# I've had customers go overboard on packaging their parts, but this one takes the cake



## alloy (May 27, 2022)

In 14 years of modifying customer transmission housings I've had customers go overboard on packaging the parts they send me, but never like this.

The housing is held down with four 3/8" bolts and box is  is waterproofed.  You can see where he sealed the sides up, and put sealer under the plastic liner on the top.  

The box weights 22 lbs for a 12 lb part.  And it goes back to Canada.  Gonna cost a fortune to ship it back.

Funny thing is, he waterproofed the box, and the first thing I'll do is put the housing in my hot parts washer that uses water with a detergent.


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## silence dogood (May 27, 2022)

I'd give the guy a break, He must have had some bad experiences with shipping companies. My wife once received a special sewing machine in a flimsy cardboard box with maybe a dozen peanuts. It was in bent and broken. Fortunately, she got her money back.


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## mattthemuppet2 (May 27, 2022)

I bet the shipping will be cheaper than a replacement housing + the modifications you're doing to it. That's similar to how I ship machine tool parts - wooden crate with the part bolted to one side of it. So far I haven't had any complaints about broken or missing parts!


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## extropic (May 27, 2022)

Yea, it's overboard, but better that than getting an empty cardboard box.
I assume the customer pays return shipping. Yes? 

It looks like there were only 4 fasteners (plus sealant) holding the cover on.
If there had been twenty eleven 3" deck screws holding the cover . . .


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## francist (May 27, 2022)

It wasn’t coming from Edmonton, was it? I once sent a small package to my sister there that arrived at her door soaked through and through. She had to dry it out for half a day before she could even risk opening it…


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## matthewsx (May 27, 2022)

These are the irreplaceable parts you work on, right?

I always shipped my race engines in heavy duty plastic crates with lots of cardboard and newspaper. Going the extra mile to make sure it arrives in one piece works for me. 

John


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## RJSakowski (May 27, 2022)

I had to ship an 11 lb. chunk of steel to @WobblyHand  in a USPS regional flat rate box.  There was no way that the package would have arrived undamaged.  I made a plywood box to just fit inside the flat rate box a secured the steel inside with wood blocking.  The flat rate box just served as a skin to attach the label.  The box arrived intact.


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## Larry$ (May 27, 2022)

Shipping common carrier (LTL) is a risk. They are experts at trashing most anything. If you are shipping UPS they require a carboard box on the outside but you can put a wooden box inside of the cardboard.


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## matthewsx (May 27, 2022)

Larry$ said:


> Shipping common carrier (LTL) is a risk. They are experts at trashing most anything. If you are shipping UPS they require a carboard box on the outside but you can put a wooden box inside of the cardboard.


At least when I was building kart engines ~15 years ago UPS and FedEx would take my plastic crates. They sometimes complained but never failed to get them to my customers.

John


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## Martin W (May 28, 2022)

I can't apologize for over packaging. I  shipped a Antique metal lathe to Nova Scotia last month. I took a lot of care crating it up. Everything was wrapped in sheet foam and plastic wrap. I bolted everything down in the crate, even the small parts. Then a 2x4 frame and 5/8" plywood glued and screwed. I shipped it by LTL tractor trailer. Cost was $330.86 Canadian funds for a $1800 lathe from Niagara Falls.
Yeah , it was overkill but it never got damaged and arrived with no issues. 
In my business we have things shipped in all the time. Nothing worse than having just in time inventory and it arrives damaged because it wasn't packaged properly. 
Martin


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## WobblyHand (May 28, 2022)

RJSakowski said:


> I had to ship an 11 lb. chunk of steel to @WobblyHand  in a USPS regional flat rate box.  There was no way that the package would have arrived undamaged.  I made a plywood box to just fit inside the flat rate box a secured the steel inside with wood blocking.  The flat rate box just served as a skin to attach the label.  The box arrived intact.


When I first opened up the box, I thought, umm this is built like a brick scheisse house.  But the box did its job!   That block of steel was immobilized.  Thanks again!


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## Provincial (May 28, 2022)

In the early 1980's I had to ship a propeller from a DC-3 from Seattle to the midwest for overhaul.  The propeller was disassembled into the three blade units and the hub unit.  I built a crate from 2x4's with a 1/2" plywood skin. The floor of the crate was 2x6's lengthways, with three 4x4 cross-braces that acted a feet so a forklift or pallet jack could move the crate.  I made spacers from 2x material so I could stack the blades (alternating end-to-end and clamped them with vertical pieces of redi-rod.  The hub unit was held with the back end sitting on the floor of the crate and a piece of redi-rod clamping it down to the floor through the propeller shaft hole.  The dome of the hub was then placed over the hub and screwed down like normal.

