Ideas for moving the compressor off the pallet?

[TTA89]

I borrowed a truck with a lift gate and finally moved my compressor to my home garage from a buddies shop. I have rubber feet for the bottom and I'm not sure how to lift this thing up to get the pallet out and get the feet on. It weighs 700lbs so I thought I could use my engine hoist but now I have the compressor and engine hoist together I'm not sure how this is going to work.

I want a tractor... but I don't have a tractor..... and the wife will kill me if I buy a tractor. lol Any bright ideas here?

 

[Walkers]

Pull it out of the cubby hole, rig a chain or strap to the top, lift with hoist. Set down as near to the spot it is going, then star shoving it inside. Careful, they are top heavy.

 

[jrsavoie]

The risk of death, may well be worth it.

I know guys that don't have their wife anymore, but they still have their tractors.

And there are others that lost their tractor and gerg

 

[NBN]

sell a couple pieces of that plywood and you could get a nice tractor

 

[ScaldedDog]

I have the same compressor, and my wife and got it on the ground by disassembling the pallet and working it slowly to the ground. It took us the better part of an hour, but it worked.

Mark

 

[Forgottonia]

You could tilt it up and set it on a flat bed made of thick plywood or other scrap which is sitting on the pallet. Then use your engine lift to lift an end of the plywood platform, and slide the pallet out from under. Then tilt/roll it off the platform. That might work...

Then again, it probably only weighs 500 or 600 lbs, right? Just get three or four buddies to help out.

 

[Bogie1632]

Do you still have the lift gate? Lower it onto the top of the pallet, perpendicular to the top boards the compressor is mounted to. Slide/wiggle the compressor onto the gate, carefully, then back to the floor.

Good luck.

V/R
Bogie

 

[nadogail]

get lever to move the compressor out of the way and disassemble the pallet

 

[GeddyT]

I have a compressor with basically that same tank and what looks like exactly that same hoist, and this move was no problem. The way I see it, there are two ways to do this, one tedious but safer and another quick and ********-clenching.

Tedious but safe: If you still have that pallet jack, pull the compressor out, jack it up as high as the pallet jack will go, and stack enough boards under the pallet that you can slide that engine hoist under and lift. I've seen people on YouTube lift 10,000 pound CNC mills up high enough to pull a trailer underneath just by sequentially tilting up corners a half-inch and stacking shim boards one at a time. In your case, I bet for such a low lift and relatively light piece of equipment, this wouldn't take but an hour or two.

Fast and probably still safe: Drag the compressor out from that corner and get the hoist as close as possible, with the feet of the hoist right up against the pallet and the hoist aligned with the compressor. Make sure the legs of the hoist are extended farther than the arm so the hoist doesn't tip over forward when you start leaning the compressor over. Run a lifting strap under the pump platform and to the hoist (as pictured below), unbolt the receiver from the pallet, start lifting. The compressor will start tilting and dragging across the pallet toward the hoist, eventually picking up off the pallet and dangling. Move pallet out the way, set compressor down, reposition straps for better balance.

If you really want to add safety to this last method, you could use straps to anchor the hoist to something behind it so it can't tip over.






A 700 lb. compressor is nothing to a hoist like that. Just, as suggested before, grab from the top, as the assembly is top-heavy.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I want a tractor... but I don't have a tractor..... and the wife will kill me if I buy a tractor. lol Any bright ideas here?

1. Buy a back hoe (or excavator).
2. Dig a hole
3. ?


Looks like you already disassembled to bottom boards from the pallet.
Just continue with the same method.
Replace the boards the compressor is bolted to with feet,

 

[zippyslug31]

I went through this same thing about 6 months ago. I like the idea of the engine lift, but what I did was to pivot off of the pallet (my unit has 3 feet, allowing for balanced/rotating on a single foot) and onto stacks of plywood set individually under each foot, roughly the same thickness of the pallet. Once you're entirely on your individual stacks of ply, just rotate up freeing 1 foot at a time, and pull out a single ply (thus not allowing the compressor to lean too much in any one direction). Keep doing this until you're on the floor. Done deal.

 

[Jswain]

Pull it out with the pallet jack.
If the pallet jack will lift high enough slide the engine hoist under, take the weight & unbolt it from the pallet, bolt your feet on, get it as close as you can then shimmy it in by hand with 2 people.

