I have to move a 30X30 shop that contains a metric shit ton of tools. Mills, lathe, welders, presses, engines, trannies, tables, etc. The problem is, the NEW shop is being built and I have to be out of the old shop before the new one will be built, so I need to store my junk for about a month in between.

I was thinking of getting a 40 ft container on a chassis delivered to the current place, loading up the container with all my junk (I have a backhoe with forks which would make moving shit easy), and getting it trucked to the new place and having the shipping can unloaded onto the ground. I know the chassis rental fees are cheap, the trucking is cheap, but the crane fees would suck ass for getting it off the chassis at the other end. I could use the can at the other end for storage.

Any bright ideas? I could just rent space somewhere, but that means moving everything there, and then onto the next place. I figure this way I only have to load/unload once, but it would be a big deal chaining everything down. The other idea is to buy a big flatdeck and just leave everything on it, but it's all going to rust to heck.

What about a few PODS to do it. The truck that picks it up and delivers has a built in crane system for loading/unloading. May be $$$$ though.

Around here you can rent 53' boxed semi trailers for about $300 a month, maybe just get a couple of those.

Container.

Fill.
Haul to new location.
Store until new shop is done.
Unload.
Return.

Done.

I would see tying down the equipment for safe travel as the biggest obstacle. If possible I would have the shipping container staged at the new location and bring things over and load it with your car hauler a couple of pieces at a time.

I would see tying down the equipment for safe travel as the biggest obstacle. If possible I would have the shipping container staged at the new location and bring things over and load it with your car hauler a couple of pieces at a time.

Or that.

It would just suck to move the fork lift / tractor with you each time to unload easily...

Ever tried to pull a backhoe into a shipping container? Its not easy, or fun

What about a few PODS to do it. The truck that picks it up and delivers has a built in crane system for loading/unloading. May be $$$$ though.

Ever been in a POD? They're made of a steel frame and skinned aluminum panels. Not something I'd be trying to move lathes, mills, and such in. When recently moving friends that used PODS I was a little unsure of how their antique furniture was going to fare with the flex in that thing. Fortunately, things came through unscathed, but I made sure they used extra padding around things.

I'd go with renting the van bodied trailers. As you say, loading and unloading the containers from the chassis is going to get spendy for the weight that you are talking and more chance for things to tip over if done improperly.

By my way of thinking you could crib up the shipping container when it is delivered so it was at a height just below your trailer deck. Rent, or make a ramp to go from the trailer to the shipping container. Heavy machinery will roll/slide surprisingly easy on pieces of water pipe. You could also mount a winch in the far end of the shipping container to help drag stuff inside. With some creative thinking a pallet jack or two would probably prove useful to move stuff from the trailer to the shipping container along with a couple of Johnny bars.

Ever tried to pull a backhoe into a shipping container? Its not easy, or fun

That was my thought too. Seems to me this is the reason they invented forklifts w "free lift" or dual stage.

Anyhow I assumed he was just gonna use the backhoe to get the machines just inside the container, then roll/manhandle/winch from there.

i know of several companies that have "roll-off" trailers for shipping containers. they winch the full containers onto this tilting/roller floor flatbed trailer. No crane, container on the ground for loading/unloading.

You can likely buy a 48/53' dry van for the same price or less than a 40' sea-can and not have to deal with chassis rental or removing a sea-can from a chassis.

We use them for storage on construction sites. they deliver them on a special flatbed with rollers that allows them to be rolled on and off similar to how they do large dumpsters. Iv'e seen them pick them up with them pretty heavy...not full of lathes and mills heavy but pretty heavy. Just better have anything top heavy or on rollers secure...they do tilt a little bit when they load and unload them.

We use them for storage on construction sites. they deliver them on a special flatbed with rollers that allows them to be rolled on and off similar to how they do large dumpsters. Iv'e seen them pick them up with them pretty heavy...not full of lathes and mills heavy but pretty heavy. Just better have anything top heavy or on rollers secure...they do tilt a little bit when they load and unload them.

We use them all the time on our jobsites as well, typically called sea containers or conex boxes. I've NEVER been able to have one pulled with anything more than empty cardboard boxes in them though. They simply refuse and tell me to call them when it's empty :shaking:

i know of several companies that have "roll-off" trailers for shipping containers. they winch the full containers onto this tilting/roller floor flatbed trailer. No crane, container on the ground for loading/unloading.

