- Joined
- Sep 3, 2012
- Messages
- 51
Wow, what a chore.
I'm calculating what it cost me to move this machine 180 miles. Because, if I ever have to move it again, I want justification to pay someone else to do it.
Rented a 6 x 10 foot "drop bed trailer" with a load capacity of 4800 pounds. $86
6 4" x 4" x 8' wood posts 6@$6 = $36
10' 1/2 threaded rod with enough nuts and washers to make 14 nine inch bolts. $21
4 10,000 lbs ratchet tie downs 4@12.00 = $48
3 9' x 7' plastic tarps 3@$4.00 = $12.00
1 Roll of cheap duct tape $4.00
1 Tank of gas = $80.00
Total = $287. Darn. I don't think a professional rigger could move this machine 180 miles for $287.
I left my house at 6AM Saturday morning. Went to SunBelt rentals and picked up the trailer. I was on the road by 7:30.
Drove to Temple and saw there was the State-wide Antique Tractor and Engine competition just off the highway about 4 miles. As I was 3 hours early for meeting the seller, I went to the show. That's a whole story in itself, but it was great. It happens the first weekend of October every year. I've already got it on my calendar for next year. While walking around drooling over all these beautifully restored tractors and engines, someone taps me on the shoulder. It was the seller of the mill. How he picked me out of a crowd of 2-3 thousand people, I'll never know. Anyway he told me to call him when I was ready to pick up the mill and he'd ride with me to his house. After walking around for 3 hours (could have stayed another 10) and a sausage on a stick, I called him and we on our way.
I purchased two mills. One is a round column Enco. It weighs probably about 600-800 pounds. We centered the table and lowered the head a low as possible. We loaded it on the trailer near the front. It was tied off to the railing. It wasn't going any where so we moved on to the Van Norman 12.
The seller had the machine on a roll-around platform. We rolled the machine under the overhead lift. We wrapped a lift strap around the column and placed the loops on the hook. We lifted the machine free from the platform.
I cut two posts to 6 foot, the width of the trailer. I bolted the posts through the bolt hole on the base parallel to the milling table. This is how the mill was stabilized left to right. It also prevented the mill from sliding left to right.
On the top side of the left and right ends of the 6 foot posts, I bolted on an 8 foot post perpendicular to the 6 footers. At the ends of each 8 footer I screwed a piece of scrap 4x4 to act as a foot. These 8 footers acted as a forward/backward stabilizer. It was like the mill was bolted in the center of an 8' by 6' rectangle. This would make rolling the mill over difficult.
We attempted to raise the mill and the post platform high enough to allow the trailer to be backed under. The lifting harness kept stretching and we were about 2-3 inches to low. We repositioned the lifting harness 4 or 5 times and still had the same issue. Finally we decided to wrap the lifting harness around the column, then thread a chain between the lifting harness and the column then put the chain over the hook of the wench. This allowed the harness to protect the ram's dove tails, but got rid of most of the vertical stretching. We were still about 1/2 inch too low. About this time, I remembered it was a drop-bed-trailer. So I lowered the bed about 8 inches and backed the trailer under with no problem. We lowered the mill on to the bed.
I took out the tarps and wrapped the mill. I used the cheap duct tape to hold the tarps in place. I just kept going around and around the mill, around the table, around the knee handle. etc. It was fast and pretty secure. It worked well.
The trailer had six heavy duty D rings, three on each side. I took one of the tie down straps and hooked on the middle tie ring on the left, to the top of mill, around the motor, down through the D ring on the right, back over the top, and down to the left D ring. I ratcheted it down tight. I did a 2nd tie down from front left to rear right, again wrapping around the motor. The last one was front right to rear left.
The mill was very steady. I was pretty confident it was not going to fall over or slide off the trailer.
The trailer raised back up without any issue at all. It has a 12 volt hydraulic system that works like a charm.
So I was off back to Dallas. I drive a Nissan Titan with a V8 and towing package. The trailer with the mills was probably somewhere near the maximum this truck should tow.
