I bought a Liberty Safe and had it delivered and installed. When the company installed it they only used 2 anchor bolts and said that was all that was needed. Why would you only need 2 bolts when the safe has 4 holes for anchor bolts and the bolt kit has 4 bolts in it. Do I need to get a kit and install the other 2 bolts? The company that installed it wants to charge me again to install the other 2 bolts.

Darned if I know. However, there are probably two reasons for bolting. One is to keep the safe from falling over (2 would suffice). The other is making it more difficult for burglars to break it loose from the floor.

Mine is fastened to the floor with four lag bolts. Can't rock the safe and pop the two bolts loose from the floor. Much harder to do with four bolts.

"Needed for what" is probably your question for the original installers.

A lot of this also depends on the type of floor the safe is installed on. Concrete basement is different from first floor is different from second floor. Lag bolts or bolt and nut.

you need all 4 bolts to reduce the leverage that can be applied on the other two.

The more attachment points, the better it is. Any lateral stresses (from attack or say, an earthquake) will be distributed through all attachment points and not concentrated on just two. Sounds like your installers were lazy.

If you look at the strength of 3/8" diameter wedge anchors, they go to @ 4000 lbs in decent concrete. If they bolted them tight, taking a saw to them would be near impossible, you won't be getting that safe moved once you've loaded. Not sure why they didn't bolt it down with 4 bolts though....that just seems like laziness.

BTW, I bought an AMSEC safe for my son, and all they would do was deliver it to the location. That's it. Will put it down and you do the rest.

quote:

Originally posted by lmacrichter:
I bought a Liberty Safe and had it delivered and installed. When the company installed it they only used 2 anchor bolts and said that was all that was needed. Why would you only need 2 bolts when the safe has 4 holes for anchor bolts and the bolt kit has 4 bolts in it. Do I need to get a kit and install the other 2 bolts? The company that installed it wants to charge me again to install the other 2 bolts.

If you clean out your safe - you can probably drill and drop 2 lags directly through without having to
move it. You don't need a kit - just a female lag receptacle and a matching lag bolt. (and a good drill with a masonry bit)

I only used 2 and I can promise you my safe is going no where.
Mine has feet that raise it up off the ground about 3 inches.
I used a rotary hammer drill to drill into the concrete. Cut metal tube to go between the concrete floor and the safe floor, slid the anchors in to place inside the safe, and gave it a few whacks with a 4lb sledge then put the nuts on.
This thing in going nowhere.

As Liberty now recommends 4 bolts in their safes the installer came back today and installed the other 2 bolts. Problem solved and excellent CS from Motivated Movers in Birmingham.

quote:

Originally posted by lmacrichter:
As Liberty now recommends 4 bolts in their safes the installer came back today and installed the other 2 bolts. Problem solved and excellent CS from Motivated Movers in Birmingham.

Which safe did you get. Glad it worked out.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue Dog:

quote:

Originally posted by lmacrichter:
As Liberty now recommends 4 bolts in their safes the installer came back today and installed the other 2 bolts. Problem solved and excellent CS from Motivated Movers in Birmingham.

Which safe did you get. Glad it worked out.

The Centurion 24 gun. Found it on sale for $699.

We charge per bolt and give the customer the option of how many they want. The vast majority go with two for two reasons.

Many are more concerned with the safe tipping over than they are somebody running off with the safe. The two rear bolts prevent this.

Along those same lines, most safes that we install are with their backs against a wall. The rearmost holes prevent the safe from tipping forward, and the forward holes from tipping rearward. Can't go back due to the wall.

The two rear bolts do 90% of what most people expect them to do. The bolts we use have 5,500 pounds of pull force and close to 6,000 pounds of shear each.

If you're worried about somebody ripping the safe from the floor you shouldn't be using a gun safe anyway. The 1/8" floor will rip clear of the bolts if put under any real stress.