Moving a Gun safe?

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ccw007

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I have been eyeing the Winchester Gun Safe at Sam’s Club and I may end up getting it. I have not decided if I will go with it or another brand.
Anyway, I have a place where I can get it in my house without lifting, but I am not sure an appliance dolly will work moving a 600 lb object. How did everyone get their safe in their house?
 
Just get a dolly or hand truck rated for more than 600 lbs , both of mine are.
 
I just moved mine into a new house. A really heavy-duty hand truck, (The kind that has an extra set of wheels that fold out in back so you don't have to hold it up all the time.) and several friends and neighbors. (And hope you don't have too many steps to manuver. If you do, a skid plate may be needed.)
The real interesting one was a ~1500-2000 lbs vault my son had found for me. Luckily it went in the garage, so no steps. Still took several people and a J-Bar to move it. (The lift gate on the truck was absolutely necessary.)

Good Luck!

Dean
 
I had my safe delivered, and when I moved, I let the movers deal with it. (They DID struggle a bit . . . better them than me.)

Before you buy the safe, be very sure you know exactly how you're going to move it from the store to it's final resting place in your home. Take the time to walk through the entire route, measure every doorway, account for every stairway, threshold, turn, and curb. Figure out how you're going to protect the floor tiles, vinyl flooring, and carpeting you may need to roll it across.

In other words, THINK THROUGH every step of the move.

Good luck.
 
Find some big, muscular friends. Give them beer and then, surprise them with the task of moving the safe.:D
Seriously, you can rent moving dollies (probably safe to still keep the big friends around). Or even better, you can hire a couple of moving men. Since the are professionals, the will know the best way to get it in without damaging the rest of the house.:)
 
You can rent a heavy duty dollie from any U-Haul hub or tool rental business. If the safe's door removes that would be a good thing. It will lighten it up about 150+ pounds. I just moved mine after 6 years into new house and taking the door off definately made a difference. Watch your fingers.....
 
Missashot said:
Find some big, muscular friends. Give them beer and then, surprise them with the task of moving the safe.:D
Click to expand...

Its amazing what how much you can get done when your only tools are beer and pizza, huh? :D
 
Pipe rollers on hard surfaces work quite well and you don't have to deal with balancing it on a dolly.

If you need help moving it, I suggest using professional movers. If one of those strong, muscular friends hurts himself, you might find yourself paying for medical bills and loss wages.
 
It's not really that big of a deal. I bought a 12/24 gun Browning safe a month ago. The guys at the gun shop helped me load it on the truck, and let me borrow the dolly to get it in my house. Fortunately, there are only three steps getting it into my house, but my father-in-law and I got it in the house and into my closet by ourselves. He had neck surgery 3 or 4 months before and couldn't lift a lot, and I've had an office job for a couple of years. If you take it slow, it's doable. Do remove the door and shelves first. It did leave permanent wheel impressions in the kitchen linoleum, though.:eek:
 
Huh, just so happens I moved one of my safes from a storage facility to my parent's garage a couple Sundays ago. The safe is a Sentry 22 or 24 gun, ~550-600#. I had purchased one of those appliance hand trucks with those fold out additional wheels that allow you to tilt the dolly and rest it on the wheels relieving you of the task of keeping it balanced. Previously, this safe was moved using a handtruck without the fold out wheels and is was a serious task for 3 guys and a girl. Actually fell on my sister's husband but got it off of him quickly. Bruised his knee.

This time around, only me and my dad moved the safe. The additional wheels were a major help, particularly in off loading from the moving van ramp. It was slightly going off the ramp on the way down and my mom, who was watching decides that she can help my pushing the safe back. It was ~4 feet off the ground. My da and I were yelling like mad for her to get the he** out of the way. In my task of yelling as her, watching where she was, trying to right the path of the safe, I eventually got to the bottom and promptly fell flat on my behind. The tilted handtruck stayed up and held the safe. (My dad was at the back end). Took about 5 minutes to calm down.

In short, get a handtruck with those additional wheels.
 
Just moved a 550 lb safe myself. A heavy duty dolly and a couple of relatively strong and patient friends are what you need. One person behind the dolly and one person on each side of the safe to help guide it. The hardest part of moving a safe is getting it onto and off of the back of a truck or trailer.

I recommend a trailer. What they did with mine was to move the safe to back of the trailer and then with three people lay / tilt the safe onto the trailer. Make sure the back of the safe is going to be lying onthe trailer. Once the safe is laying on the trailer, push the safe to the center of the trailer and secure the safe to the trailer for transport.

Once at home, push the safe to back of the trailer slowly, so as the bottom of the safe goes over the edge of the trailer. Once the bottom is over the back edge of the trailer the safe will want to start to stand up against the back of the trailer. Once the bottom is touching the ground, slowly stand the safe the rest of the way up. Then move with the dolly.

I was surprised at how easy it was to deliver my own safe. Your experiece may vary though.

Boo586
 
There is nothing wrong with moving a safe yourself so long as you use a lot of common sense and are very careful. People have been killed moving safes, even professionals.

One thing to consider: The amount that you would pay a professional would probably be less than your insurance co-pay if you had to make a trip to the emergency room.

It doesn't take long to mess something up, including your brand new safe.
 
My safe is only 80 pounds. It took me, a handtruck & a guy from the store to get it on my truck. When I got home I did the rest myself. It wasn't that difficult. Sorry I can't be more help:( .
 