I drove to the next little town and stopped for a drink and to check the tie downs were still tight. I tighten them a little more, not sure it was really needed. On the way out of the parking lot, I totally missed a curb and drove the right trailer wheel right over the top. Luckily I was going under 10 miles an hour, but I could see in the rear view mirror the trailer hop about 4 or 5 inches. I stopped and checked everything again. Much to my surprise everything was just fine.
As you might have guessed, I don't pull trailers often. The drive home was a white knuckle experience for me. The highway was under heavy construction about 50% of the way. Lanes were narrowed with 4' tall concrete barriers just out side the lanes. The trailer was extra wide because it was a drop-bed-trailer. I was driving in the slow lane on the right because I was not going to do 75 MPH with that trailer. Every time I checked my left mirror I had the left wheel of the trailer just over the stripe into the other lane. People in the fast lane were usually patient and just waited until the road widened and I could get over enough for them to pass.
The trailer was not "squirrly". It tracked behind the truck well. The only time it would start to sway was coasting down a long incline, it would start pushing the truck. All I had to do was give a little gas and it was fine.
Once I got to Dallas ... multiple highways crisscross with merging lanes, short entrance and exit ramps etc. It was a very exciting time. I tested the anti-lock breaks on my truck only once.
I got home about 8PM. I parked the trailer out on the street came inside drank a couple of beers and went to bed. I was a tired puppy.
I live alone and didn't have anyone who wanted to help unload my trophy. I had to get this hunk of metal off the trailer by myself. I got up about 6AM so that I could put the trailer down the alley and back it into my drive way. I knew this was going to several attempts so I didn't want to block the alley during early church rush. It turned out to be pretty quick to back the trailer up to the garage.
A nice thing about the drop down bed of the trailer is I was able to lower the deck enough that I could backup to within 3 feet of the final resting spot for the mill. I dropped the deck all the way down. Due to the slope of my drive way, the lip of the trailer was about 2 inches in the air. This would have been a show stopper. I unhooked the trailer from the truck. Using the jack on the tongue of the trailer to raise the tongue up as high as possible. This pivoted the lip down to about 1/4 of an inch above the floor. Whew, dodged a bullet.
Now is when I realized I had bolted the 4x4's to the base wrong. I should have bolted the 8' posts running front back directly to the base. That way I could use the pipes underneath to just roll the mill off the trailer. I could have bolted the 6' side to side posts on top of the front-to-back and added feet to the 6' posts.
I used a floor jack to raise the mill up and put the roll around platform under the side to side posts. I left all the posts still attached to act as outriggers for safety.
There was a slight slope to the trailer towards the end of the bed. The last 16 inches of the bed were a ramp down to the floor. It had another 5-10 degrees of slope. I did not want the mill with the outriggers to get away from me and punch a hole in a wall or worse. I put a tie down strap around the motor on top to the front left D ring, 2nd tie down around motor to the front right D ring, 3rd tie down around the base of the mill to the center post on the front of the trailer. I left a little slack in each and pushed on the mill. Didn't move a bit. I mean not a bit, dead still. I check all the straps had slack. Then i looked at the casters on the platform. They had all the weight of the mill focused on 4 spots. The floor under the casters was sagging. I took a 5 foot length of pipe and used it for a lever under the back of mill. I was able to move the mill about 1/2 to 3/4 of inch each time. I would loosen the tie downs each time. Even going down the ramp on to the garage floor took the pipe prying to move the mill. I got the mill on to the garage floor. Yes! nothing broken, no one broken, and within 8 inches of its final resting place.
Now I took off the 8 foot out riggers but I still have the 6 foot outriggers between the roll-around platform and the mill.
At this point I pulled the trailer out of the garage, pushed all my tools into the garage so I could close the door and went inside. Every muscle was tired. It had been physical and stressful moving that chunk of metal. I took a nap.
Tomorrow, I return the trailer. I'll get the mill off the side-to-side outriggers. I'm going to be repainting the mill so I will leave it on the roll-around platform until that is done, maybe longer.
I've got a few pictures on my phone, but I left the data cable at work. I'll post them tomorrow.
Evan R.
P.S. You guys who put these things in your basements have my respect. I don't know if I could have gotten this down a set of stairs...
