How to get stove off trailer & downstairs?

[Nimrod1911]

My Woodstock Progress Hybrid will be arriving soon. I figure many here have moved heavy stoves. Here are my questions:
1) How do you recommend that I get the stove off my trailer?
- Option 1: If my hand-truck can handle it - use ropes/pulley system to slow/ease it down ramp (will take several people)
- Option 2: Rent some kind of high pallet lifter? From where?
- Option 3: slide stove down ramp - easing it down with ropes with no hand truck
- Others?
2) How do I get stove down 13 stairs? (stairs are in garage, made of concrete, plenty wide stair well)
- Option 1: lay 2x10's on stairs for ramp, slide stove (in crate) down, easing with ropes & winch (i have a winch)
- Option 2: Use hand-truck. Don't like this idea. Dangerous......Although this is how I got my current stove down. (500-550 pounder) A 700 lb stove makes this a no go. Maybe if I include ropes and pulleys but then I will need many people and I want to bug as few people as possible.
- Other Options?
3) How to get old stove off hearth and new stove onto 10" hearth? (we used an elaborate method of a car jack and cribbing to get old one on, which can be done, but it is a slow process)
- Option 1 - use slow process of car jack and cribbing and precariously move it over onto hearth....same way I did with old stove. (don't like....but will if I must)
- Option 2) - Rent some type of lifter. Suggestions? Need something that can extend over the 10 inch hearth.

 

[DexterDay]

Appliance Dolly. Rent one. It has straps on it. I used one for my 30-NC and Fahrenheit pellet furnace.

I used 3 men. 2 up top, one below. We tied 6' nylon straps to the top two handles, so the 2 guys up top, stayed in place and just lowered it down the steps with the straps (had to go down a couple steps at the end). And the man on the bottom just guided it.

Easy peasy. Most hardware stores rent them.

 

[Nimrod1911]

Yes. I called it a hand-truck in my post but an Appliance Dolly is what we have used. In fact, this will be the fourth stove I've had in my basement. My dolly only has one handle on it which isn't great for steadying things and is terrible for a second person to grab, but I like the idea of tying on handles. I just haven't moved 700 pounds before. I remember that the 500-550 pound one nearly killed us.

 

[BobUrban]

Remove everything that you can. Ie. door, fire bricks, pedistal(if it has one), etc.. lighten the load as much as possible and get enough help to be useful but not so much that anyone is in the way. PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN!!

 

[jeff_t]

www.escalera.com

Never seen one, but I would hope you could rent one someplace.

 

[rideau]

We were not dealing with steps, since we backed the pick up to the sliding glass door, and laid 2 x 12's from the truck over the steps and platform up onto the sill. Temporarily secured the 2 x 12's. Then, three men, put the PH in crate on the appliance dolly, rolled the stove into the house, over to the hearth. Carried the Fireview (lighter at about 500 pounds) into the family room, uncrated the PH and lifted it onto the hearth ; under 1 inch high.

I'd use the dolly, winch and ramp (2 x 10 or 2 x 12's) to get the stove into the basement.

If your hearth is large enough to take the appliance dolly and PH side by side, I'd fabricate a ramp to push/pull the PH up onto the hearth, unless you have 3 or 4 strong men (preferably 4) without back or leg issues.

 

[alforit]

Hey Nimrod,

I installed my PH about a month ago. First,I used ramps to get it off of a Ford Ranger pickup......used 2 , 2×8 's.... got the pressure treated wood cause its stronger ....make sure you do that......the ramp kit I bought from Lowes for only $20
.. they have it in stock at the store.........the 2×8's were six feet long that I used.......depending on how high up your trailer bed is , you don't want the ramps too long because it will bow the wood down a lot from the weight of the stove............ kind of rock the stove back and forth, walking it to the edge of the trailer bed and onto the ramps, making sure that the ramps are staying secure at the same time, to the trailer bed....
......once the stove is on the ramps it just about takes one person guiding it ,slides down pretty easy to the ground.

I tried to find an Escalera...which is a motorized dolly.....but they don't have one in my area.....
I live in the Seattle area......but I found by looking around at rental centers , a motorized dolly called a Powermate.....I paid $63 for a 24 hour rental.....let me tell you , it's worth it !....after getting the stove on to the ground I was able to maneuver the PH up six steps and into my house and up onto my hearth two inches high , by myself......my friend was there with me making sure of safety and stability and helping me guide it......and yes it does climb stairs...up and down......it has a bit of a learning curve but once I got it down it was pretty easy to operate.......you can go on the website if you find one in your area to rent.....www.powermate.info/ .....also you can call Powermate and talk to a tech guy and he will give you some good tips on operating it.....

