I feel like the dog that caught the car. Finally bought a gun safe and have it in the back of my truck. Now I'm wondering how I move it into position in the garage.

It's only 500#, but still too heavy for me and my son to wrestle. Is there some sort of wheeled plate you can lower them onto? Like a furniture dolly, only thinner?

It's bolted to a pallette now and I can get some buddies to help lower it to the garage floor. Then how do I get it onto the dolly after unbolting it from the pallet?

Sure appreciate some help from Those that have done this before.

Call your local tool rental place. They may have some great advice for you.

The good news is that (I assume) you don't need to get the thing up or down stairs. If it's a simple matter of getting it off the truck and rolled into the garage, it will be MUCH simpler and safer for you and a couple of friends to manage.

Mine was lighter, but my wife and I managed to get it out of my truck, onto a heavy-duty dolly and down a grassed slope to my back patio doors and then inside.

I'm told that some professional movers remove the door (about half the weight) and move it and the box separately - but I have no idea how they do that.

A standard two-wheeled dolly will move that around. Mine is rated for 600 lbs, and my brother and I just moved my 560 lb safe on it with no trouble. We're not weight lifters, however we didn't have a pallet to contend with.

The installers that brought mine used a little square platform with a LOT of wheels on the bottom.

If the bottom of the safe is completely flat, then roll it on dowel rods, or golf balls. Keep in mind whatever you do may mar the floor.

Yes, the door is quite a bit of the weight. But don't forget you'll have to reattach it.

Figure the install / delivery fee was the best money I spent when purchasing mine! Good luck.

I thought that was what son-in-laws were for.:p

Mine was also 500 pounds. I moved it with a refrigerator dolly, the one with hard wheels and a strap to tighten things to the dolly. It's on a cement floor and once there you can slide it one corner at a time about anywhere. I put it one place then a year later moved it to a different corner all by my self.

Most furniture moving companies will also move them for you, but expect to pay a premium. If it's laying on it's side in your truck that is a good time to take off the pallet on the bottom. The cardboard box it's in makes good material to slide it on to get it out of the truck bed.

Thanks for the great info.

I have to clear a spot in the garage for the final location. So for now, I'll just get it off the truck and it will be about 4 feet from its final spot.

So, I'll take the pallet off w/ it in the truck and lower it onto the concrete. Then later on me and my son can rock it over to its place one corner at a time. Shouldn't need the dolly.

You can rent a powered dolly. That's what I did.

A professional-grade refigerator dolly (2 wheel) will do it. Tip the safe, get the lip of the dolly fuly underneath it. Put the strap around the safe, and get it TIGHT. Tip the safe back and wheel it -- s-l-o-w and easy -- into position. You and your son can probably handle it, but better to have maybe 3 husky guys on hand.

I used 3/4" sch 40 PVC electrical conduit cut into 36" lenghts as rollers. Just kept putting one in front as one rolled out the back. Made it so easy that I bolted it to the floor after I seen how easy they are to move.

I used 3/4" sch 40 PVC electrical conduit cut into 36" lenghts as rollers. Just kept putting one in front as one rolled out the back. Made it so easy that I bolted it to the floor after I seen how easy they are to move.


Just like building the pyramids...

Actually...this went real easy. Three of us pulled it off the truck and lowered it onto the concrete floor. I can shimmy it around by myself and once I clear the spot, I can push it into place.

It'll be alot harder to move w/ a few guns in it.

I thought that was what son-in-laws were for.:p

Holy crap! I thought you were my Father-in-law for a minute.

A pallet jack would make it too easy! Don't forget to bolt it down. If you can move it so can someone else even with the guns in it. Then they could take their time getting to what's inside.
Greg

Let me preface this story by saying over confidence is a bad thing.

The truth be told, I had perhaps one of the worst days of my life moving a gunsafe. When I purchased my gunsafe I brought it into my home all by myself on a refrigerator dolly. It was a basic Browning weighing about 550 lbs. I didn't have any problems, I am fairly good sized boy.

The next part is where the over confidence kicks in. When my brother bought his gunsafe, he decided upon a firesafe which weighed about 725 lbs. I offered to help him thinking that if I can move 550 lbs, then we can move 725 lbs with no problem. So I picked up his safe from the dealer with my work truck (it has a lift gate).

We get the safe off the truck with no problem on a refrigerator dolly & get it up to his doorstep. I'm working the dolly while my brother steers from outside. When I go to lift the safe up over the doorstep my left foot slips & down comes the safe. The refrigerator dolly came down on my left leg & snapped my left tibia & fibula. Luckily I kicked my leg out just before the safe came all the way down or else I would have just one leg right now. My right leg was pinned between the rails of the dolly so I couldn't move, not that I could if I wanted to. It took five paramedics to lift that bugger off of me.

The kicker is that I managed to do this the day before my birthday so I got to wake up in the hospital on my birthday. I got to spend the next 8 months in either a leg cast or leg brace before the doctor turned me loose. This was 11 years ago. I still limp.

The moral of the story is either get plenty of friends to help or a company that moves safes as a profession. When my brother passed away & I inherited his safe I hired a locksmith that had a set of hydraulic dollys that clamped around the safe from each side & jacked it up & down. A slick set up.

A fried of mine had the local lumber yard come by with their fork lift to move his.
When I bought mine there was no room to lay it down in a shortbed with a toolbox and set it down upright so we put some quilts on the truck bed & the ground,layed it down in the truck,slid it out& set it upsidedown on the quilt then uprighted it & moved it with an appliance dolly.
Scarry part was watching the idiot with the forklift at the store come down the ramp load first,then I thought well if it slides off they will just have to eat that one & go get another

I had to move mine about 30 feet (inside and through 3 doors). I used 2 flat pry bars and 12 golf ball with a 12 year old son to help. Catch three balls as they come out and stick them under in front. It took about 15 minutes but will not work for stairs or moderately steep slopes.

My gunsafe resides in my sunken living room. This means lifting it up two steps at the front door and two steps down into the living room. The guy who did this for me works at my gunstore and he and his pard move safes after hours with an electric dolly. BTW, they were both built like Hulk Hogan. I don't even want to think about moving a gunsafe by myself. Congratulations to all of you who successfully did it by yourselves. In my case, as Dirty Harry, put it "A man's got to know his limitations.":o

When I move my safe, more than across the room, I take the door off and move it seperatly. The door is as heavy as the rest of the safe. I use an appliance dolly.:)
I have used pipe rather than golf eggs to move it a short distance.

When I brought my 500 lb safe home I had to move it about 30 feet to it's final location. My brother-in-law, who is rather large, threw the thing around like it was made of cardboard! :eek:

You don't. You get someone else to do it for you.

Dolly, hoist and someone else's hernia.