Projects Moving tips! Need solid suggestions!

Well, the die is cast. We’re selling our home and property in the TN mountains and moving closer to family in middle TN.
We’re getting to the ages where it’s becoming harder every year to maintain it all.

If you have ever moved three cars and a 1500 sq. ft. Shop with heavy equipment and lots of parts, including a four post lift, please share what worked, or didn’t. The mover can move the shop equipment, but I dread getting the estimate.

So, if you have ever moved like this, what worked best for you?

I can trailer the cars easy enough, but having moved all this stuff over here was a chore..
And I was 16 years younger and stronger!

Thanks!

 

At age 50 I moved several truck loads two hours away.
The one best thing I can tell you is plan to take your time.
No rush no fuss, some day it will all be all done.
Outside help is great but don't let the pressure into your life.
Best wishes on new neighbors

 

I’ve no idea exactly how old you are but don’t put saving a few bucks over your health.
No point if in having all this stuff if you can’t work on it or drive it!!

Maybe work with your buyer to agree an extended time scale for workshop movement?

 

Figure out what you need when your to the new place.
If you’ll be $$ ahead after the transaction, consider selling the big, hard to move items, like your lift.
Then replace the items when you get settled.
If you need to hire riggers to move those big items and place them, factor in that cost for a replacement.
Good luck to you on the new place!

 

My last move of 20 years ago forced me to downsize as the new garage was half the size. Evaluate what you currently have and what of that can go. As previously stated, sell those items before you start packing.

 

Beer and pizza are pretty good capital. I moved a shop 3 times. Heavy equipment was a 4' stomp shear, 5' break and 38" slip roll. Also included was a 10hp 2 tank compressor, heavy work bench, and untold boxes of parts on 5 heavy duty metal shelves and 2 heavy metal cabinets. Of course tool boxes, pedestal grinders, shop crane/cherry picker (loaded last, unloaded 1st, go figure). I had 3pals at various times after nearly 2 weeks of sorting, scrapping and boxing. It sux. I would have experienced folks move the lift. Nobody will recognize, handle nor sort the stuff the way you need it. Keep that in mind. Did I say it sux? It does. Like walking a treadmill in the snow uphill both ways

Yup, beer n pizza works on the right folks. Surely you don't live this car life alone. You might also have stuff you haven't seen in years let alone will never need. That too makes for good capital. I'm just throwing out brain food. Moving sux. Did I say that already?

 

Having only 3 cars to move is a bonus. When we moved in 2000, we moved 99 outfits ranging from a bug to 5 Diamond Ts.
20 or so were given to the help or to friends who loaned trailers & pickups. We gassed up everyone's rig & fed the help at the truck stop every night. Best day, moved 13 cars & pickups
Your friends will be your biggest asset.

 

I have no answers, but I feel your pain. I've been in my existing home for 41 years and don't have a huge shop like yourself. That said, I have accumulated far too much "stuff" including 6 vehicles, a motorcycle and two lawn tractors and that's just the "wheeled" things. I don't look forward to having to ever move this junk, but it may come to that. I wish you much good luck. Call in any favors from friends and Family to at least move car and truck loads of things. Let the pros move the heavy stuff. Have a yard sale before the move if you feel like there are things you really don't need and don't want to move. At least it is an intra-state move and not halfway across the country although Tennessee is a long state with two time zones!

 

When we retired 11 years ago, we moved 1500 miles...bought a Ford E450 cube van with a 18' box and a diesel. It took 7 trips pulling a loaded car trailer and full cube van box one way and an empty box and trailer back. The diesel didn't care. The front 4 feet of the cube box were "camperized" with a fridge, counter and sink with water tanks, porto-potty and a bunk (with windows for cross flow air and a roof vent). When we were done, sold the van for more than I was into it. I'm not sure I'd have the energy to do that again...so I feel for you.

Oh yeah...along with buying themoving truck, I also bought an old Hyster forklift...I still have it.

 

Get realistic on what you will really use in the future, as well as how much you have productive time to do and use
this as a reason to sell what you dont have to have. Think of what you will leave your heirs, make their life easy too.

 

This may seem like an attempt to hijack your thread, but trust me, it's not. Having moved 22 times in 57 years of marriage, I've got a pretty good insight on what you're facing. After Tricky Dick Nixon knocked a half million aircraft workers out of their jobs in '70 - '71 in California, I packed the wife, 6 kids including a newborn and one cat into a '65 Galaxie and headed for Indiana. The Galaxie was pulling a 16-foot U-Haul single axle trailer with all the household stuff that my wife insisted she had to have that could have been replaced anywhere while a garage full of Y-block and FE engines, parts for those and various assorted HD Knucklehead and Panhead engines, transmissions, frames and NIB HD parts got left behind. At the time, those items were selling really cheap in CA. Soon after I got to Indiana, I found out that all the Y-block stuff was pretty valuable there.