I also would recommend that once you get it to the hearth , put it on the hearth if you can with the dolly , if you have room.....that's what I did and then I just uncrated it on the hearth and put the legs on and tipped it up both directions to get the crate out from underneath........that saved me from having to lift the stove and put it up on the hearth.

if you have any other questions you can send me a PM and I will answer anything I can help you with

excited for ya ! ......... Allan

 

[webby3650]

Just have the hearth store that you bought it from install it. Most will throw in delivery and set it on the hearth for little or no fee, to get the sale.

 

[webby3650]

Kidding by the way, I couldn't resist!

 

[mywaynow]

Get the stove wrapped horizontally with a tie down and then run another strap through that strap and loop around the trailer front. Put the stove over the axle (single axle hopefully) and disconnect the trailer from the truck. Chock the wheels! Move the truck! In that order. Tilt the trailer tongue up and use the strap to ease the stove to ground level. Walk the trailer away from the stove until it is on the ground. May want to land the stove on some 2x4s.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've been involved with lots of moving heavy things and have found nothing better than the old piano or furniture dolly. When we got our Fireview (lighter than the Progress but still 500 lbs) home, I unloaded it (still in the crate) onto the dolly all alone. When it came to getting the stove into the house, we left it in the crate. Going up the stairs, we had one man on top with ropes and one man pushing from below and another guiding it so it did not roll off the 2 x 10's we used. We had also ratched strapped the stove to the dolly.

We never uncrated the stove until we were directly in front of the hearth. We then took the crate apart, removed the top lid, the firebox door and the firebrick before lifting the stove onto the raised hearth. It worked much easier than we had thought.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I used a hand truck with pnumatic tires. Tires with air in them are so much better than solid tires.

Matt

 

[jeff_t]

I used a hand truck with pnumatic tires. Tires with air in them are so much better than solid tires.

Brakes make it better yet. This is what I used. I brought it home from work. I don't even want to know what it costs.

http://wysecarts.com/model-1000

 

[EatenByLimestone]

That was what I was there for! There were 3 of us, I think we had one on top and 2 on the bottom.

Matt

 

[jeff_t]

I moved my Hotblast furnace down the basement steps alone.

 

[Ashful]

1. Open Bilco doors.
2. Back truck up real fast, toward aforementioned doors.
3. Slam on brakes.

Simple problem, simple solution.

 

[webby3650]

www.escalera.com

Never seen one, but I would hope you could rent one someplace.

This is the way to do it! I can't imagine not having one available to use. It's a life saver.

 

[BrianK]

I just thought I'd share how we moved our Woodstock Fireview into our house in December 2011.

For years, we've needed to move large heavy filing cabinets in our office full of charts, and we learned 15 years ago the best option was the piano/organ dollies that our local equipment rental had in stock (still $13 per day for the pair, a great deal for the amount of labor saved.)

These are specifically the "ROLL-OR-KARI" dollies from Enrick Co., http://www.enrickco.com/

(broken image removed)(broken image removed)​

Roll-Or-Kari's are a brand of organ dollies. The come in pairs, and are designed to be strapped on to the organ, one on each end. They have wheels which jack down (the Roll part), and very comfortable flip up handles (Kari). Once you have used a set, you will not want to move an organ without them ever again.​

​

They come in several models. The bottom bar is available in (at least) two widths. If you plan on moving any B-3's you'll need the wide version, since the narrow one will not span the legs. You can also get models with swiveling (steerable) wheels on either one or both sides.​

​

Roll-Or-Karis are manufactured by:​

​

Enrick Co.​

http://www.enrickco.com/​

​

P.O. Box 37​

Zumbrota, MN 55992​

Ph: 507-732-5215, 1-800-959-0354​

Fax: 507-625-6570​

​

​

Using a pair of these dollies and the two straps, my son and I were able to load the Fireview into and out of my cargo trailer and into my house without difficulty or other assistance.

Anyone who moves wood stoves on a regular basis should give a pair of these a try. I know if I were to do so on a regular basis, I would invest in a pair of my own.

 

[nate379]

That was one reason I had the stove shop install mine.

I said... I want it right there.... and sat on teh couch with a cold beer while they did all the work.

