Moving portable buildings

[cstocks]

My neighbor has two portable buildings on a lot that he has just sold and he needs to get them moved right away. He has two buildings, one 12x16 and the other 10x20. He wants to store one building on my three acre lot for about six months and he is giving me the other building for free. He and I have arranged to have them hauled over to my lot so transporting them is not the problem. The buildings are supposed to be off the lot by the end of next week and the ground has just dried out enough over the past few days to get the truck onto his lot to pick them up. The problem might be the weather. A front is supposed to be moving through and if it rains very much I am afraid the ground will be too wet for the truck to get to the buildings to pick them up. The truck is scheduled for Wed. or Thurs. so there is plenty of time for it to rain enough to complicate matters.

If it rains and the truck cannot drive onto the lot I am thinking about hooking up some chains or cables to my TC33D and dragging the buildings approx. 75-85 yds. to the front of the lot to where the truck can get to them.

So, here is my question. Can a portable building be dragged without damaging it? Both buildings are on skids and the skids run from end to end, so the game plan would be to hook up to the end of each building and pull it with my tractor. The ground is flat but not level so I don't know how much of a factor that will be. I don't have a clue how much either building weighs but I don't think weight will be a problem. I am just worried that I won't do it right or that I will tear the buildings up by dragging them.

Anyone have any experiences to relate or advice to offer?

 

[Gatorboy]

I have never moved buildings on skids (yet), but many of these buildings have holes drilled in the skids to run cable through them so you can drag them around -- hence the term "skid".

You should have no problem pulling them with your tractor, as long as you take it slow.

 

[jwstewar]

I've got 2 buildings on my property one 8X16 & one 12X16 they are each built on 4X4 runners or a skid as you refer to it. I plan on drilling a hole in the 4X4s and running a cable through all of them if I ever have to move them and dragging them with my truck (don't have a tractor). I would think you would be just fine provided you keep the pressure even between all of the runnings i.e. don't pull it by just one corner.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Chris,

Most buildings I've seen built on skids had at least one end of the skids cut at a 45 degree angle (usually at the door end) to allow them to be dragged.

I don't know what kind of truck you have coming Wednesday or Thursday or how you have arranged to have your buildings moved but I'd like to make a suggestion. I've had great success moving small structures like you describe with a flatbed rollback car hauler. I'm talking about the kind that towing and recovery companies use.

The bed slides back from the cab and angles downward to the ground. They are able to obtain a surprisingly low angle. Many have removable side rails so you have a completely flat and open bed (your skids are likely high enough to put the crossmembers of the floor above the little sides, but check those measurements). With a winch at the bulkhead your buildings could easily be pulled up onto the bed and delivered wherever you ask and placed in whatever spot you choose.

The biggest advantage of this method is you can pick up the phone right now and call a towing/recovery company and have them come and do it now while the ground is dry. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif I hope this helps. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[micromike]

I bought a 10' by 16' portable building on skids from a neighbor a couple years ago. Pulled it home ( 100 yds.) with an S10 4x4 and had only one problem. We drilled through the ends of the skids and installed eyebolts and hooked a chain to the eyebolts. On the first pull one of the eyebolts opened up. We welded the eyebolts closed. No problems after that.

I've got some pictures somewhere. It was rather humorous to see a a truck pulling a building that looked almost twice the size of the truck. It would have made a great commercial.

 

[crb478]

They will slide on the skids as long as the ground is dry enough they do not dig in. If they dig in you may need to put down boards for them to slide on or put pipes or round post under the skids and roll the buliding forward on them replacing the pipes as the come out . This is a slow method, but it does not require much power to move the building

 

[Fly_Rodr]

I moved our 8 x 12 building with the tractor. The chain was able to wrap around the skids on each side, I then connected the chains to the FEL, lifted the front of the building slightly and moved it with no problems.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

As long as you have a spreader bar there shouldn't be a problem. If the buildings were built right, one should be incorporated into the skid itself. If you aren't sure, it's not that hard to make one up.
Towing a building without a spreader bar can collapse the building real quick, and by the time you notice the collapse, the building is trash.

 

[cstocks]

Thanks to all this morning for the replies. I figured it would be okay to drag the buildings by the skids... just needed a little confirmation.

Gary, Your suggestion about the car hauler is a good idea but I think time and the weather are working against me today. I have the Weather channel on and it looks like the gulf is about to send the Houston area some rain today and I don't know if I could round up a wrecker before the bottom falls out.

The truck that is going to move the buildings belongs to a contractor that my neighbor saw working on the side of the road. He had the bed tilted down and was digging up someone's yard with a backhoe. My neighbor just stopped and asked him and he said he would do it and to give him a call when the ground dried out and give him a couple of days advance notice. I called him on Friday and the middle of the week is as soon as he is available.

Today I am going to make the 30 minute drive over to the lot and check out the buildings and see exactly what will be involved in getting them moved. I wish the timing and the weather would have cooperated a little better but what the heck. A tractor project is what I bought a tractor for./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thanks again to all for the suggestions.

