Spokane to Olympia with a baby(ish) Mill

[Dave Bonzo]

I'm possibly buying a Millrite over in the Spokane, Washington area. Unless the seller's photos show me a lot that I don't like, I will probably drive out there this week to see it and arrange payment and transport if I choose to take it, but the actual move doesn't have to happen on that day. I'm going to look into options for moving it myself and also for having it shipped, but I was also advised to post here. So, if anyone is in that area or doesn't mind making the trip, hit me up and we'll see what we can work out. I honestly don't know what the going rates are for this kind of thing, so...yeah, we'll figure it out.

I'll update this thread as the situation progresses and I have more info; thanks in advance for any help or input.

 

[projectnut]

If the shipping rates in your area are anything like they are around here be sure you're sitting down when you call the riggers and truck rental companies. When I purchase a lathe in Chicago a few years ago I contacted several rigging companies, and half a dozen truck rental companies. The least expensive rigger wanted more than the cost of the lathe to move it 120 miles. The most expensive was more than double what I paid for the machine.
The truck rental companies weren't much better. By the time I found one with a lift gate that could handle the weight of the lathe the price once again was close to the cost of the machine itself.

I ended up renting a drop deck trailer for less than $200.00. I originally rented it for a week because I wasn't sure how long it would take to load and unload it. When I brought it back 2 days later the rental company cut the price to less than half. It was money well spent.

 

[Dave Bonzo]

The rates are very expensive if you aren't at a terminal with the cargo when they take over; we've been calling around and yeah...more than the price of the machine.

Drop-deck trailers are a better idea, but I'm having trouble finding one of those as well, and I have nothing to pull it with. Thus, my inquiry here.

 

[francist]

I don’t know if you’d consider something like this or not but I used to know a guy (partner of a coworker) who had a pretty good side business hauling people’s travel trailers or RV’s from one place to another. He had the truck and the driving skills and the clients had trailers that they wanted to get from point A to point B without doing the long haul themselves. Similarly, moving larger boats in and out of the water needs a pretty big vehicle and trailering experience as well and lots of folks pay for that. I know my friend Jim used to just have his name in at the RV dealers and marinas and people would call him up. Might be something to look into if you dead-end other ways.

-frank

 

[matthewsx]

I don’t know if you’d consider something like this or not but I used to know a guy (partner of a coworker) who had a pretty good side business hauling people’s travel trailers or RV’s from one place to another. He had the truck and the driving skills and the clients had trailers that they wanted to get from point A to point B without doing the long haul themselves. Similarly, moving larger boats in and out of the water needs a pretty big vehicle and trailering experience as well and lots of folks pay for that. I know my friend Jim used to just have his name in at the RV dealers and marinas and people would call him up. Might be something to look into if you dead-end other ways.

-frank

RV and boat haulers are a good idea. Another thing to try are tow operators with roll back trucks, make sure they have experience moving machinery many of them are very good.

When I moved my Bolton I had to drive about an hour out of my way to get the drop-deck trailer but it was well worth it.

John

 

[alloy]

I agree with the drop deck trailer. I've used them a number of times. Much cheaper than riggers. And if you don't have a pickup to tow with, you can rent one and still be way cheaper than a rigger is.

 

[ivel03]

If you can bolt it to a pallet and have fastenal stores somewhat close you can use their LTL service. You would have to drop it off at a terminal and pick it up from a terminal but the actual transport would be very reasonable.

 

[Dave Bonzo]

I may be able to do some pre-prep for moving, but there's no Fastenal location in the area, that I know of. Rollback and tow rates are pretty high...as are trailer prices. Rentals are still affordable, though, so I'm proceeding with getting my Toyota set up to tow. I would still prefer to have someone far more competent than me to do the move, but I'll do it myself - and probably drop things - if need be.

Updates: there's now the Millrite and a South Bend Heavy 10 to be moved. Turns out the seller had one that he didn't need anymore. Also, my timeline is not immediate; when I asked, they said "June" would be good for a pickup...so, it's not as pressing as I suspected.

 

[Advil]

Sunbelt in Olympia has lift bed trailers for a little over $100 a day. Can't beat that compared to a rigger or any kind of shipping. One of those will make the job pretty easy. You can probably get both machines on one.

They also have the awesome little hydraulic type lift trailers that goes down to the ground 100% level. I've used one of those to move my mill before. Stupidly easy compared to anything else. It's only 8-9' so questionable if you can get both mill and lathe on it. Might be two trips. But the rental is even cheaper per day... and one at a time might be a lot less stress and safer.

Frankly, even the regular lift bed is going to get you so far down to the ground it's going to make the job 1000% easier. Do it. You don't want to do this any other way for as cheap as the rental is. Trust me on this. Been there. It's worth every single penny.

Have a bunch of ratchet straps with you to secure it, and if you want to protect from rain and road grime buy a wide roll of that pallet wrapping cellophane from Amazon or something and wrap the mill top to bottom. It'll be as clean as when you loaded it and you won't have to worry about flapping tarps etc. Use lots.