After a few more moves between IN, MI, OH, NM, back to MI and finally TN where we moved 3 more times, I think I'm done moving. In all the moves between CA and Michigan, I did all the moving myself, sometimes with the help of our growing boys and friends. Somewhere during all this time, I came to realize that the more stuff I acquired, the harder it was going to be to get rid of it and then replace it later. A lot of stuff got left behind and if I came to need something, I would buy another one. The move from MI to TN was the first one I made where I didn't have to pack, load and unload the trailer. The company I worked for paid for it. It sounds too good to be true, and it was. I was moving a pole barn full of tools, welding machines, new 24' long square tubing in an assortment of sizes. The movers unloaded the house stuff, but all the tools and stuff I had that was going in the garage wound up under tarps in the driveway until I could figure out where everything was going to have to go. I finally found out what was essential and what wasn't.

Then we had a family problem and wound up with 3 teenagers in our 2-bedroom 1 bath house. To solve the problem, moved to a larger house, 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths with all the room we needed for people, just nowhere for my stuff. For that move, we used 2 Men and a Truck. Those guys were great, they packed, loaded, unpacked, nothing got broken and it was far less expensive that hiring one of the big-name moving companies. After a few years, all the grandchildren were out of the house, and we moved to a smaller house with a 2-car attached garage and a 2 1/2 car garage. Again, we used 2 Men and a Truck and again nothing got lost or broken. You might want to get an estimate from them. They don't move other families' belongings in the same trailer as yours like some of the well-known movers are prone to do. I understand that the more the bigger companies can cram into a trailer, the more money they make. I just don't like the idea of another family's cooties getting mixed up with ours.

Not knowing what heavy and awkward stuff you're going to want to move from your shop, you might want to consider @Budget36 's suggestion about getting someone in that is familiar with moving heavy tools and equipment. They will have the equipment and expertise to do the job. My mind knows how to do it, but unfortunately for me, at soon to be 81, my body will not allow me that privilege.

This may not help but trust me when I say I know what you're facing, and I don't envy you one damn bit. Good luck to you.

 

Ask about licenses, insurance and bonding, some of those "fly by night" type movers can f#@k up a bag of marshmallows.

 

almost 20 yrs ago we sold our old house and bought a new to us house, the problem in our case was move out days the people we bought our house off of had 30 days to get out because the house they bought the people had 30 days to get out, and we had 30 days to get out of hours, needless to say, we were limited to 2 days to get our stuff out of our old house and into our new house. Along with the house contents we had to move the contents of my 1.5 car drive-in basement/garage/workshop. My point is it's very hard to fathom how much belongings you can store in a small area much less a big area. Hopefully you will have much more time to move in . Try to start with the big equipment /work benches cabinets first.

(when my parents moved from California to Kentucky 33 years ago one Ryder truck was for the House contents, the second Ryder was for the garage contents.)

 

^^^^Great advice @alanp561 ^^^^

 

Regarding the shop equipment,
narrow down to the bare necessities
and sell or give away the rest.

Regarding the vehicles,
drive them if they will make the trip.
Trailer them yourself or have a friend
trailer them for you or rent the necessary
equipment and do it yourself.

“ Do it yourself “ is an analogy
for having friends and family
help you out, time to call in favors.

Jim

 

We moved about 5 years ago, but only a few miles away. It was a great excuse to get rid of a LOT of stuff. A local auction company sold what we didn't take with us, which filled up both big garages.

 

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! It’s a heavy lift, figuratively and literally.

Anybody ever use PODS?

 

My kid used PODS when he moved from Mountain View, CA to Oakdale, MN when he bought a new house and then a year later he used them to move back to San Francisco.
Both moves, PODS dropped them off, picked them up, and delivered them on the scheduled days. No damage to anything.

 

Last year my move from Minnesota to Kansas was 27 trips, 600 miles each way, in 29 weeks. Put 30k on my poor old truck and 21' deckover trailer. About 150 in diesel fuel each way. Totally stupid, coulda hired a big truck for less. Then, all the junk don't fit in my one 42x48 barn, crates of stuff all over the yard. Still not put away, and can't find anything when looking. It will be years until I have a nice insulated shop again, could be dead before that. So, don't do it my way!

 

ABF freight will drop off a semi trailer with a loading ramp for you to load. They will then pick it up and drop it off at your new home. Not sure how long you'll have to load/unload it. Never used them but I see their trailers several times a month with people loading/unloading them.

 

Friend of mine moved a 30ksqf shop recently
But he does own a couple rollbacks.

I emptied out a collision class a couple years ago when it closed and we got the leftovers.

friends with good backs and trailers.
Buy some pizza and beverages.

It’s Tennessee. Surly someone you know has a tractor with a fork lift attachment

crap I’ve moved frame machines, paint booths, lifts, and truck loads of tools.
It’s just work.
Lifting and rolling equipment is a must.

