moving a gun safe ?

M

mjones 59

Inactive
I bought a gun safe at TRACTOR SUPPLY. I know that they will
load it for me but----- how do I get it off safely? Should I load it
in a pickup or a utility trailer? It's just going in the corner of the garage,
the only space available. The safe weighs 525#, can I move it with
a furniture dolly or do I need something heavier?
Thanks in advance.
 
A trailer is the best, you don't wreck your truck bed !

Put some carpet or moving blankets in the trailer bed. Put in the trailer on it's back, it slides much easier that way. When unloading, don't unhook the trailer. Slide it off the trailer and stand it upright. You need a minimum of three people for this and four is better. Then get a pallet jack under it and move it on the wheeled jack to where you want to unload. A furniture dolly might work if it's rated for the load. Not a lot of 500-pound sofas out there. You can slide it on a piece of carpet down a hallway or through a door.

If you're unloading at the garage door, you can just slide it on the carpet from the trailer to the site chosen, no need for wheels. If you have three pieces of iron pipe, you can roll it along the slab.

Important thing is, if it starts to tip, get out of the way !
 
Sam's and Costco both sell handtrucks that will handle 800# easily. You are going to want to keep it out of direct contact with the concrete. Tractor Supply might sell thick rubber stall mats; if not a tack store does. If you go the handtruck route, use a tie-down strap so it doesn't shift. If you can take the door off, that will be about 1/3 of the weight
 
You can rent hand trucks at the rent all places for pretty cheap. The better ones have additional "legs" that drop down in the back, and turn it into a dolly. If you rent it and take it along, you could put it on the safe first, then on the truck. Getting it off, might or might not be easy, you might have to get creative.

Another option, and the one I usually use, is a piano dolly. Rent them at the same place.

If you have a "bank" around the house anywhere, where you can back the truck up to with the gate down, you can sometimes use it as a loading dock. Ive done that a couple of times, and its worked well.

Ive used all of the above, and it was normally just me and my wife, or me and one of my kids, that moved the safe. Ours weighs about 800# empty.

The piano dolly makes it a lot easier to move them around in general, especially in the house. "Stairs" excluded.
 
I've moved several gun safes using 3 or 4 lengths of 1/2" or 3/4" PVC as rollers. Just move them from the back to the front as the safe passes over them. Tip the safe on an edge and remove them once the safe is in place.

Couple of different guys have said that they have used a bunch of golf balls on the floor and slid the safe over them. Not a golfer here, 8 feet of PVC is about $2, don't have any golf balls handy.
 
mjones59,

I have an interesting gun safe moving story. To make a short story long, or a long story short, we used a dolly to move a 500 lb safe from the bed of a pickup truck, through a garage, up four wood steps then onto the landing at the top of the stairs which access the a basement. The stairs have about 15 or so steps. At the bottom of the steps is a 90 degree turn which eventually leads to its final resting place.

The tricky part was lowering the safe down the 15 or so steps. To do this, we used several long tow straps from which we made a harness into which the bottom of the safe rested. We attached the other end of this very long strap to the back of the pickup. After carefully easing the bottom of the safe over the top step, a driver slowly lowered the safe. The steps were carpeted. It worked beautifully. The interesting thing is the dude who owns the house and safe, sold his house about six months later so we had to repeat the process but in reverse.
 
The interesting thing is the dude who owns the house and safe, sold his house about six months later so we had to repeat the process but in reverse.
Click to expand...

:eek:

You are a good friend (or a masochist).

I'd most definitely need to warm to the job by moving a keg (or two) from my local liquor establishment into MY basement.
 
When I bought my National Security I had furniture movers deliver it and too position it in my home. Well worth the additional ($) to have the pro's move it.
 
Well worth the additional ($) to have the pro's move it.
Click to expand...
If it were available and reasonably priced, these days, it would likely be my choice as well.

My buddy just got a nice (BIG) safe for a great price. Of course we were going to do the moving of it, until the boy that sold it said he had a power hand truck, and would deliver and place it for $30. Best $30 I ever saw spent. :D

That hand truck actually went up and down stairs as well! First one Id seen, and I was impressed!
 
Believe me, it was a GREAT deal. As was the safe. The boy selling them, was selling them out of a little appliance shop as a side business. He had a box truck and that power hand truck, and did deliveries for them as well.

Took about a half hour to get it off the truck and in the basement. Probably would have took four of us to do it over the week end, and it would have been a nightmare.
 
Go to your local gym and hire a bunch of guys with big muscles?

"You're not that strong! Why, I bet you $20 that you can't move my gun safe..."
 
It better be one of those dollys that have the second set of wheels to prevent it from tipping over and crushing the user. Straps would be good too to keep the safe from falling off.
 
I hired movers for $75. Best $75 (and thousand for the safe) I have spent. Love having all my stuff in 1 place and it makes packing up for the range and unpacking so much easier!
 
My safe had to be moved 3 times. (600lbs) All 3 times it required 2 big guys and one medium sized one. Furniture dolly, with me handling, was used along with a lot of carpeting. Sliding it on it's back over carpeting is easiest, when possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top