I'm calculating what it cost me to move this machine 180 miles. Because, if I ever have to move it again, I want justification to pay someone else to do it.
Rented a 6 x 10 foot "drop bed trailer" with a load capacity of 4800 pounds. $86
6 4" x 4" x 8' wood posts 6@$6 = $36
10' 1/2 threaded rod with enough nuts and washers to make 14 nine inch bolts. $21
4 10,000 lbs ratchet tie downs 4@12.00 = $48
3 9' x 7' plastic tarps 3@$4.00 = $12.00
1 Roll of cheap duct tape $4.00
1 Tank of gas = $80.00
Total = $287. Darn. I don't think a professional rigger could move this machine 180 miles for $287.
I left my house at 6AM Saturday morning. Went to SunBelt rentals and picked up the trailer. I was on the road by 7:30.
Drove to Temple and saw there was the State-wide Antique Tractor and Engine competition just off the highway about 4 miles. As I was 3 hours early for meeting the seller, I went to the show. That's a whole story in itself, but it was great. It happens the first weekend of October every year. I've already got it on my calendar for next year. While walking around drooling over all these beautifully restored tractors and engines, someone taps me on the shoulder. It was the seller of the mill. How he picked me out of a crowd of 2-3 thousand people, I'll never know. Anyway he told me to call him when I was ready to pick up the mill and he'd ride with me to his house. After walking around for 3 hours (could have stayed another 10) and a sausage on a stick, I called him and we on our way.
I purchased two mills. One is a round column Enco. It weighs probably about 600-800 pounds. We centered the table and lowered the head a low as possible. We loaded it on the trailer near the front. It was tied off to the railing. It wasn't going any where so we moved on to the Van Norman 12.
The seller had the machine on a roll-around platform. We rolled the machine under the overhead lift. We wrapped a lift strap around the column and placed the loops on the hook. We lifted the machine free from the platform.
I cut two posts to 6 foot, the width of the trailer. I bolted the posts through the bolt hole on the base parallel to the milling table. This is how the mill was stabilized left to right. It also prevented the mill from sliding left to right.
On the top side of the left and right ends of the 6 foot posts, I bolted on an 8 foot post perpendicular to the 6 footers. At the ends of each 8 footer I screwed a piece of scrap 4x4 to act as a foot. These 8 footers acted as a forward/backward stabilizer. It was like the mill was bolted in the center of an 8' by 6' rectangle. This would make rolling the mill over difficult.
We attempted to raise the mill and the post platform high enough to allow the trailer to be backed under. The lifting harness kept stretching and we were about 2-3 inches to low. We repositioned the lifting harness 4 or 5 times and still had the same issue. Finally we decided to wrap the lifting harness around the column, then thread a chain between the lifting harness and the column then put the chain over the hook of the wench. This allowed the harness to protect the ram's dove tails, but got rid of most of the vertical stretching. We were still about 1/2 inch too low. About this time, I remembered it was a drop-bed-trailer. So I lowered the bed about 8 inches and backed the trailer under with no problem. We lowered the mill on to the bed.
I took out the tarps and wrapped the mill. I used the cheap duct tape to hold the tarps in place. I just kept going around and around the mill, around the table, around the knee handle. etc. It was fast and pretty secure. It worked well.
The trailer had six heavy duty D rings, three on each side. I took one of the tie down straps and hooked on the middle tie ring on the left, to the top of mill, around the motor, down through the D ring on the right, back over the top, and down to the left D ring. I ratcheted it down tight. I did a 2nd tie down from front left to rear right, again wrapping around the motor. The last one was front right to rear left.
The mill was very steady. I was pretty confident it was not going to fall over or slide off the trailer.
The trailer raised back up without any issue at all. It has a 12 volt hydraulic system that works like a charm.
So I was off back to Dallas. I drive a Nissan Titan with a V8 and towing package. The trailer with the mills was probably somewhere near the maximum this truck should tow.
