moving a gun safe??

M

mjones 59

Inactive
I bought a gun safe at TRACTOR SUPPLY. It weighs 525#. I know that they will load it for me but---- when I get it home how do I get it unloaded safely? Should
I use the pickup bed or a utility trailer? Can I use a furniture dolly or do I need something heavier? Is this a 2or 3 man job?

Thanks for all the information
 
We recently moved, including a safe.
Unless you're used to bear wrestling, you need several things going for you:

With no details on how far, what type of flooring, what floor it's moving to, what it looks like from your driveway into the house, I'll take a generic stab.

A ***very clear path*** (height, width and turning / manuvering space) with very very few obstructions from where you're unloading it to where it has to go.

A furniture dolly will work if you can maintain perfect balance, don't care about busted hands or feet WHEN it falls, or more appropriately a very heavy duty hand truck with fold-out auxiliary wheels for stability that has a strap to maintain control.

Assume 4-6 guys to help unload it from your pickup or trailer. It's heavy and unwieldily. It's not that you can get all 4-6 around it, but more allows for no one to get exhausted which can be dangerous, and allows a supervisor to watch for issues.

Carpet can be a pain, so plan ahead.

Good luck. It's a pain if you try to do it yourself.
 
Trust me on this. It's worth paying a safe mover to do it for you! They have the right equipment and knowledge to move it safely! Especially for any safe weighing in excess of 500 lbs.!!Damage to yourself, helpers or your house is a real possibility if you do it yourself!!
 
I helped a guy move one. He removed the door. Then used 1.5 inch pvc pipe and golf balls to push it down the hall and into the room, after 4 of us carried it into the house.
 
I am no muscle man, 62 years old, 6" 2", 295 lbs. Used to be muscular (moved pianos in my youth) but "aged". I moved my Tractor Supply safe twice;-- by myself. I used an appliance dolly rented from U-Haul. I think that is the key. It has straps, high and low. Plus, the roller gizmo at the base allows you to negotiate up and down stairs. Each time I moved I had only two steps to negotiate. The floor surface was hard and smooth. Once you get the load balanced on the dolly wheels, just be prudent. Another caution. Make sure the floor can hold the load. After moving the safe in the first time I found two cracked floor joists in the basement. Had to add "sisters" to every joist from the safe's location to the street. I also added a jack support under the safe. I'll comment on the quality of the Tractor Supply safe, it is a Cannon. It is adequate for snatch and grabbers but I don't think it will hold against a skilled" thief. This is my second safe. My first one was also a Cannon, but bigger. I had two guys to assist with that move. It was a bear. We got it in as far as the dining room! And that is where it found a new home. Fortunately; it had a very tasteful cranberry finish that actually became room décor.

All that said; get someone else to do it if possible/affordable. I did not have the choice.
 
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About a year back myself and few of my sons friends moved a large gun safe for my son.

I used my gooseneck horse trailer to haul it in because the floor of the trailer is much closer to the ground ( about 12 inches at the rear) and we used a refrigerator dolly to move the safe from the trailer into his basement.

This safe was large and top heavy, I would not have wanted to haul it in the back of a pick-up truck.
 
I have had two safes. I outgrew one and gave that to my son. I negotiated with the seller to sell me a new and bigger safe and as part of the deal remove the old one and take it to my son's place.

THAT WAS A SMART MOVE.

The guy in the business moves safes everyday and he knows how to do it. Let him move them for you. You are really asking for problems if you don't have experience moving very heavy objects. It does not take much for that thing to get away from you and you do NOT want to be in the way if it falls.
 
mjones 59. The worst plan would be the one that included a 4 wheel dolly, not good for tall heavy items. For your floors I would suggest Masonite, rent, borrow or purchase. Stairs are killers.

I would suggest a 2 wheel truck that is referred to as being a refrigerator dolly. It will always have the means to secure the item to be moved to the truck, Some straps are too high for tall heavy pieces.

Then there are roller lifts, the job requires two, one on each side. The roller lifts also have straps that allow the item to be moved to be secured between the lifts.

Then there are walk boards, I would have no problem laying the safe down when hauling it in the back of a pick-up, but both the bed and safe must be protected.

F. Guffey
 
I saw some specialized equipment used by safe movers. One is a handtruck that besides the wheels, had threads that allows them to move it up or down stairs. No one gets hurt.

The other is like a handtruck, but with a hydraulic jack. Once it's slipped beneath the safe, it is jacked up and with one on the opposite side, the safe can be rolled around without injury to self or others.

Even the trailer had hydraulic jacks in it. The trailer could be lowered for easier loading and then raised for traveling.

I'd rather hire pros like the ones I've seen than try to do it myself. It's not worth getting hurt or having your buddies injured either.
 
Things to do today:
1.Buy heavy safe
2.Figure out how to move it
:)
I can't laugh too hard as I have been there, but only after an auction.

Just make sure you have a few extra people around. A case of decent beer, a few pizzas, etc. is way cheaper than the cheapest ER bill.
 
I watched a couple of professionals move a 1500 lb safe (actually a fairly small footprint safe, but 6' high with 1/4" walls and a 1/2" door). They used steel sheets to protect the sidewalk and floors. 500 lb is still a pretty light safe, a couple of able-bodied friends and a refrigerator dolly and you should be able to handle it. Remember to think about the strength of any stair treads you might encounter, and don't forget to bolt in down afterward. A 10 or 11-gauge safe laying on its back is pretty easy to breach using only long pry bars.
 
I bought a 525 lb safe from Tractor Supply last year. I purposely bought one with external hinges.

I removed the door and moved it in first with my 900 lb rated dolly with pneumatic tires.

Next, I moved the remaining 400 pounds by strapping the safe to the dolly near the bottom and near the top.

I hand trucked the safe up a 3 inch step, and around two corners. I let it down maybe a couple of feet from its permanent resting place and used a pry bar and some muscle to scoot it into the chosen spot.

The safe balanced well on the dolly and I never once had it try to come over on me or go the other way.

I am over 60, 6 ft 2" and around 220-225 lbs. just for comparison.

PS: the wife was not much help, so next time I will leave her at Tractor Supply and pick her up later.

My BIL inherited a safe from his Granpa, it weighed over 5,000 lbs. A professional moving company took care of that one.

I had a sheet of plywood in the back of my truck to lay it on and it also made it slide easily out of the truck bed when arriving home. I just had some rope tag lines to help guide it slowly to the ground.
 
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The guys that moved my safes and delivered my last one (well over a ton) used golf balls. They had a whole bucket of them and once they tipped the safe up on the balls with a lever arm, they kept it on balls the whole way. One guy up front feeding the balls and the guy in back would stop and feed more to him as they maneuvered them around the house on sheets of 3/8" plywood to protect the floor.

I could move the big safe easily with one hand on the golfballs. They had it on maybe 30 of them most of the time.
 
Moving a ~600 pound safe:

A dolly of the type used to move refridgerators, sheets of masonite to protect your floors and make rolling the dolly easier, a couple of physically fit people, some 2x4 and 2x6 cribbing and a well rehearsed plan double checked with a tape measure are all that are necessary.

Tip: Aluminum/plastic thresholds (like at the bottom of most exterior doors these days) will NOT support the loaded dolly without damage ..... thus the cribbing......
 
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