desired (prepared) site.
The move took about 15 mins with absolutely no damage.
I had tied a rope so that I could steer and swing the box while moving it suspended from the excavator bucket.

That box (insulated) serves as my winter storage for my Toyota MR2 sport car. Being insulated was a bonus but I did make an entry and exit hole to circulate air by using a small fan.

Also no local tilt-n-load would take on the job.

SJay · Nov 5, 2016

Got working on this - cutting the bolts was a little sketch, they where under tension. I have 2 left to remove, those I have loosened up. Thanks to PILOON for the suggestion about the rails(see photos). I am trying to get this done next week. I think I have everything in order. Any other suggestions let me know.

Thanks for all the input