We use them for storage on construction sites. they deliver them on a special flatbed with rollers that allows them to be rolled on and off similar to how they do large dumpsters. Iv'e seen them pick them up with them pretty heavy...not full of lathes and mills heavy but pretty heavy. Just better have anything top heavy or on rollers secure...they do tilt a little bit when they load and unload them.

We use them all the time on our jobsites as well, typically called sea containers or conex boxes. I've NEVER been able to have one pulled with anything more than empty cardboard boxes in them though. They simply refuse and tell me to call them when it's empty :shaking:

Yeah, I really don't think you want to do that with a load of mills, lathes, and other things you are worried about having tip over... Hence the crane to keep things level.

just a FYI on a pod max load is around 7k per pod. there floors are 3/4" plywood and are super weak. i moved my small shop in one and a bunch of stuff punched holes in the ground. and i didnt have anything heavy.

Is it in anyway possible to pay a little extra, which would probably still be cheaper, and kiss butt a little and stay where you are for the extra month and not have to move evrything twice? Just a thought.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

I thought about the PODs but they look like they would fold up like a tin can with the weight of my mill.

I found an outfit that will rent a 20 ft sea can for $120 a month, and charge 125 an hour for delivery and moving. That would run up quick but it's not bad. They will pick it up and move it when it's loaded (again, for 125 hour) with a tilt and load, but I'm concerned that everything is gonna get smashed if they tilt it and winch it. Van trailer would work, again, worried about tying the stuff down in a van trailer and everything getting smashed.

The debate at this point is between getting a van trailer on site, palletizing EVERYTHING, and disassembling the mill partially so it is more stable, and loading into van trailer with backhoe and rolling the skids around with a pallet jack, or making car hauler trips to a rented shipping can at the other end. I can load the pallets on the hauler with my hoe, and unload with a pallet jack (good call on raising the container so it is level with the car hauler :beer:).

The other problem is the driveway up to the house is pretty nasty. I would worry that the clowns would end up getting their truck stuck and charging me by the hour while they figure out how to drive. Although the car hauler idea is probably more work, it sounds like the one that is less likely of having major screwups.

And, no, I can't really leave my stuff in the current shop for another month. That is a LOONG story.

the "roll-off" trailers i have seen in action do not tip the container to anywhere near the angle that a roll-off dumpster truck does. construction companies use these containers all the time to store supplies and tools, and they move them full and have no issues with stuff falling all over the place.

I have a buddy that used to contract move 20 foot sea cans with his rollback. Option?

I used to drive a flatbed wrecker and haul all kinds of heavy stuff like that. That might be a good way to go? Put everything on a pallet, have your "friendly" neighborhood wrecker driver come over and winch and secure the pallets to the bed. The good thing about hauling that way would be it would be about deck height for a 53' van. Easy to unload from the wrecker. Probably depends on who you know with a flatbed hauler if that's viable at all.

What about buying a cheap, used u haul and when your done resell it? If you got a good deal you could probably buy it, use it for the month or two, and then resell it at the end for what you paid for it.

the "roll-off" trailers i have seen in action do not tip the container to anywhere near the angle that a roll-off dumpster truck does. construction companies use these containers all the time to store supplies and tools, and they move them full and have no issues with stuff falling all over the place.
The Trailers They use Generally are Landoll's.
Here's a video of one in use.

YouTube - U4217 2005 Landoll 435 Operation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jFHnqS1HhE)

We use them all the time on our jobsites as well, typically called sea containers or conex boxes. I've NEVER been able to have one pulled with anything more than empty cardboard boxes in them though. They simply refuse and tell me to call them when it's empty :shaking:


You must have shitty people then.
I'm a heavy Equipment operator , and thats how we store , and move everything.

We use them all the time on our jobsites as well, typically called sea containers or conex boxes. I've NEVER been able to have one pulled with anything more than empty cardboard boxes in them though. They simply refuse and tell me to call them when it's empty :shaking:

May need to look around a little then. One factor that might come into play is that we are pretty close to the port of New orleans as well as Gulfport. I think one result of that is a good number of them show up on the surplus market which causes pretty stiff competition among the folks that rent/sell them.

I had one moved a couple of weeks ago that had roughly 6000 or 7000 lbs or so worth of forming system parts in it.

Some options I have used in the past:

Bought a 22' Uhaul type truck with liftgate-used for poratable storage for 2 years-then sold truck and broke even.

