Have you had heavy machinery shipped and delivered? How did it go?

[HMF]

Hey Guys,

Here is a subject I haven't seen before.

You are considering buying a new lathe or mill, but it is too far to pick up. You need it delivered, but have never had anything that large delivered via truck shipment before. Maybe you live in a somewhat rural area and have a very long and narrow driveway, the parking area isn't large, so anything much larger than a UPS truck may balk at heading down the driveway.

How are these things delivered? full size tractor-trailer? smaller delivery truck? lift gates or no? anything goes?

Please share your experiences with this.

Thanks,


Nelson

 

[wawoodman]

I've used almost every method. All these machines were crated and shipped by Plaza Machinery:

Delta 17" drill press, to Baltimore, 350#: Delivered by truck. Driver and I slid it to the ground, handtruck to shop. That was as far as he went. Helper and I got it into shop. $250 for shipping, but that was about 15 years ago. (Age 43)

SB 10K on full stand, to Seattle, 600+#: Delivered to terminal. I took lift gate truck and picked it up. Pallet jack and helper to get into shop (garage door access.) $450 for shipping, plus another 150 or so for truck rental, plus a day of my time. (Age 57)

Rockwell mill to Seattle, 800#: Delivered to transfer company. They brought it to shop, uncrated, and used fork lift and straps to get it into shop, rolled on pipe to position. $650 for shipping and insurance, $650 for riggers. (Age 62, heart attack last year. I stood and watched!)

I would certainly ask Nelson's questions, before I committed to a buy! But there are lots of options.

 

[trg-s338]

I've had a Monarch 10EE lathe delivered from NY to CA and that went quite well although the delivery guy did not have a for lift when he arrived to my house. From the lift gate, he and I had to muscle the palletized lathe into my sideyard using a manual pallet jack. Cost me $1000.00

I also bought my Brown & Sharp vertical mill from an industrial city 25 miles from me and a machinery truck delivered it using a giant fork lift and that seemed pretty basic in the ease of handling. Cost me $500.00

In both cases, the purchase price of each item was very low so it balanced the cost of delivery.

 

[HMF]

Ok I will answer my own question (better than laughing at my own joke I suppose).

I have used Uship.com a few times with mixed results.

The last time, I had the Van Norman #12 delivered from Philadelphia to NYC for $275 with lift gate. It was on a pallet. The pickup had a loading dock, it had to be delivered to my driveway. Weight is 1800. The driver, who was alone, parked downhill of the driveway, and couldn't get the mill uphill and onto the liftgate with the palletjack. The palletjack had to be manuevered sideways. I helped him push the mill to the liftgate, and manuever it sideways. Then it couldnt be lowered on the liftgate due to the pallet being too wide. I went in, came out with my sawzall and cut it. Then I had to hold the mill while he lowered the palletjack. The mill bounced on the liftgate, but didn't tip over, thankfully. We then lowered it onto the street. Couldn't get it over the curb due to a street defect, so I grabbed some plywood, covered the defect, and we rolled it into the back yard. It was 45 minutes of sheer hell.

The prior Van Norman #12 came on a flatbed trailer. I helped the guy unload it to my driveway with pipe and my engine crane. Went well, cost me $300.

I also had the Southbend Heavy10 and Burke #4 delivered by guys I found on Uship.com.

If you want cheap, be prepared to help unload the machine. Otherwise, you will pay for a more experienced and prepared driver.

Best,

Nelson

 

[woodguy]

I've had a lot of stuff delivered, all of it by local courier. All went well except for one experience I had with my 8 inch Jointer (400 pounds). I specified a truck with a lift gate. I didn't specify that the lift gate had to work........

Good thing I have a tractor with forks for the loader. Since then I have always told the supplier to check that the truck they send had a WORKING lift gate. Apparently some operators can go for months delivering loading dock to loading dock and never use the gate.

I got by with my little front end loader with the jointer delivery but the 20 in planer which weighs 900 pounds would have been a non-starter.

 

[Frank Ford]

Had my lathe and mill delivered to rigger, about 25 miles away. Rigger brought and uncrated the stuff, and waltzed a forklift down a crowded 100 ft. driveway with ease and no problem whatever. Placed both machines right in position. Those guys really know their stuff, and saved me all kinds of headache, backache and angst.

