quote:

Originally posted by jimb888:

quote:

Failing to heed this advice killed my uncle.

Whoh! Care to share the story Chuck? I'd be for moving the existing safe myself, until I saw your words.

I posted it last autumn. I looked, but doesn't look like that thread exists any more. Basically, an average size gun safe, maybe about 62" high. He made a deal who moves safes for a local retail store to move it for him. The kid showed up without any assistants and my uncle agreed to help him. The kid stationed my uncle under him and the safe on some outdoor stairs. The kid was a couple steps from the bottom and bit one wheel off the step before the other causing it to rock and him to lose control. The safe fell on my uncle who hit his head on the concrete & had the safe land on his chest/torso.

Only saving grace is that he head blow likely knocked him out so he never knew any of the pain.

Safes aren't hard to get/replace at this point. Don't take any chances.


EDIT: I agree with above, talk to Frank. Unless your safe is something spectacularly unique and irreplaceable why not replace it.

Doublesharp's plan is what was "supposed" to happen in my uncle's case.

Oh, and Captain, what is this "excess guns" thing you mentioned?

Bump for thoughts from a1abdj.

Thanks everyone for your input!

A used gun safe can typically bring 50% of its original purchase price. Possibly a bit more if it's in like new condition. My general advice from a pure cost perspective is to sell before you move and replace once you get to where you're going.

You really need to figure out what it's going to cost you to make a real comparison. Having a guy like me remove it, crate it, and ship it is going to cost more than a household mover tossing it on their truck. If you're going to rent a truck and drive it yourself your only cost may be the removal and re-installation.

More and more moving companies are having their insurance companies tell them they can't touch them. Their estimator will come out and tell you moving it is not a problem then one of two things will happen. Either the crew will show up that day and say they can't move it, or a guy like me will show up as a subcontractor. I'll charge you the same price I'm charging the moving company, but they are going to mark it up on their end for calling me themselves. If that's the case, you would save money by calling whomever can do it yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Their estimator will come out and tell you moving it is not a problem

NEVER trust a moving company estimator, get it on paper. I only worked for a moving company for 3 months, between the estimators & cross-country truck drivers, I averaged 2-3 detailed plans of murder per week.
"2 guys, half a day & a 15' truck' = work for 4, 2 days & 1.5 50' trailers.
"I can't back this truck in that 3-car width drive off a 4 lane road, you'll have to cart everything 500' uphill"

the household moving company moved mine from Utah to SC with virtually no issue.

It will definitely move with me when/if I move again!

I left mine with the house - became a selling point

picked up a new and better safe for my new house

How much to ship it? How much to replace it? Not enough data.

If you are having the whole contents moved, I would think moving most home safes would be no extra.

As I understand it, with most of the major manufacturers, unless you're moving to Utah you're goimg to pay for shipping a new one, one way or the other, so unless you get top dollar for the one you have you may as well ship it if you're otherwise happy with it.

I've moved five times in the last 17 years.
Got the firearm/equipment end down to a science. Rubbermaid containers for the accessories/reloading/odds and ends, ammo boxes for the obvious and used military Hardigg cases for other things. We also (due to unfortunate deaths of friends/family) had to help some others move safes and firearms in this manner.

Here's what I did- I did the first move with blanket-covered piles in the back of a Volvo or SUV. Only once. After that I had an idea and found a couple of used long job boxes w/wheels that were beat up but solid. (36" models are probably too short for most folks). You can find these for $200-300 in most places other than NYC.
I have the longer 60" ones kinda like this-



I found that you could take one of these, (if you have gun socks/cases it's a lot easier) but if you don't, use blankets between wrapped firearms. Depending on the size of the firearms these job boxes will hold quite a few and can be locked. You can roll these into a covered truck/van and put two of them in the back (SUV holds one).

I moved my own safes once- I used a high-back trailer where I of course kept the safe(s) upright and had sufficient trailer strength to chain them in place. (It takes a beefy trailer to do this). Movers did the the other times.

But the beauty of the job boxes is that once you are moved, you unload your bangsticks, and then put your heavy tools/cases in them and roll them under your shop benches. We've used them twice since to help other friends move.

While job boxes can be enticing visually they are nothing compared to blanket covered piles in the back of a station wagon or SUV.

I do not recommend doing this in an open truck or trailer unless you don't stop along the way.

I have a pretty modest safe, one of the $600 Costco/Sams “Winchester” ones, if I recall it is between 550-650 pounds.

Brought it home in the back of a truck and put it in my den at our old house. No stairs involved.

Moved it from there to another house and then out of that house (25 stairs each way) and into our current house (14 stairs). Each time it has been moved we have had 3 people involved.


No plans to move it out of this house when we sell after I retire for three main reasons:

-Closet in this house was specifically made to house it, so it will be a “feature”.

-Safe will be going on 18 years old when I retire, and it has the electric keypad lock. Don’t want to keep it to the point of failure and have to deal with that.

-Plan is to sell almost all furnishings and set up a new house from scratch wherever we land. We don’t have fancy, expensive, heirloom furnishings so no emotional attachment to any of it. I figure it would be close to the same cost (or even cheaper) to buy new furnishings as it would to pay movers to to load, transport across country, unload, and break my shit along the way. That way we aren't forced into a house that “fits” our stuff, but rather new stuff can be bought to fit the house we want, including an appropriate safe.


Plan is to drive the car out to scout/settle the area. Fly back, then drive whatever truck or SUV I have at the time with about a 12’ max trailer of the stuff we keep (clothes, tools, valuables, firearms, electronics, etc.)

4-6 years out on the plan, so could change but thinking about it more and each time I do it reinforces the plan as being a good one.

put it up for sale ,
there has to be a SigForum member some where between you starting point and destination that needs a safe.
pack it last
drop it off and let him/her deal with putting in.

Thanks for the additional thoughts, friends. As the time approaches, I'll make a decision about it. Now I'm leaning toward including it on the moving truck, loaded either by the local safe company I bought it from or several strong friends. Once at the new location, I'd probably contract a local safe company or one of their contractors to move it in. I think that will be more cost effective and be able to keep this safe that I do like.