 

[KYFARMER]

Cstocks, it is important that you make sure that there is enough braceing to prevent the two skids from closing up when you hook to them. This would only apply to the end you hook to.
It will supprise me if the tc33 will pull them. I guess it really depends on how heavily they are constructed. Only you know that. Good luck.

 

[cstocks]

KYFarmer,

It rained for about an hour today so it is looking doubtful that a truck will be able to get on the lot by Wed or Thur since more rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow. I guess Iwill find out when the time comes if my tractor will pull the buildings or not. Fly Rodr has a tractor just like mine and he stated in his post that he moved an 8x12 building with no problems. That is encouraging even though the buildings I need to move are both bigger. Time will tell...

 

[MossRoad]

Put heavy cross braces between the skids front and rear. Getting them loose from the ground will be the hardest part. You might want to get them out of their ruts while it is dry. Get them up on some pipe or 2X lumber now. And a dab of grease on the skids will help "greasing the skids" so to speak. Once you get them moving, you shouldn't have aproblem, unless, like others have stated, they dig in.

 

[KYFARMER]

Cstock, if you are used to tractor operation just ignore what I am saying. I do not want you to fell like I am talking down to you.
When you hook onto the buildings, hook as close as you can in order to pull up on the runners. Also avoid sharp turns as they will cause additional stress on the runners. If you have some larger runners that you could put under the building by jacking them up, it may make them easier to pull.
Let us know.

 

[cstocks]

No, KYFarmer I didn't feel that you were talking down to me... I hope I didn't sound defensive. I was just being philosophical. Either my tractor will pull the buildings or it won't... hopefully it will./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I am no tractor pro... have about 130 hours on this tractor and about that many on my first tractor before I got rid of it. That is why I am asking for advice and suggestions. I appreciate your advice and everyone elses too.

I will have to make one turn but hopefully it won't be too sharp. The buildings are sitting on the front of the lot with a bayou about 50 ft. to the left, Trinity bay directly behind and a fence about 50 ft. to the other side. I plan on hooking on the the first building on the bayou side and swinging as wide as I possibly can without getting too close to the edge of the bayou. Once I make that one swing I will be able to pull it toward the front far corner of the lot at a much more gradual angle. The second building will follow the first one so I will have much more room to swing it around.

I think it is good advice to brace between the skids and I will do that before I make a move. I have several lengths of logging chain that I can use to pull with or I can also borrow some cables from work if I decide to go that route. There is a 90% rain for tomorrow so looks like I better get my game plan together to get this done Wed. morning.

Thanks again to everyone for your help.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Chris,

Now that it's rained again, I have another idea for you. I think you could probably do this job with a winch, the truck, your tractor and a snatch block without ever going onto the ground with the truck or your tractor.

Run the winch cable from the truck to load. Attach a snatch block to the cable and run chain from it to your tractor. Look at the run of cable from the snatch block to the load and position your tractor at the same angle from that line as your truck forming a 'Y' with the truck and tractor at the top points of it.

When your load reaches the snatch block release tension on the line and remove the snatch block. Now all you have is the line from the winch on the truck to the load. Simply pull it to the truck and up onto the bed. Viola' No tire tracks at all. Just slide marks on the wet grass from your skids. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

Pretty cool, huh? /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif I hope I explained this well enough to be understandable. I swear it's almost easier to set up and do than to explain in print. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif Anyhow, I hope this helps. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[cstocks]

If I understand what you are saying you mean a setup like the quick sketch I drew in the attachment? If so, you can see that due to the location of the truck and the building, even though the lot is not to scale, that the angle would be very sharp to pull against the building. The truck would have to be positoned so in order to stay off the lot and on hard ground so I am not sure how I could do it this way. Am I understanding this right? I guess I could position the tractor on the other side of the lot but that is the low side and might not be an improvement.

 

[cstocks]

Let's try that again...

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

First of all... Neat sketch! If I could have done that I'd have saved a lot of typing. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Secondly, it's a very accurate depiction of what I was trying to describe. I was thinking the building was at a 90 degree angle from where it sits. From what I now see, I'd probably jack up the building and put some rollers under it at a 45 degree angle between where it sits and where you would pull it to assist with that first sharp turn then proceed as described. The bigger the rollers the better. Good luck. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Rowski]

Don't forget to block the wheels on the tractor. Also don't let anyone sit on or near the tractor. If the cable lets go from the building it going right at the tractor. As mentioned the static friction will be tremendous but once moving it will be a lot less.

You may want to try to pull the building in the direction that thee skids point, to help remove the static friction. I don't know if you situation will allow this.

 

[cstocks]

Thanks Gary but the sketch was as easy as using a snatch block and a long cable to move a building!/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Or... I could position the tractor about 2/3 of the way down the lot and reduce the angle that the building would be pulled from. Might take two tries...