 

[Highpower]

When I bought my mill I got free shipping but had to pay $60 for the liftgate fee. The day of the delivery, the driver parked the 40 foot semi trailer out in front of the house, on the street. The first thing I noticed was the lack of a lift gate. >

Driver asked me if I had a fork lift? (1700 lbs. sitting on a pallet, and wrapped in plastic.)
"Uh, no...... I paid for a liftgate delivery. " ???

So he calls his dispatcher on his cell phone. Dispatcher says they will call him back. 30 minutes later a wrecker shows up. Wrecker driver wants to know how he is going to get paid for extracting the mill from the semi. Semi driver says he got authorization to write him a check from the trucking company. Wrecker driver calls HIS dispatcher. They say they can't take the check from the trucking company. Semi driver calls his dispatcher back again. This goes back and forth for another 30 minutes.....

FINALLY the wrecker driver says OK, and wants to wrap a chain around the table and column.
"Uh, no..... I'll go grab some lift straps and rig it myself."

He then lifts it off of the trailer, and pulls the wrecker forward a couple of feet and stops. He got back out of the truck and proceeded to set the mill down in the middle of the street.

"Uh...... Would it be too much to ask, to have you set that down in my driveway right here instead of the middle of a busy street?" :
He was nice enough to back the mill to the rear of the house before setting it down in the driveway. Then he collected the check from the other driver, and I stuffed a 20 in his shirt pocket and thanked him for his help. (The original plan was to give the bill to the semi driver to let me use his pallet jack. heh-heh-heh)

After all that, I got to start taking the mill apart in my driveway, and carrying all the pieces down the back steps into my basement. By myself. Alone. With no help. Nadda. Zero. Zilch..... ;D

 

[Highpower]

I only have one true friend that can be trusted, and he was working at the time so was unavailable.

The rest of them are nothing but moochers who want something for nothing, or pull bone-headed moves that just about get me killed.
One knocked a half-ton safe over on me while moving it. He decided to take a running start at it without warning to get the dolly unstuck from a rut it was in.
Guess who was behind the dolly? Nope, no more "friends" for me. ;D

Oh yeah - one daughter with a Masters in computer science. No interest in helping me move machinery though.... :

 

[HMF]

Geez, ya'all have good kids. I have two 13's and a 15 year old who wouldn't help me even if a Justin Bieber concert was in it for them.

I'm 52 and not a small guy, but the last move of the Van Norman I posted above left my heart in my mouth. Imagine an 1800 pound mill swaying on a pallet on a liftgate while the skinny driver lowered the pallet jack and yours truly used my 260 pound bulk to try to hold it from falling about 5 feet onto the street.

This was the second attempt to get it delivered from Philly. The first guy I got on Uship.com did not have a way to get it down to his trailer from the loading dock, insisted on trying anyway, and expected me to pay him $200 for his time when he could not do it. The second guy, the liftgate on the truck was not working. (They want to charge about $150 extra for a liftgate, and it often isn't working- ask first BEFORE you retain them!).

After the move and disassembly, I brought the table and knee into my shed, put the ram, column and base under a tarp, and brought the "smaller parts" (like the 110 pound motor) down to my basement:

 

[bollie7]

I've read these kind of threads on various boards before and I still can't get my head around the fact that you blokes in the US don't seem to have many self loading trucks (crane trucks). By that I mean a truck with a hi-ab or similar crane attached. Here in Aus they are quite numerous. When I moved houses 2 years ago I hired one to move my mill. I got the mill out the door of the shed on rollers, truck driver backed up to the front of the shed, picked the mill up and straight onto the truck. 10 minutes from the time he got out of the cab till he was back in it ready to roll. The move was only about 10 klms and it did have good truck access at each end, which was lucky as the truck that turned up was a boogie drive , twin steer that would carry about 15 ton. ( bit of overkill for my Bridgeport clone) At the other end, the same deal, about 5 mins and the mill was on the ground in front of the shed door. Cost me $100. best $100 I've spent.
Speaking of Hi-abs, a mate of mine who is in the earthmoving business was telling me recently of a new hi-ab he had seen. It had a reach of 26 metres and at that could still lift 200Kg. Now thats a crane truck. lol
bollie7