 

Small piece of advice I've learned. When moving by yourself or with limited help an engine hoist is your best friend. I was able to move & assemble a 4 post with 1 helper & a hoist. Same w a 2 post lift. Tire machine, balancer, blast cabinet, engine blocks ect .. All unloaded myself with the hoist and some rigging straps from HF. Those 4 wheel piano dollies they sell are great for an extra set of hands too. Also allows you to move shit around easily while you figure out final placement of your stuff.
Hope that helps a little. We've got a move in the not to distant future. I'm already in the process of getting rid of "unnecessary" stuff. Good luck with your endeavor.

 

I moved to my current house 20yrs ago, what we did that worked well was use those container rental/movers. They drop it off, you call them when you are done loading, and they pick up and store until you tell them to bring to the new address. We moved all the house stuff like "normal" people? LOL. Then all the car/shop/garage stuff went in the container. We moved all the house/personal stuff first, then when we were settled in, I did all the car stuff after, and took my time, wasn't rushed by house/wife stuff!

 

Regarding pod and other container rentals,
be sure you speak to someone actually
familiar with your pick up and drop
off locations to be sure containers
can actually be delivered and picked up
and dropped off without issues.

Jim

 

More good advice! Thanks guys!
I lost track of the number of loads I made from Memphis to here (400 mi one way) back in 2009.
Made sides for my car trailer and loaded and unloaded with my engine hoist
I was making two round trips a week. Brutal!!

 

Don't know how old you are but depending on your age, your options narrow. I'm 81 and I know I will never build another rod. I now also have realized that I will never have a use for 99% of my tools and equipment. At this point I'm about to the point of giving away or trying to sell nearly all of it. This happens when someone gets really old. Think it through.

 

My wife & I moved from upstate New York 800 miles to southern Kentucky, 6 years ago, when I was 74. I had undergone cancer treatment & 4 major operations in the previous 10 years, so moving 40 years of accumulations, a 1600 sq. foot shop and all my equipment, including a car lift and 1800 lb. lathe was difficult.

We had purchased a home, but had to have a shop built, so I stored my cars and shop equipment for 9 months, before I could move into the new shop. I knew no one here, so my wife & I had to move everything from storage and info the shop ourselves - stupidest thing I've ever done. Couldn't hire help because of Covid.

I would never do any of that at my age. Move while your young & healthy. Don't do things in a hurry. Mark your moving boxes well. Really think a lot about what you're moving - I brought everything, which was, in retrospect, insanity!

 

I've moved 4-post lifts twice with a deck-over trailer. Raise the lift, back the trailer under, lower the lift, unbolt the lift legs from the floor (if bolted down), and undo whatever is needed to fold the lift legs onto the loft deck and strap it all down. Opposite process at the other end.

Alternatively, if it's a 4-post with wheels you could use a flat deck tow truck to get it onto a flat deck trailer.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas.

 

I had moved from Alaska to Nevada . I had a machine , sheet metal , fab shop to move also. In Alaska this equipment was virtually worthless but I needed this stuff for my new place and did not want to fire sale and have to rebuy once I got moved , So I went crazy and bought a Freightliner semi truck and a 53' stacker enclosed car hauler. I made 6 trips with this truck over 5 years . Mind you I was in my 60's and retired when I did this. At this time I do not have a resentment in my decision to make this type of move.
Vic

 

Get a bid from a local machinery mover that's equipped to move heavy stuff. That's probably what your household mover will do anyway so cut out the middleman.
If you want to do it yourself, you can go the route I did in helping a friend move his small machine shop across town about 5 years ago. We rented a large stake bed from Enterprise that had a lift gate and could haul 12k pounds. On move day, we already had everything in the shop that was heavy, lag bolted/strapped on pallets/skids. (CNC's, Bridgeport, lathes, presses, gun safe, etc. Your car lift components can be strapped to a single long pallet.
We had a forklift (from neighboring shops) at both ends of the move. The beauty of the stake bed is that you can side load from both sides. Packed tight, we lagged all the pallets together (via 4x4's laid across the pallet tops) and lashed everything down. Pallets were free from local businesses. We even picked up a couple of pallets with boxes or "gaylords" (like you see watermelons shipped in) which got filled with misc. boxes of tooling, cutoffs, etc. Once all the stakes were in place we tossed in misc. mostly light weight stuff (trash cans, stools, sheet metal cabinets) in the empty spaces, stretched a cargo net over the top and hit the road. If you go this route, get as much of the heavy stuff as you can, pre-strapped on pallets then you can go right to work on truck day.
One person operating the fork lift working with a spotter. A couple of others can bring up smaller stuff on the lift gate and start securing the load.
The idea is to have the fork lift do all the lifting/moving. Upon arrival, the heavy stuff will have a predetermined spot to set down.

26' Stake Bed:
https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/tr...kebed-trucks/26-stakebed-truck--business.html