I drove to the next little town and stopped for a drink and to check the tie downs were still tight. I tighten them a little more, not sure it was really needed. On the way out of the parking lot, I totally missed a curb and drove the right trailer wheel right over the top. Luckily I was going under 10 miles an hour, but I could see in the rear view mirror the trailer hop about 4 or 5 inches. I stopped and checked everything again. Much to my surprise everything was just fine.
As you might have guessed, I don't pull trailers often. The drive home was a white knuckle experience for me. The highway was under heavy construction about 50% of the way. Lanes were narrowed with 4' tall concrete barriers just out side the lanes. The trailer was extra wide because it was a drop-bed-trailer. I was driving in the slow lane on the right because I was not going to do 75 MPH with that trailer. Every time I checked my left mirror I had the left wheel of the trailer just over the stripe into the other lane. People in the fast lane were usually patient and just waited until the road widened and I could get over enough for them to pass.
The trailer was not "squirrly". It tracked behind the truck well. The only time it would start to sway was coasting down a long incline, it would start pushing the truck. All I had to do was give a little gas and it was fine.
Once I got to Dallas ... multiple highways crisscross with merging lanes, short entrance and exit ramps etc. It was a very exciting time. I tested the anti-lock breaks on my truck only once.
I got home about 8PM. I parked the trailer out on the street came inside drank a couple of beers and went to bed. I was a tired puppy.
I live alone and didn't have anyone who wanted to help unload my trophy. I had to get this hunk of metal off the trailer by myself. I got up about 6AM so that I could put the trailer down the alley and back it into my drive way. I knew this was going to several attempts so I didn't want to block the alley during early church rush. It turned out to be pretty quick to back the trailer up to the garage.
A nice thing about the drop down bed of the trailer is I was able to lower the deck enough that I could backup to within 3 feet of the final resting spot for the mill. I dropped the deck all the way down. Due to the slope of my drive way, the lip of the trailer was about 2 inches in the air. This would have been a show stopper. I unhooked the trailer from the truck. Using the jack on the tongue of the trailer to raise the tongue up as high as possible. This pivoted the lip down to about 1/4 of an inch above the floor. Whew, dodged a bullet.
Now is when I realized I had bolted the 4x4's to the base wrong. I should have bolted the 8' posts running front back directly to the base. That way I could use the pipes underneath to just roll the mill off the trailer. I could have bolted the 6' side to side posts on top of the front-to-back and added feet to the 6' posts.
I used a floor jack to raise the mill up and put the roll around platform under the side to side posts. I left all the posts still attached to act as outriggers for safety.
There was a slight slope to the trailer towards the end of the bed. The last 16 inches of the bed were a ramp down to the floor. It had another 5-10 degrees of slope. I did not want the mill with the outriggers to get away from me and punch a hole in a wall or worse. I put a tie down strap around the motor on top to the front left D ring, 2nd tie down around motor to the front right D ring, 3rd tie down around the base of the mill to the center post on the front of the trailer. I left a little slack in each and pushed on the mill. Didn't move a bit. I mean not a bit, dead still. I check all the straps had slack. Then i looked at the casters on the platform. They had all the weight of the mill focused on 4 spots. The floor under the casters was sagging. I took a 5 foot length of pipe and used it for a lever under the back of mill. I was able to move the mill about 1/2 to 3/4 of inch each time. I would loosen the tie downs each time. Even going down the ramp on to the garage floor took the pipe prying to move the mill. I got the mill on to the garage floor. Yes! nothing broken, no one broken, and within 8 inches of its final resting place.
Now I took off the 8 foot out riggers but I still have the 6 foot outriggers between the roll-around platform and the mill.
At this point I pulled the trailer out of the garage, pushed all my tools into the garage so I could close the door and went inside. Every muscle was tired. It had been physical and stressful moving that chunk of metal. I took a nap.
Tomorrow, I return the trailer. I'll get the mill off the side-to-side outriggers. I'm going to be repainting the mill so I will leave it on the roll-around platform until that is done, maybe longer.
I've got a few pictures on my phone, but I left the data cable at work. I'll post them tomorrow.
Evan R.
P.S. You guys who put these things in your basements have my respect. I don't know if I could have gotten this down a set of stairs...
