Moving a 600 Pound Jointer

[Scott Rychnovsky]

I have a similar issue--I would like to move an old heavy planer (600 lb) from its current home (1.5 hr away) to my garage. My vehicle is a minivan. I could always rent something, but the prices start to go up very fast with milage charges and all. I do have a foldable 2 ton engine crane. If I can fit it in the minivan, I will bring it and some tie-down straps. I thought to put together a plywood and 2X4 sled about the right size to make it easier.

My plan is to shift the planer onto the sled and strap it down. I would then use pipes to roll the sled to the car. Next, I plan to wrap heavy-duty straps around the sled and plane and lift it up about two feet. Then scary stuff happens and I get it into the minivan. The engine crane is folded up and stuffed back in the van. Everything is strapped down and off we go.

Once back home I would just reverse the steps.


Questions:

I thought the sled would make it less likely that I would damage the palmer. I envision a 3-foot by 2.5 foot piece of 3/4 inch plywood with two 2X4s screwed into the bottom.

I understand that you are not suppose to move a loaded engine crane. One possibility it to get is positioned behind the minivan, lift up the planer & sled, and then back the minivan "under" the load. Is this idea crazy? Would it make more sense to carefully push the engine crane forward three feet?

Any advice would be appreciated. I hope to survive the process.

Thank you.

Scott

[Erik Manchester]

I use an engine hoist to raise large heavy items in the shop as another poster has said, but for moving large items I use a small tandem axle tilt body trailer designed to transport ATVs.





The long ramp and tilt body enables me to use a come along or block and tackle for load and unload, and this trailer has moved several cabinet saws, large jointers and other heavy items with minimum fuss. Loading was always done with no more than two people and is much easier than lifting said items into truck bed.

Perhaps you have a friend with one that you can borrow? Before I had this trailer I had rented a truck with a lift-gate.

[Erik Manchester]

Scott,

Just a thought to consider, but I personally would not want 600 lbs of metal unsecured behind me in my van while I am driving at highway speed in case of a tire blowout or collision. My van has very few means to secure such a heavy object other than the seatbelts. I would look for a friend with a trailer or go rent a truck at U-Haul with a lift gate for a half day.

[Jim Andrew]

My back is bad, but I could move that jointer by myself if I could get my tilt bed trailer close to it. I pull the trailer behind my Ranger pickup, it is 5 wide and 9 long, single axle and if you pull the pin where the tongue and bed meet, it tilts down at the rear so you can load a lawn mower or a atv onto it. I'd just use my pry bar to get the end of the jointer up off the floor, use the pipes as previously posted, and a come along to winch the jointer onto the trailer. Once you get it far enough up onto the trailer, the trailer will go horizontal, and you put the pin back in and strap the jointer down securely so it can not turn over as you drive, or slide forward or back. Need about 3 straps. Then back it up to your shop and reverse the process.

[Scott Rychnovsky]

Thank you for the ideas. Erik, I was going to remove the middle seats on my Honda Odyssey and use winched straps to secure the planer to the seat mounts. They should provide a good restraining force to keep the planer off my rear if a tire goes out or I hit another car for instance. I am concerned, but I think these mounts will be solid enough to make it secure in all but the worst accidents.

Unfortunately, my vehicle does not have a trailer hitch. I may look for one next time I get a new vehicle. I agree that the small trailer solution looks very attractive and probably a lot easier for moving heavy stuff than my current approach. I could rent a vehicle with a trailer hitch, and then an trailer ... It gets expensive. The irritating thought that creeps into the back of my mind is that Grizzly will place a pallet of nice new toys in front of my garage for a nominal fee, and it would all be a lot simpler. Those craigslist deals are less enticing if I am paying $$ for local transport.

Scott

[Jason White]

Rent or buy an engine hoist for about $200 at Harbor Freight. Then you can just lift and swing that sucker right onto a U-Haul utility trailer. Did that with my DJ-20 a couple of years ago and it worked great! Didn't even need a second person to help me.

Hi,

I've just bought a used Powermatic PJ-882 jointer and I'm faced with the task of moving it about 15 miles. Jointer weight is about 600 pounds. I phoned Powermatic to find out the weight of the base and the top part. The Powermatic rep said that the base with motor was less than 100 pounds so breaking the thing into two pieces doesn't do much to lighten the load.

Here's my current thoughts:

Option 1, contact a shipping company to get a quote. I'm willing to pay a few hundred dollars to get it moved professionally, but I am a bit concerned that it could be damaged. There is no packing on the jointer now. But, I'll see what the shipping company has to say.

Option 2. I have a utility trailer that can handle this weight. But I suspect it would take 6 guys to do the loading/unloading on either end. Coordinating that many guys will be a challenge.

Option 3. The jointer is currently in a garage and there is a second garage about 40' away with an I beam and chain hoist that could easily handle 600 pounds. Unfortunately there is about 20' of grass between the two garages, but the ground is level. The jointer is currently on a pallet. If I could somehow move the jointer from garage to garage then it would be simple to lift it with the chain hoist, back the trailer under the jointer and set it down. On the other end, I could rig up another hoist to some very beefy rafters in my garage after putting up some temporary vertical support posts under the rafters. The biggest challenge with this option seems to be getting it from garage to garage at the current site across 20' of grass. I'm thinking about putting down 3 pieces of 3/4" plywood, end to end, to make a path. Then jack up the pallet and put some 3/4" steel pipe underneath to act as rollers. Then try rolling it out the first garage, over the plywood "path", into the new garage, to underneath the chain hoist. My first question to the group is "Am I crazy to even consider this"?

Aside from that first question, what suggestions does the membership have for tackling this problem?

Thanks,

Bob

[jeff shanz]

https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/items/1413

I was going to rent one of these...has an electronic liftgate on the back.
In my area they want $43 for 4 hours.