Moving a safe...

[David Hineline]

The cost of the Emergency Room visit for a friend who smashes his hand will make you wish you just paid the movers.

[RobertH]

The key is to pay your buddies in Universal Man Currency. 

Is that ammo or beer?

I believe its called friendship. lol.

[Gary]

The cost of the Emergency Room visit for a friend who smashes his hand will make you wish you just paid the movers.

People die driving their own cars.  Some folks like Ralph Nader always take public transportation and do not have a DL.  I would rather drive myself. 

  My former vocation demanded I own safes to insure the safeguarding of other peoples property.  I often had to move a safe for one reason or another.  Changed locations, purchased an additional safe, etc. 

You hire a safe moved, if the safe falls and hurts someone,  the way the laws work, you get lawyers on your heals anyway, because you owned the safe and directed a agent you hired to move it. 

Personaly,  I think the fewer people involved in moving a safe, is the way to go.  That requires tools.  Truck, trailer, winch, come-a-longs, tie down straps, palets, pallet jack, Johnson Bar, bucket of golf balls, stair climbing heavy item mover. 

Moving a smaller to medium sized safe a few feet from one house to another can be done easily one way or the other.    Just be careful.   I move safes by myself with no problems, and easier yet with a goofer to help move tools, open doors, etc.

I used to use come-a-longs to load safes on to trailers.   One safe move, I had enough of the foul things, and went and purchased a 12,000 pound wench for the front of my truck.   That item has proven to be very useful over the years. 

Depending on the lay of the land, a safe can be moved easily from one place to another, with one person,  two sheets of thick plywood (for grass or dirt), a Johnson Bar and a bucket of golf balls.

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[ILoveCats]

I believe its called friendship. lol.

No, that's the Universal Woman Currency!

[SemperFiGuy]

Then ill see if i want it downstairs or not.

FWIW............

A safe located in your garage is often quite easy to steal.

All that's needed is to open the garage doors, back up a pickup truck to the safe, tilt the safe into the truck bed, push the safe further into the truck bed, and take off.   Once the safe's center of gravity is on the truck bed, it's EZ.

As it happens, I've moved safes from garage to garage by myself in the same manner.   Buying and selling.  Used an SUV (bed is lower than a pickup) and totally surprised myself by being able to do it.

Much harder to get one out of the basement.   That activity usually takes two strong lads pushing at the bottom and one even stronger one pulling on the dolly to get it up all 13 steps.

Like I said, FWIW.

sfg

[ILoveCats]

FWIW............
A safe located in your garage is often quite easy to steal.

And another FWIW... it sure gets seen by everyone driving by whenever your garage door is up, unless you disguise it somehow.  Hitting garages seems to be a big modus operandi right now.  We've had a lot of people waltzing into garages in our neighborhood on the pretense of selling something, but I think they're just casing the place out.  (Then there are Those People who leave their garage door open 24/7 and attract the scum to the neighborhood, then act surprised when they get robbed.)

I wonder how one of these new "tile" locators would be, affixed discreetly under the safe or even inside the safe or the hollow stock of a rifle -- if it could get a signal inside metal.

https://home.thetileapp.com/

[Mudinyeri]

I would call a moving company.  Piece of cake for them and probably cheaper than you think.  They are insured so you don't have the risk of property or personal damage.

I did a little checking a while back ... most moving companies have a minimum fee that makes this a fairly pricey proposition.

I grew up moving pianos so moving a 440 lb safe doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me.

Start by removing the door.  That's often the heaviest part and usually pretty easy to remove.  Move the door and the "box" separately.

Do not use a dolly that concentrates all the weight on a single step at a time as you move the safe into your basement.  Use a dolly with skids or simply slide the door and safe down the stairs spreading the weight across multiple steps at once.

Air dollies are great for flat surfaces but won't work on stairs.

The plywood on the lawn idea is good for getting the safe across your neighbor's lawn to your home.  Alternatively, strap the safe box to a piece of plywood and have two guys pull it with a rope or strap while two more guys push it.  Do the same with the door.

If you cut the plywood narrow enough, you can use is as your slide for the stairs.  Purchase finish grade plywood so as to avoid slivers in your carpet.

Let me know if you need more ideas.

[bigdog]

I moved my 54 gun safe with an appliance cart and had no problems. If you are just putting it in your garage, no problem. I put my safe in the basement going down stairs and needed several friends to slide it down the stairs without the cart attached.

[barmandr]

Is that ammo or beer?

Yes.

[Lmbass14]

Robert, if you need help, I'll come down and help ya.  Just pm me on date/time.

[on the fritz]

Depending on day & time, I can offer up my assistance (& maybe my 14 yr old son's help) too. 

I have some moving straps that might help. 

[gsd]

Same here man, you know I'll help if I can.

[RobertH]

Thank you everyone for the ideas and the offer to help. Since there is no rush (right now), ill take my time. I looked at it last night and im pretty sure the door comes off, so that would help a lot. I will pm or text people if i need the help. Maybe ill post pics when this is all done. OpSec will be maintained though.

[Gary]

With the door off, you loose some strength in the safe.   If you spring the frame, you have nothing.    If the floor / stairs you travel over will handle the weight door on, leave it on.  IMHO.

  I have moved safes both ways, doors on, doors off.   You take a greater risk of finger pinching / amputation messing with taking the door off and on, than you do just moving it.    It is not a massive amount of weight, it will move easy enough with the door in place.

Took a 300 pound door off once to move a safe, because I was concerned about the stairs holding the weight.   Putting the door back on, was harder than moving the safe. 

[Mudinyeri]

The door of a 440 lb safe might weigh 200 lbs.  I agree with Gary that it will be a bit of a hassle to take the door off and put it back on, but a safe without a door is, perhaps, half as heavy and has places where you can grab hold to carry it.

I seriously doubt that you could "spring the frame" of a quality safe if you move it carefully.

[rudy]

FWIW............

A safe located in your garage is often quite easy to steal.

All that's needed is to open the garage doors, back up a pickup truck to the safe, tilt the safe into the truck bed, push the safe further into the truck bed, and take off.   Once the safe's center of gravity is on the truck bed, it's EZ.

As it happens, I've moved safes from garage to garage by myself in the same manner.   Buying and selling.  Used an SUV (bed is lower than a pickup) and totally surprised myself by being able to do it.

Much harder to get one out of the basement.   That activity usually takes two strong lads pushing at the bottom and one even stronger one pulling on the dolly to get it up all 13 steps.

Like I said, FWIW.

sfg

It is wise to bolt your gun safes (or residential security containers) to the floor.  Many of them come with predrilled holes in the bottom for this purpose.  Bolting down would preclude easy stealing by the method you've mentioned (tipping it into a truck bed and driving off).  Additionally, it makes it harder for thieves to force the safe open using pry bars since it can't be tipped over easily (there are youtube videos demonstrating this if you're curious).

[RobertH]

bkoenig and gsd helped move it. Great guys and did all the work.