seeking advice on moving PDP 11 and related gear

[Guy Sotomayor]

On 7/3/15 9:39 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>      > From: tony duell
>
>      > OK, I've done it many times, but ... I had the drives out in under 5
>      > minutes. It is not that hard...
>
> With a previously un-seen rack, it is _not_ guaranteed to be that easy, as
> Bill D and I can attest!
>
>
> So I will echo the advice to take tools. Lots of tools.
My recommendation is to (once all of the cables, drive heads, etc are 
properly secured) is to have a lift
gate truck (my preference is for a "rail lift" as opposed to a "tuck 
under") and just load the entire rack
that way.  It relieves the stress of trying to disassemble the rack on 
site.  Of course lots of cardboard,
shrink wrap and straps are required.

The other trick that I've done (of course I do have a large pickup 
truck...but only works for 2 H960 style
racks at a time) is to have *lots* of helpers and lift/lay the rack in 
the bed of the truck (ie lift it so that you can
use the tail gate as the fulcrum so the rack lays on it's back/side in 
the bed of the truck).

Now that I have an equipment lift that is capable of lifting ~500lbs, I 
don't try to de/re-rack anything by
hand.  Typically any of the items in that go in racks are at least 
100lbs and except for items higher than
about mid-point in the rack, there isn't sufficient leverage (unless you 
have 2 or 3 people) to remove or
replace any of these without chance of injury.

TTFN - Guy