Buy an already mobile (towing) construction office or trailer of gutted mobile home-the already have axles on them. Free or dirt cheap depending on where you look.

I woud personally buy which ever you choose so you are not forced into a timeframe for storage

We use them all the time on our jobsites as well, typically called sea containers or conex boxes. I've NEVER been able to have one pulled with anything more than empty cardboard boxes in them though. They simply refuse and tell me to call them when it's empty :shaking:

youve got assholes working for you then. someone setup to handle moving these containers should be able to winch them no problem. ive winched a 20ft container with 2 bobcats (machines, not animals) inside it up a wood-decked, heavy duty roll-back truck, which operates at a much steeper angle than that landoll in the video. no problem winching, and i was dragging the box, not rolling it on rollers

I am thinking easy way and gives you better control .

Buy 2 20' steel containers that gives you the option of welding in what ever tie downs and bracing you need to secure the bulky unbalanced items safely so nothing gets damaged . If secured the right way you can stand this thing on end and have very little movement.

Now a good 3 axle roll back could winch that container on no problem even if it was loaded to 40 or 50 thousand pounds .

This gives you 2 20' containers to keep for storage or sell again .

It gives you an idea I hope.:grinpimp:

One other option that may or may not be available or suitable: In the PNW we have containers called a 'Hawaii Rack' They are the floor and 4 corners of a container - after loading a heavy waterproof cover goes over it. This allows you to load with a crane or forklift from the top or sides.

So, I have a local outfit that rents shipping cans at $125 a month. They are literally 10 minutes from my current place. They charge $85 an hour for trucking with a rollback, and $125 with one of those fancy dancy tilt bed floats. They can drop off the empty can in about two hours, I figure four hours (at $125) to get it moved from one place to the other, and another two hours to pickup the empty can when it's empty. That's probably a grand by the time we're all done. I'm checking into the cost of renting a dry van, I figure it will be a lot cheaper. It's going to suck having to raise all my shit 4 feet to get it into the trailer though.

Did they give you the capacity they can handle? We've had 20' and 40'ers at work with some regularity. The 20' got dropped by a knuckle boom. If I remember right, the operator said it has a capacity of 50k lbs (at minimal extension, so heavy loads he needs to be able to pull right next to the can). The 40'ers came on a rollered tilt deck. That guy didn't give a shit what the hell went in the can--just make sure its not moving. =-)

Alex.

Id say sea container. There geting cheaper the market is saturated with them plus you can stack them and put trusses from your shop to the containers ans skin the outside to give you more shop space and alot more storage/office space they are very easy to modify.

dry vans blow for storage/moving unless you can get them at ground level. have fun loading aa milling machine with a backhoe 5 ft in the air. have fun climbing in and out of it 50000000 times. watch how much weight you can put in a given area of the floor. have fun worrying about the cheesy/weak e-track tie downs holding anything heavy against the (at best) plywood walls, or (at worst) just plastic/fiberglass/light aluminum. i'd still rent the sea can and work at ground level.

I am thinking easy way and gives you better control .

Buy 2 20' steel containers that gives you the option of welding in what ever tie downs and bracing you need to secure the bulky unbalanced items safely so nothing gets damaged . If secured the right way you can stand this thing on end and have very little movement.

Now a good 3 axle roll back could winch that container on no problem even if it was loaded to 40 or 50 thousand pounds .

This gives you 2 20' containers to keep for storage or sell again .

It gives you an idea I hope.:grinpimp:

50 k in a 20 ft container ? That is going to be a chore to move since it will be close to max for a non permit load.

The OP needs to calculate his actual weights and if he loads in a container, make sure the weight is evenly distributed.

It would probably be a better idea to just rent the existing space for an extra month and move the machines just once using the wrecker method.

Id say sea container. There geting cheaper the market is saturated with them plus you can stack them and put trusses from your shop to the containers ans skin the outside to give you more shop space and alot more storage/office space they are very easy to modify.

I am hoping they crater in value so I can buy 4 of them.

Mill 3000 lbs
Lathe 2000 lbs
Rollaway tool box 1000lbs
Welders 1000lbs
Bandsaw 1000lbs
misc 5000 lbs

Still pretty light. The cans are about 5K lbs so I'm a 18K lbs loaded.

A guy living in Ontario would not need to worry about c-can weight as far as axle weights until it starts hitting above 80k which is ~25k more than than you are going to find a 20' rated for.