If you can't get it high enough with the pallet jack without removing the pallet jack then Shim it up with 2x or 4x

If it can't lift it high enough for either of these options take a sawzall and knock off each end of the pallet then get the engine hoist in there

You have all the tools you need plus some

 

[niget2002]

Use some bracing and mount a large eye-bolt to the ceiling above the compressor inside your cubby.

Run a large diameter rope or metal line through the eye bolt and through the top of the tank frame. Run the other end of the rope to the back of your truck. Use your truck to pull the air compressor up a little. Slide pallet out from under air compressor. Backup truck to lower air compressor down onto your rubber pads.

Have a friend help drive the truck so you can get it up and down quickly before the ceiling explodes under the weight of the compressor.

 

[thammel]

I used my engine hoist as shown above.

 

[Toothaker]

I went through this same thing about 6 months ago. I like the idea of the engine lift, but what I did was to pivot off of the pallet (my unit has 3 feet, allowing for balanced/rotating on a single foot) and onto stacks of plywood set individually under each foot, roughly the same thickness of the pallet. Once you're entirely on your individual stacks of ply, just rotate up freeing 1 foot at a time, and pull out a single ply (thus not allowing the compressor to lean too much in any one direction). Keep doing this until you're on the floor. Done deal.

This! All by myself and with a handful of boards, I walked my compressor down off the pallet to the floor.

 

[TTA89]

Wow! So many ideas! In the end, my buddy and I laid down 3 steel pieces of square tube and some 3/4 plywood scrap. We unbolted the compressor and it was shockingly easy to just walk it back and forth down the plywood and then into place. I will easily be able to get the feet on it when I remember to bring them to the garage.....

Now to wire and plumb it up!

 

[PoorUB]

I bought a used 80 gallon 5 HP compressor a few years back. I brought a buddy with and some tools. In about 5 minutes we had the pump and motor off and loaded the tank by hand and of course the pump and motor. We unloaded it at my shop and put the tank in place and reassembled it. That took a bit longer, maybe 30 minutes.

 

[Jswain]

Looks dead ****

 

[Duke74]

get 3 of your buddies and walk it off.

 

[nadogail]

We do favors for others and from time to time we ask others to do us one.

 

[ZRX61]

I oriented mine so the fan was perpendicular to the wall

 

[jclem40c]

if it were me I would put something under the contact points on the floor to cushion
the compressor to eliminate noise and vibration transmission to the concrete floor.
After a while the noise and vibration will become bothersome. Just a thought.

 

[niget2002]

if it were me I would put something under the contact points on the floor to cushion
the compressor to eliminate noise and vibration transmission to the concrete floor.
After a while the noise and vibration will become bothersome. Just a thought.

He said he has rubber feet to put under it.

 

[Steve in UT]

I was lazy, I chopped off the excess pallet and left it on there. The added bonus, was It gave me room to pipe the drain out to the front.

 

[rburke65]

I think the Op has it off the pallet.......

 

[TTA89]

I do have it off the pallet. I also have rubber feet to be installed and the drain is already plumbed to the front. It came with an electric auto drain which is a nice touch, just need to screw it in. I'm now collecting the electrical pieces to wire it up if you want to see that?

 

[428PI]

I would have left it on the pallet.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

I would have left it on the pallet.

I have a 6 HP 60 gallon vertical compressor with a pallet just a bit bigger than the compressor footprint. I've never bothered taking it off the pallet, just don't see what's to be gained from doing it.

 

[sz0k30]

Why? In all the posts I've read, it seems more guys leave the on the pallet. Mine is.

 

[TTA89]

Why take it off the pallet? It's personal preference. I think it looks half *** installed sitting on a broken pallet and in my opinion it's a beautiful piece of equipment that will make me smile when I turn the corner and see it sitting there. It will work on the pallet but I don't care for how it looks.

 

[Git]

^ This, plus being on the pallet helps collect dust, dirt and other debris. And he said he has rubber standoffs for it

 

[Tman]

I was lazy, I chopped off the excess pallet and left it on there. The added bonus, was It gave me room to pipe the drain out to the front.

I would have left it on the pallet.

I have a 6 HP 60 gallon vertical compressor with a pallet just a bit bigger than the compressor footprint. I've never bothered taking it off the pallet, just don't see what's to be gained from doing it.

I left mine on the pallet. Makes it much easier to get a drain pan under the drain valve. Mine is cut down to a nice square shape. About the quietest compressor I have been around. 16 years this way.

 

[FTG-05]

I would have left it on the pallet.

Same here, far more stable.

 

[Git]

Same here, far more stable.

More stable than bolted to the concrete floor on rubber isolators? I don't think so