How I moved the Woodstock Stove myself

[Sandor]

Well, officially shacked up with the women and sold my last home.

Had to take the Woodstock Soapstone with me!

Constructed a simple 2x4 cart with two medium duty 3 inch wheels at one end and two 3 swivel wheels at the other. Just had to make sure that the wheels would be directly under the stove legs.

Lifted one end up with my left hand and slid the cart underneath. The harder part (grunt, grunt) was to lift the other end up and shimy the stove back another two inches to get the two remaining legs up on the cart. Had to slide the cart back to brace on a wall so it would not roll across the floor while I lifted away.

After it was on the cart, I put screws around each leg so it would not slide off while rolling it around.

Used a friends low, small utility trailer with a nice set of ramps. Even with wheels, going up a small incline was more difficult then I imaged. Strapped it down and away I went, into storage!

Anyway, not something I would recommend doing yourself, because if this thing starts to tip, its game over! But for a hardhead like me, it was a challenge I had to take.

Can't wait this fall to replace the womens trusty VC Resolute Acclaim with the Woodstock Keystone to compare burn/heating characteristics. Used the VC to heat the rancher all last year and it did a good job, but having a reliable overnight burn will make my life much easier in the morning.

 

[Todd]

Good job Sandor,
Those soapstone stoves are HEAVY! I moved mine by myself while it was still in the crate with a large appliance dolly to the hearth, built a ramp, rolled it up onto the hearth, took apart the crate, then slid it off inch by inch one side at a time. This stove is staying put!

 

[cbrodsky]

A common thing for us Woodstockers - I was worried about how to move the stove around at home after picking it up at their factory!

It turned out to be fairly easy - good thing because I had to reposition a couple times when I converted from single-wall to dual-wall pipe and made some hearth adjustments.

I've used three methods successfully:

1. Heavy duty hand truck to roll stove into house w/help from wife to keep it stable. Backed the truck tailgate right up to my porch - only jump I had to make was about 4" step which was possible to lift and pull when on cart w/2 of us working it.

2. Car floor jack under center of the stove with plywood to protect base of stove and help distribute jack pressure - this worked well for fine positioning.

3. One person can generally tilt the stove slightly - slip wood shims under the side that the legs lift up. Go to other side, alternate, and repeat as needed to get stove raised up. Then place a wood support pallet under the stove and on a cart or hand truck. Reverse the process tilting and removing wood blocks one at a time until stove is resting on cart. Also, if you place the wood on hard urethaned flooring shims (I used scrap brazillian cherry I had) you can slide it around slightly to get position just right with very little effort.

-Colin

 

[suematteva]

Hey Sandor & Soapstone Partners,

Sandor congrats on the successful move...That is an accomplishment...

Remember when we moved in our Mansfield all 590 lbs..forklift put her in the f-150.....john deere backhoe took her out... then on the dolly..thank GOD we only had to go down 2 steps..It went smooth though..

Soapy mass....