Cheapest way to move heavy kit - crane required?

[astro_al]

How do. I need to shift about 7 or 8 tonnes of tools from Sheffield to Winchester area. Some of it is in smaller lumps, I can lift most of it off a flatbed with my forklift, but there is a single lump of nearly 4 T which I can move.

Options seem to be get it all brought down on a flatbed lorry (hopefully shared with someone elses load!) and crane it off when it gets here - so hire a separate crane - or get it brought down on a hiab truck for more money than the flatbed costs.

So, questions:

- Anyone know anyone who shifts this kind of thing and would be interested in a 'return leg' load or similar?
- Anyone else in the South bringing anything down and needs to share a load?
- Anyone know if its cheaper to hire the hiab all the way, or a flatbed and a local crane at the end?

Anyone got any cunning thoughts on reducing the cost of this? It is quite likely that I can share a wagon with someone shipping stuff down from teh same dealer (Qualimach), but how to solve the crane issue...?

Anyone ever lift something between two FLTs? Is this going to end up on youtube? The farm has a telehandler...

Being in my non-industrial region of the UK, it seems similar loads are seldom delivered locally or passing by. Should move oop north - probably get it done for a pint and some fags up there!

Cheers, Al.

 

[rtbcomp]

It is quite likely that I can share a wagon with someone shipping stuff down from teh same dealer

If this works out I'd explore the possibility of getting it down on a flatbed, unload it all at the other guy's place (if he has a crane) and then hire a Hi-Ab locally.

 

[Robotstar5]

Anyone ever lift something between two FLTs? Is this going to end up on youtube? The farm has a telehandler...

Got a press off a flatbed with 2 FLT's by lifting from either side then driving the truck out from underneath, but you MUST have a couple of competent drivers!.

 

[zzr1200]

Firstly it depends on what weighs 4 tons???

You could try and find a plant firm with a roll on/off flat bed/bin depends on how damageble the item is...

Also the other option is a slide/tilt body car recovery vehicle with a powerful winch then build a frame under the item, then drag it on rollers (scaf tube) up the bed, remove the rollers and replace the rollers to get it off.

Oh, one last option a skip lorry, built in crane and lifting chains...

 

[Hitch]

Quite often lift stuff up with two forklifts, depending on how you can lift it though as to whether its an option.
As said you need two decent drivers, and occasionally someone to guide that can see both of the drivers.

The people I know are a little bit out of the way for you unfortunately.

 

[morph]

Presumably Qualimach can load at there end with their gantry so u only need to get it off a flat bed your end? If so just find a local farmer with a 4 ton loadall and slip him a few quid..... Generally any 3 stage boom telehandler will do 4 ton.

 

[Welderpaul]

I'd not go down the route of a crane to unload. An expensive way of doing it, plus they are likely to want to do it on a contract lift unless you have an Appointed Person etc etc etc, which is more money.
Qualimach can load at their end; load straight onto a hiab wagon with OH crane. I use P Simpsons in Leeds for shifting heavy stuff...faultless service. They have a range of vehicles from smallish flat beds to artics, some of their hiabs are massive. Sure they would do you a decent price. I wouldnt mess about risking dropping stuff. They have a hell of a reach on their hiabs, sure they could offload as you required. A few times they have reached through our door, dragged some gert lump out and loaded it onto their backs.
I've hired in a hiab wagon to turn stuff over in our yard that our OH crane won't lift instead of hiring a crane....much cheaper.

What kit have you bought?

 

[marv]

Ive had hiabs lift narrow boats out the canal and brought to my yard much cheaper than crane hire plus of course you got the flat bed hire in-between

 

[madkayaker]

To the best of my knowledge no appointed person is required for a hiab for loading and unloading operations. But if you start using a hiab as a crane then appointed Person etc are needed.

 

[astro_al]

Ok, thanks for your thoughts. As a first step I'll attempt to see if any local farms have sufficient mobile lifting capacity (there is a Claas dealership down the road who I did some work for, so maybe they have a beast I can borrow...). A shared flatbed from Sheffield and a few tenners for someone local to lift it off would obviously be the cheapest option.

I love the skip lorry idea though - makes a lot of sense!

I'm scared of the dual forklift method - I'm no expert with mine, and the other one would be driven by the guys on the farm here, so not necessarily the best forklifters.

Paul, its a Massey 3 cwt powerhammer (see pic). 5 1/4 tonnes, but the 1.5 tonne anvil is separate out of that, plus there is a quarter tonne of motor. Plus a few pallet loads of tooling for it. So it breaks down into smaller chunks quite nicely.

Cheers, Al.

 

[Robotstar5]

its a Massey 3 cwt powerhammer (see pic). 5 1/4 tonnes, but the 1.5 tonne anvil is separate out of that, plus there is a quarter tonne of motor. Plus a few pallet loads of tooling for it. So it breaks down into smaller chunks quite nicely.

That's a beast and a half I've just watched a program about gas drilling in North Canada, they used a Russian helicopter to fly the rig in, capable of lifting 20 tonnes, don't know what they'd charge?

 

[madkayaker]

Nice bit of kit! A decent size 360 digger would lift that if you know anyone with one! does balo live near by?

 

[snowcat]

Most tellehandlers would be 4T cap machines, Hate doing tandam lifts nasty transfer the weight wrong and somethings over.

As said Hiab would be my choice to pickup and unload.

 

[astro_al]

I'll get some prices and see what I can find on the other farms around here. The telehandler thing on site has a lower weight limit - 3T I think. And by the time you've got it above the hammer on top of a lorry with adequate slinging distance, it needs to be extended quite far I think.

The real problem is thinking of a way which doesn't mean hiring a crane twice - once to lift off the lorry and again to lower the hammer over the anvil once it has been installed. I might make a little wheeled trolley to put the hammer on before I install it, so I can put it inside and shift it to the installation point once its ready. Got to put 4 cubic metres of concrete under it, so there's a big hole to dig.

Ta, Al.

 

[Welderpaul]

You must have some huge things that need bashing with that.......
It's a monster.

 

[stuvy]

You must have some huge things that need bashing with that.......
It's a monster.

jeremy clarkson would certainly love that!

 

[astro_al]

Well, I prefer the dynamism of bigger scale forge work. Last candle holder I made was in 4" x 4" square mild steel bar, about 2' long. That was on a 1 cwt hammer and it struggled to generate enough wallop.

I acquired a smaller (0.5 cwt) Massey mechanical hammer a few months back for smaller work (see pic). So the big one (3 cwt) is intended for stuff that the 0.5 cwt can't handle, although the blow energy is a lot more than 6x I think.

Al.

Here's the tiddler:

 

[the snooper]

al you need to rotate and save the pictures before uploading it makes them much easier to look at

 

[astro_al]

Sos - thought I had, but done it now.

Al

 

[snowcat]

Whats the Risk assessment for that machine look like