As I mentioned (apparently twice) in my last thread, I got a call from the shipper on Wednesday. They had my dust collector and wanted to talk delivery. We live about 50 miles from the terminal (sorta rural, but not too far off of Interstate 80 in northern California). They had a few questions as the Thomas Brothers were not aware of our street (it's about 1 1/2 years old and private; a bad combination for delivery folks).
They mentioned $20 for restricted access and another $20 for the lift gate service. I asked the size of the truck and they said "big" as in a full size tractor trailer rig. While getting to and grom my driveway would be no big deal, getting from the driveway up to the house and shop (about 300 feet) was another thing altogether. The driveway was designed to handle a fire truck for turnaround (bobtail size), but not the big Tonka sized rig. The only option was for me to meet the driver somewhere ranging from the front of my driveway all the way to the terminal, itself with my trailer and have them load it so I could make the trip up the driveway and to the shop. To make what could otherwise be an even longer story than it already is short, I drove down the hill and picked the DC up at the terminal.
I have purchased at least my share of large heavy and relatively vulnerable pieces of hardware over the years and my success rate in the shipping damage department is probably about average. About one in three deliveries come in boxes that look like they couldn't travel another mile without failure. To be entirely accurate, I should point out that most of my past weary looking shipments actually revealed unscathed contents. Still, I really appreciate it when the manufacturer gives the tool a solid fighting chance to make it to to the destination without falling to it's knees.
As can be seen from the attached pictures, Grizzly knows how to prepare shipments. Of the three boxes, the largest (which has attached forklift skids) is the unit itself, the next largest is the filter and the smaller box contains the stand. One can only surmise that no small part of the shipping cost has to be for the "Fragile" stickers. They are everywhere and I'm going to guess that they helped out some as none of the boxes show any sign of shipping damage. In fact, they look like they must have looked when they left Taiwan. I am impressed.
Admittedly, I have not opened anything yet (to do so would place me on the brink of a very slippery slope of having to get several things done sooner rather than later in order to ensure that this thing gets set up once, and once only). But, from what I have seen so far and assuming that nothing is missing or broken inside those great looking boxes, I think Grizzly has passed the packaging/shipping phase with flying colors.
Tomorrow, my wife is off to do girl things pretty much all day so I will spend part of my time peeking inside and taking a few more pictures along the way. Stay tuned.
...Bob
Hmmm... I have received upload errors twice now.They seem to be in perpetual "progress". I'll try the pictures again later. Still didn't work.
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Originally Posted by Bob Borzelleri
