Congratulations on the purchase of a fine and beautiful stove Jack.
Piano or furniture dolly. Purchased at Harbor Freight for $9.95
We had our Fireview delivered to a business in town. They had a fork lift so was able to unload it from the truck and sit it onto our low trailer. When we got it home, I left it in the crate and slid if off the trailer right onto the dolly....by myself. Yes, it was over 500 lb. but was surprisingly easy to handle as long as it was in the crate.
Because we didn't install it until a couple months later it just sat in the carport. When it was time to install, I enlisted the help of 2 men. We put planks (2 x 10) to roll it up onto the porch, then moved the planks to get it inside the door. It was a very short distance from the door to the hearth. We placed the crate directly in front of the hearth and then finally took the crate apart. This was our first look at the stove!
We then lifted the top lid off the stove (very easily done), removed the firebox door and also removed the fire brick. This lessened the amount we would have to lift. Our hearth is 16" high so we did have to lift. One man on each side with 2 x 4's slide under the stove and me directly in front of the stove making sure it did not tip. We were amazed at how easy all this was. Nobody even worked up a sweat.
Other folks have used the 2 wheeled dolly to move the stoves but I felt the 4 wheeler would be the simplest and easiest. I still feel it was the best way plus now I have the dolly for use for other projects so not even that $10 was wasted.
We also made sure to keep all the crating material to use just in case we had to return the stove. After starting to use the stove it did not take us long at all to know that the stove would be excellent for us and it has not disappointed us in any way nor has the company.
btw, with the free shipping it seems to me the best way to go would be to have it shipped to you. If you wish to visit the factory, that also could be done some time when the company has one of their outings. This is what we did even though it took us 3 years to get to the factory. We were glad we went as we got to talk to many of the folks who actually build the stoves plus all the customer service people. As an added benefit we got to see the new stove in R & D. We met lot of folks, even some from this forum. We even had a free dinner and beer too.