How do _you_ move equipment? What "tools" do you use?

At 05:19 PM 10/20/03 -0500, you wrote: You should be aware that a lot of the lift gates are junk! They're actually worse than that, they're downright dangerous! Many of them have a steep ramp about 2 to 3" high before they reach the top. That makes it very difficult to get heavy objects onto the lift gate. In addition, the tops are sloped away from the truck and when you raise the lift gate the slope increases. That makes things tend to slide completely off the ramp right at the worst time! Just as you're lifting it up and have nowhere to go. Finally, they have a hinge in them that makes it difficult to get heavy loads off and on the ramp. Take a close look at any lift gate that you're considering using, BEFORE you rent the truck. And if you don't have a fork lift or other machinery to load the cargo, think THREE TIMES about using one of them for heavy objects. Last year, I narrowly missing being crushed under a 1800+ lb UPS that I was trying to load on one using those POS! Something you might consider is the use of one of the off-road type fork lifts. A LOT of companies in this area (central Florida) use them to unloading and moving pallets of sod (squares of grass used for landscaping) and they can be rented quite reasonably and the rental companies have trailors for them. I have moved a couple of big heavy computers by renting a low trailer and then using 2 x 10" boards as ramps to load the puter. If it's real heavy and you're short of man power then you can use a come-a-long to pull it into the trailer. Loading is generally pretty easy but unloading is tricky! A lot of times the load will run away from you and it will try to stop and tip over when it gets to the ground. Also it will sometimes try to push the boards out off the trailer. If that happens one side will drop to the ground and the thing will tip over. Take your time and be careful unloading. Use plenty of man power if you can get it. Joe