I've done the beer and pizza, let the movers do it, and hired pro's from a safe company. (I move around alot.) Based on past experiences, I'll hire pro's from a safe company. They're used to the work, have the equipment, don't mess up the house or safe, and they're pretty reasonable on the cost as well.

I won't have regular movers move my safe again, and wouldn't recommend that if you have a large/heavy safe. If I had to move it myself, I would, but if at all possible, I'll use pro's from a local safe company.
 
Alternates

I've read that you can roll heavy, flat bottomed objects on golfballs. Getting them out might be tricky.
What about ice cubes, they would just melt away?
 
HEY there!


I just got that very same safe from Sam's Club a month ago.


Here's my recommendation. A handtruck/dolly that is rated for 600-700lbs is fine. They sell those at Sam's also. You can tell which ones they are. They have the inflatable tires. Lighterweight dollys have the solid rubber tires that are much smaller and thinner.


Get 1 good strong extra friend. 2 would be better, but depending on people's size/strength, 2 total people might be fine.


Buy it. When you go to the back of the store to receiving, make sure they lay the safe down on ITS BACK onto your truck. Otherwise, it will crush the combination or bend the handle. (sounds like common sense, but people have actually done that)


Before they load it up for you (if you're not getting delivery) make them take the box off (it comes off easy, is 1 piece) and bring a 9-volt battery. The keypad slides off upwards. Put the battery in. Put the keypad back on. Then put in the combo. It is 1-2-3-4-5-6. Check to see if it opens. Do this AT THE STORE. Worst thing in the world would be to bring a defective safe to your home then have to move it again or deal with a return process. They will give you looks or attitude for wanting to test it there. Tell them you demand to do it. I did, they let me. Put the box back on for loading to avoid scratches.


I left the skid/palette attached to the bottom of the safe. This means I had to leave my tailgate open and the safe only went into the bad until the skid reached the open tailgate. Then I tied it down.


DON'T let those idiots use the fork lift to slide it up in there. It isn't that heavy. 2 guys can slowly tip it onto the tailgate, and once the weight is on there, you grab from the bottom and heave it up on there. It isn't that bad. 2 guys can do it. I spent 20 minutes bitching at the Sam's Club guys trying to convince them not to do it that way, then it took me and 1 buddy a whopping 5 seconds to just lift it in by hand. If they use the forks, they will either scratch it, or drop it. If they drop the safe - DON'T Buy it. Any small drop can warp the safe to make it useless. It can also damage the internal mechanisms.


Once home. Just slide it till the weight is about to make it tip off the bed of the truck, then 2 guys can ease it to the ground with no impact. Then get behind it and tip it upright. Piece of cake.


At this stage, open the safe - remove all the shelving and stuff from inside. This lowers the weight a little. While one person holds the safe, the other should unbolt it from the wooden skid. You will have to remove these small white plastic plugs to get to the bolts. Use a thin flat head screwdriver and be careful so you don't rip the interior. Slide the safe off the skid. Take some of the plastic wrapping that was used to cover the safe, and line your dolly with it before pressing it up against the safe. This ensures it wont scratch it.


Rest is just rolling it in and placing it. It isn't that bad, but I don't know your size/strength. It wasn't that bad for me, and I am 5'11" 195. Buddy is good to help direct you, and to grab it if you start slipping.



This is a good safe. I love mine. Remember to change the combination. It is easy. The process sounds much worse than it really is. You just need to get your ducks in a row prior to moving, and have a plan. If you do not, you will either make it harder, or will incur damage.


Good luck.
 
A few years ago I got a safe (600 lbs) and installed it by myself. I grew up in the appliance business so I was used to handling heavy objects, although not quite that heavy. I got a dolly that was rated for over 600 lbs, it has to have ball bearing wheels, wheels that use a bushing don't handle that kind of weight well. The store helped me load it on to a truck, laying down with the bottom end to the back, I just levered it off and down to the ground just like a refrigerator, I couldn't break over the dolly by myself, but I strapped it to the dolly, then pushed on the opposite side, this would lift the safe slightly off the ground and let it roll a couple of feet per push, got it in the house and used the same method to get it to the back bedroom where I set it up and bolted it down. I don't recommend doing this by yourself unless you have a lot of experience handling large heavy objects, but 2 or 3 people can handle one pretty well.

Tip: A conventional appliance dolly doesn't have the capacity to handle a safe, the wheels are too soft and it will just dig in.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Missashot
Find some big, muscular friends. Give them beer and then, surprise them with the task of moving the safe.


Originally posted by Rupestris
Its amazing what how much you can get done when your only tools are beer and pizza, huh?
Click to expand...

You have no idea. That is exactly how my husband tricked me into marrying him and having the cutest baby in the world. :D
 
Thanks for the tips. I think I can move it with one other person if I get a U-haul truck with the ramp. I have a deck that I can put the Ramp on from the U-haul truck and with the Dolly I can roll it down the ramp. The ramp will be just about level. That is how I moved in to my house. I have a sliding glass door I could take it in from the deck and then move to the office in my house with no lifting.
Now with that said I have had lower back surgery and 5 years ago I could have moved it like this no problems, now I am not so sure. I know I could not get it off my pickup truck. It may be cheaper to get movers to do it, but I hate to have strangers do this. Just call me paranoid.
 
Used to move safes for a living

And we used a heavy duty refrigerator dolly for these....takeing the do off is a good idea(we didn't) as usually that's about 1/3 of the weight of the safe...Just be careful and use common sense,and you'll be fine....
 
I know the safe you are talking about its real nice
just use a dolly
 
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