Okay, I'm playing around with the idea of getting one of these. The biggest problem that I foresee at this point is the actual receiving of the freight. Every place I've found that sells them says that a forklift will be required to unload. Can you rent forklifts for the day? Does anyone have one that could be rentable? Also, anyone have a lift at home? Any advice?
Now that he's back I guess I can. Oh and I did find places like www.elitelift.com that will rent forklifts and deliver them for you. 105 for the rental, 125 for delivery each way
I know if I was doing this I'd have it dropped of at work where we could unload with a forklift the figure out a way to get it home. Don't know if that is a possibility but something like that may save renting heavy equiptment.
i also believe that it would be better to receive it to a commercial property with a loading dock. renting a fork lift is costly. you could also prob do it with 4 guys ready when the truck arrives at your home. unwrap the parts on the semi and carry them into the garage. (hoping the semi has a lift gate)
Well there is a few different ways to unload them. I have purchaced 2 of them in the past and they will be in a 53' semi trailer. You can either get a tow truck company to move them from the semi to your garage, or rent a fork lift. Also, if you are going to install it yourself.. a fork lift will most likely be needed to assemble. Most semi trailers do not have lift gates.
What Mike said.. seeing as I have had 6lifts installed in my old shop and 1 at my personal home... those suckers are heavy... the guy that installed them in my shop, was a chunky bastard and all the 10K lifts he stood up by hand and set by hand.. 1 guy.. the 12K posts we used the forklift... the one i have at my house is a 10K Rotary lift... the guy that installed it had a truck with a crane.. did it in a day by himself... Depending on your pricing... you could talk to some of the local lift people adn see what they sell and usually the installation is only a couple of hundred bucks AND THEY DELIVER it... the lift in my shop was $4300 installed... yes you can get cheaper.. but you also get what you pay for... I used the same lift at teh Ford Dealership i was working at and it lifted Crew Cab short box dually F350's all day.. impressive...
oh and also.. www.k-bid.com they regularly auction shops that closed with lifts etc... for under $1000
I'd imagine you could set up a 4-post storage-type lift like this ( http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200349258_200349258 ) with just a couple of guys, but for the 2-post service lifts, yeah, that'd be a huge undertaking without heavy equipment. But getting them off the truck, yeah, you'll need something that can pick up the pallets it's going to be on.
Well the one Mark linked to is fine if storage style is all you are after and you dont have anything much taller then that car for clearance... I doubt a Forester would fit and they arent the best for doing much except changing your oil on... they dont come with rolling lift jacks so its basically a lifting ramp.. if I was going to spend $2000+ for a lift I would want one that is more usable... it will do the job adn probably well.. but..
i was actually looking at the danmar and you can put a set or two of rolling jacks or use jack trays to get more functionality out of it i'm pretty sure i want to go with a four post lift big problem though, i need a taller garage after i took some measurements - bah
Couldn't you use a skid-steer with forks to unload it? IIRC, renting one is couple hundred dollars for a day. Something like a S250 can handle 2500 lb.
yeah you probably could but maneuvering the load with something that pivots rather then turns from teh rear is tricky when unloading... should be doable though
