Best way to unload a Bridgeport from back of truck

Call a lumberyard and ask them to unload it, be prepaired to spend some $$$$$$
 
Hire a Bobcat skid steer for 1/2 hr . May cost a few bucks but well worth the money spent . My neighbor lifted 2 Bridgeporsts and a Lagun FTV2 off my trailer with no problem . The Lagun was the heaviest of the 3 but it handled it readily .
 
+1 on the wrecker. F-550 sized or better. This one was a mid-sized IH. Best $50 I had spent on it.
Had a bit of an issue with the lower chock brace thingy getting in the way of the tires of the trailer.
And I can't remember for the life of me WHY I had rotated the head back up.
And I'm not sure at all why it dangled at an angle... No doubt a mis-calculation on my part.
I lasso'd a rope around the column base and all went fine.

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In addition to the good ideas above, I've used a front end loader, backhoe and forklift to move similar machinery. The forklift involved a small boom mounted to forks, not lifting from below. Maybe you have neighbors or other nearby businesses.

Harbor freight sells a 1 ton gantry crane for 729 without hoist. Maybe less with coupon. Not cheap but maybe something you could use for other projects or resale instead of hiring wrecker. Check your local CL, sometimes gantry cranes to cheap. Don't forget machines seem to get lonely and need new friends.......

Uhaul rents flat deck trailers for about 50 bucks in my area which would easily handle 1 ton.
 
mmcmdl said:
Hire a Bobcat skid steer for 1/2 hr . May cost a few bucks but well worth the money spent . My neighbor lifted 2 Bridgeporsts and a Lagun FTV2 off my trailer with no problem . The Lagun was the heaviest of the 3 but it handled it readily .
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Mind the 'Bobcat's' lifting capacity. Some are under 2000#.
 
I believe the ports weighed in around 1900 and the Lagun was 2350 or so . I added a couple buddies on the back as counterweights . :) Looking back , I shoulda held on to the Lagun but I just didn't have the room to keep them .
 
I just moved a BP clone from Auburn, AL to my shop in Madison, GA. Used a gooseneck trailer so it was much easier to securely strap to the trailer. But it was no picnic. The guy I bought it from thought it would take about thirty minutes to an hour to load it. It took four hours (because of where it was located in his garage) and he had rented a boom-style forklift. Rarely does 'everything' go right on a move like this. I have a skid steer, and I had made a set of forks for it, but even with that, it was a little tenuous getting it off the trailer. All kinds of things can go wrong.

I would strongly suggest you figure out some other way to move it than in a box truck. For starters, how are you going to get it IN the box truck? I contemplated using one (as protection against potential bad weather during the move), but unless you have the right kind of equipment, you'll be risking serious damage and/or injury just getting it out of the truck. At the very least, you should use a box truck with a heavy duty lift gate, but even that is a long way from ideal. If you MUST use a box truck, you'll probably need to rent a forklift that has a boom to reach into the truck. Some have recommended using a boom-style wrecker or a crane to unload it. While good advice for a flat bed truck or trailer, I can't see how that is going to be of any use to you on a box truck.

Several posts have offered some valuable advice on how to move the mill. Some of the best being to drop the knee to its lowest level (I would add moving the table as far toward the back of the mill as it will go), and do a 180 on the head. That lowers your center of gravity, but it's still a bear transporting something that heavy. Depending on your shop layout, you may want to consider renting or borrowing a pallet jack after it's in the building. As has been suggested above, you can roll it around fairly easily with just two pieces of round stock and some sort of lever, but a pallet jack is much more maneuverable (a little challenging to get out from under the mill when it's at its final resting place, but quite doable).

Best advice anyone can give you: BE EXTRA CAREFUL!!! That machine weighs around a ton and is very top heavy. Think it through carefully, and don't rush it.

Regards,
Terry
 
mmcmdl said:
Hire a Bobcat skid steer for 1/2 hr . May cost a few bucks but well worth the money spent . My neighbor lifted 2 Bridgeporsts and a Lagun FTV2 off my trailer with no problem . The Lagun was the heaviest of the 3 but it handled it readily .
Click to expand...
Unless your neighbor has a big assed 8xx series or better - that was a risky endeavor.
Load of dirt or stone down low, fine, using it for lifting, it would be at it design limits.
But then that is why they engineer in a safety factor.
 
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