The crate made the trip East just fine.  On the return trip, the airplane owner sent a friend to the freight dock to pick up the crate in Seattle.  After signing to accept the shipment, the friend noticed that someone had punctured the crate side with a fork!  When he complained, the freight company pointed out that he had accepted the shipment and the fine print released the company from any damage claim!

Fortunately, the fork had entered between two of the blades, and had not touched any part of the propeller itself!

You cannot make a crate damage-proof, but you can make it damage-resistant!


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## vocatexas (May 28, 2022)

I ordered a set of lug studs and nuts for one of our fire trucks last week. They shipped them in a cardboard box with no reinforcement, just paper for packing. One whole side of the box was ripped open when it got here. How none of the nut or studs fell out, I'll never figure out, but they were all in there. I'd rather have some over-kill on packing than have something missing or broken.


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## Cadillac (May 28, 2022)

When I ordered my liberty 4spd it came in a hard plastic molded case. It had studs inside the case which bolted the trans to the case via trans mount. Then they had a prepaid return label included in pricing. It was a nice way of doing it.


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## Firstram (May 28, 2022)

silence dogood said:


> I'd give the guy a break, He must have had some bad experiences with shipping companies. My wife once received a special sewing machine in a flimsy cardboard box with maybe a dozen peanuts. It was in bent and broken. Fortunately, she got her money back.


In 1984 Dino De Laurentiis moved his Film Company from Mexico to Wilmington NC. We unloaded countless tractor trailers filled with assorted equipment and one of the trailers had oil dripping from the back. We opened it to find they had completely filled a 40' trailer with industrial sewing machines stacked 3 high, without cribbing anything. The machines had all broken through the particle board table tops and were piled on the floor! Sometimes a little overkill is worth the effort.


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## silence dogood (May 28, 2022)

A few years ago, I worked for a courier company. One time I had to pick up package from our local prison that was full of urine samples (there was a fight the night before). The guard brings out the package that was to go on a plane to a lab, dumped it on the receptionist desk, and the three of us found that it was leaking you know what. I told the fellow that federal regs are very clear that packages must be sealed before it can go on a plane. Besides, it was not going into my truck like that. Did not have to argue about it much, since the receptionist was livid and gave him what for. The guy had to go back whimpering that he had to start all over again. I could not resist and ask. What was the problem, those prisoners aren't going anywhere.


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## jarhead (May 29, 2022)

alloy said:


> In 14 years of modifying customer transmission housings I've had customers go overboard on packaging the parts they send me, but never like this.
> 
> The housing is held down with four 3/8" bolts and box is  is waterproofed.  You can see where he sealed the sides up, and put sealer under the plastic liner on the top.
> 
> ...


Is that a T5?


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## RJSakowski (May 29, 2022)

Shipping heavy objects is brutal.  Packages are dropped, bounced around, and even thrown and the objects need to be properly secured to prevent destruction od the packaging and possible damage to the contents.  I had a manufacturing business for 22 years where I routinely shipped fifteen lb. packages to customers and never a damaged shipment claim.  

One product that I made was an arena display board that had 66 40 watt light bulbs installed and I never had a complaint about a broken bulb.  I only shipped that product air freoght which I personally delivered the the air freight terminal with the stipulation that it be recieved by the customer at the terminal on their end.  No bouncing around in a common carrier delivery truck.


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## pdentrem (May 29, 2022)

We shipped a set of work rolls one time 6X4 about 24” long in a similar box. The box was destroyed before it even got to the grind shop 60 miles away. The rolls were still inside as I made cradles and they were bolted in. The box was thrown away and we set a driver to collect the rolls when ready. Never did hear what the shipping company did to kill the box. It is not from a person sitting on it!


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## alloy (May 29, 2022)

jarhead said:


> Is that a T5?


It's a T56.


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## jarhead (May 29, 2022)

alloy said:


> It's a T56.


Cool,
Do you rebuild and improve the TKO and T5 too?
Joe


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## alloy (May 29, 2022)

I don't rebuild them, I add a cable speedometer drive to it.  I also do S10 T5's,. 4L80E, and 4L60E.  I can modify a LT1 style front plate to accept a LS style throwout bearing, and have a gear adapter to move the speedometer drive gear on T5 main shaft when swapping tail housings.

Now I'm working on modifying T5 mustang electronic tail housings for cable drive.  Just started that project yesterday.

I believe there should be a link to my website in my signature.


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