Loading MSC Mill --forklift tips over

[bimmer1980]

This happened a couple of years ago....but it still should help somebody from making the same mistakes that I did.....

I had purchased a MSC mill from a guy here in PA and was going to ship it back to our (my brother and I) shop in SD. No problem, the guy had a forklift and could load it onto the semi trailer. He also claimed that it only weighed about 1700 pounds........ (and I didn't bother to check on the internet....)

So the semi shows up at the place, and typical PA country roads, there is no place to turn around. After a few miles down twisty hilly roads, the trucker finds a place to turn around, such as it was...

Get back to the place and prepare to load. The guys place was a little interesting....a bit run down and needing some TLC, but had some interesting equipment. THe driveway was sorta rough and at a bit of a slight slope as it intersected with the road. (this was to lead to the problem.....)

The guy was going to have his son run the forklift and we had to wait for him to show up. He finally shows up and jumps on the forklift. Instead of loading onto the end of the semi as they had thought, we needed to load onto the high step of the trailer.....

Well, due to the slight sloap, the forklift and mill leaned just a little to the left. As you can imagine, the higher you go, the worse it gets!! the guy comments as he's lifting, I've go a bad feeling about this... no sh1t, you think maybe you should stop and re-evaluate?? well, he proceeds, and you guessed it, just as the mill is about as the level of the trailer deck and has just an edge of the mill on the trailer, the forklift starts to go over to the left side. and continues until it is sitting at a 45 degree angle... in the process of all this, the guy and I decide to hang on the side of the forklift to add counter balance... (are we stupid or what???) We both jumped off when it was obvious that it was going over.... sorry for the pictures... it was dark by the time all this transpired.... you can see in the one picture how it barely got onto the trailer.......

 

[cashishift]

I bet that dude still don't sh!t right.. ******** is still puckered lol..

 

[bimmer1980]

"luckily" the guy had another forklift that was more like a payloader.... and best of all, nobody was hurt... So the Son goes and grabs this forklift and comes around to start lifting. At this point, I decide to get a little more involved because he was less than brialliant. (even tho he thought he was...) (and I wish I had been more involved with the initial loading, but I thought they had it under control)

I get up and check out how the mill was positioned. I had the idea, the as he tipped it back up, that we could lever it onto the semi trailer and be done. Long story short, after much muscling it around we were able to get it onto the trailer....

I was also concerned about the load of lumber that was on the trailer--I think it may have been trim. Luckily the trucking company was able to take care of all that.... no additional charges... whew, I was glad to be done that night.

 

[bimmer1980]

So the trucking company get's the mill back to their shipping hub and unload it with a huge forklift and onto the trailer that my brother built. He hauls it back to our shop. In the process, he get's the whole thing weighed. bottom line, the mill weighs about 2800 pounds!!! a bit more than the 1700 that the guy thought it weighed....

Of course, when we got it to our shop, we were a bit concerned about getting it off. We first thought about using our huge cherry picker, but in the end decided to use our forklift. Since the mill was in the center of the trailer, it was a little tough to reach it and get it picked up. at least our forklift was rated for 3500 pounds.... and we had nice level concrete to work on....

 

[bimmer1980]

in the past couple of years, we've added a power feed and a 3-axis DRO. The shop has also changed a bit too... here's the how it looked when I was out there two weeks ago....

An insulated wall was put up. Finished off the mezz and put the air compressors up there. My bro was in the middle of a project so a lot of equipment was scattered around....

 

[Skyline]

What the heck are you guys building???...looks like a miniature tank.

 

[bimmer1980]

it's a small caterpiller for pushing snow.... My bro is using the tracks from two sleds, and a couple of hydro static units. He's also adding hydraulics for the blade.

A skid steer would really be the ticket, but he's enjoying building it.... and it will be a lot lighter than a skid steer.....

 

[A_Pmech]

That's my #1 fear and a large part of the reason why I won't make a pick unless the ground below is perfectly flat. The combined CG moves beyond the wheels pretty quickly when the truck is leaning to the side!

Did you buy a lottery ticket after getting things righted?

 

[nate379]

I used to drive forklift quite a bit. I am certified from little baby 4k units up 25k. I don't see how the F he tipped that over.

 

[bimmer1980]

I've been trained and certified on a couple of forklifts as well--that's why I wish I would have jumped in there and stopped the guy before it tipped.

A_P is right, the center of gravity moves pretty quick. Especially with a mill--they can have a center of gravity that is not where you intuitively think it may be..... I think that contributed to the problem...

I must say, it took me awhile to fall asleep that night....

 

[crankshaftdan II]

Unless my eyes are going to hell in a handbasket, that forklift looks like an older Hyster qn-20-three wheeled unit, even thou they are good lifts, the center of gravity on any three wheeled unit is quite a bit tippy when you have an un-even surface. Not trying to engineer a solution, however that was one of the reasons they stopped making "Big Red" atv's due to three point tip factors. I drove fork lift for 34 years in shop on mostly flat floors, makes a big difference when you have an outside un-even surface, lots of height and weight to contend with as well as darkness and speed! Everyone had a guardian angel looking over their shoulder on that lift!!

 

[SirPoopsALot]

Bimmer1980,

That is a nice looking trailer! I cant figure out how the suspension is setup on it... Is there any?

 

[bimmer1980]

Sir PoopsAlot, it has a torsion alxe under it. THey are a nice compact unit. And it rides pretty smooth. They also have electric brakes.....

 

[Vinko]

I used to drive forklift quite a bit. I am certified from little baby 4k units up 25k. I don't see how the F he tipped that over.

I don't see how from the pics either. But I didn't look too close at the last one.

I often drive a 5000 lb. forklift with 3.5-4K loads.

I always wear a seatbelt because when that fucker tips, you can fall on the wrong side.

 

[Torque1st]

Looks like you got off real lucky.

FYI, some wrecker or tow companies have boom trucks that can pick a machine off a truck and put it about anywhere you want, or the reverse. Plus the operators are used to working in rough terrain with heavy loads.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Good thing Angelina was there to supervise the unloading of the mill!

 

[Vinko]

I looked at all the photos again, and I've moved a lot bigger mills than this. If you can get the thing on a pallet, and strap it down (not always necessary), it's pretty easy to move, in my experience.