 

[Jo Pu]

tgrust
1) How do you recommend that I get the stove off my trailer?
- Option 1: If my hand-truck can handle it - use ropes/pulley system to slow/ease it down ramp (will take several people)
- Option 2: Rent some kind of high pallet lifter? From where?
- Option 3: slide stove down ramp - easing it down with ropes with no hand truck
- Others?
2) How do I get stove down 13 stairs? (stairs are in garage, made of concrete, plenty wide stair well)
- Option 1: lay 2x10's on stairs for ramp, slide stove (in crate) down, easing with ropes & winch (i have a winch)
- Option 2: Use hand-truck. Don't like this idea. Dangerous......Although this is how I got my current stove down. (500-550 pounder) A 700 lb stove makes this a no go. Maybe if I include ropes and pulleys but then I will need many people and I want to bug as few people as possible.
- Other Options?
3) How to get old stove off hearth and new stove onto 10" hearth? (we used an elaborate method of a car jack and cribbing to get old one on, which can be done, but it is a slow process)
- Option 1 - use slow process of car jack and cribbing and precariously move it over onto hearth....same way I did with old stove. (don't like....but will if I must)
- Option 2) - Rent some type of lifter. Suggestions? Need something that can extend over the 10 inch hearth.[/quote]

A) Important, first be sure the stove itself is strapped directly to the pallet by Woodstock. You may need to remove the overpack shrinkwrap & corrugated material to verify. (Woodstock had not been strapping or bolting the actual stove to the pallet structure....for factory pickup by customers. Gravity alone is not a safe bet down ramps or stairs, should the stove weight move on the pallet, which is what happened to us. ) Also be cognizant of which direction runners under the pallet are facing, considering any width limitations.

1) Used 2 X 8 or 2 X 10 to roll off trailer. You can also rent or borrow an engine hoist. Somebody we knew used PVC pipe as rollers down a slight ramp, using just a standard crowbar to slip the PVC under the pallet runners.

2) Down the stairs, used 2 winches, one in each direction for stability. One to pull, and one to support.

3) Used varied diameters of PVC pipe as a gradual ramp up to the hearth. Heavy weight of a stove moves quite easily over PVC pipe and did not damage our wood flooring. Cut PVC to size to fit through doorways. Removed the pallet after the stove reached final destination on hearth.

3a) Friends of ours used 2 floor jacks to support each end of a a 2 x 12 (which slid under the stove) to move it inside their house and across their driveway.

Moving a 700# stove was actually not as difficult as we had expected. PVC piping was a backsaver for us.

 

[Highbeam]

I race motorcycles and mine weighs 300 lbs. It goes up one ramp and I walk up the other. Each ramp can hold that weight so I was confident in using the ramps to slide the BK out of my truck on the ramps. Slide her on down. Get onto dolly and roll into place. I only had one stair, so no problem but if I had a flight of stairs then I would have used help and rigging.

 

[Nimrod1911]

Got it in. We used an appliance dolley and five guys. Ramped it off trailer. Rampled it onto the hearth, laying down boards to distribute the weight under the ramp ends. I fired it up for the first time last night. We were blessed with a late cold front. It was about 31 degrees at my house. I only built a medium sized fire but I am already impressed with the heat and efficiency. 40 minutes into my burn and I could already tell I was getting a lot more heat for the amount of wood used. My old smoke dragon must have been losing a bunch out the chimney. Another thing I noticed is how fast the stove, including the stone, heated up. Everyone says that a negative of Soapstone is the slow heat-up time. Personally, I think that concern is way over blown.....a non-issue. Thus far, I am very pleased. Beautiful stove, beautiful fire, puts out the heat. I realize I have only burned in it once, but if that experience is a fore-shadowing of things to come.....I will really like this stove. Stove was still quite warm in the morning even though my small splits were nearly coals before I went to bed. (I didn't have any wood left at my place....burned it all up in the smoke dragon.....but have more seasoned wood at my Dad's place for next season)

 

[alforit]

Got it in. We used an appliance dolley and five guys. Ramped it off trailer. Rampled it onto the hearth, laying down boards to distribute the weight under the ramp ends. I fired it up for the first time last night. We were blessed with a late cold front. It was about 31 degrees at my house. I only built a medium sized fire but I am already impressed with the heat and efficiency. 40 minutes into my burn and I could already tell I was getting a lot more heat for the amount of wood used. My old smoke dragon must have been losing a bunch out the chimney. Another thing I noticed is how fast the stove, including the stone, heated up. Everyone says that a negative of Soapstone is the slow heat-up time. Personally, I think that concern is way over blown.....a non-issue. Thus far, I am very pleased. Beautiful stove, beautiful fire, puts out the heat. I realize I have only burned in it once, but if that experience is a fore-shadowing of things to come.....I will really like this stove. Stove was still quite warm in the morning even though my small splits were nearly coals before I went to bed. (I didn't have any wood left at my place....burned it all up in the smoke dragon.....but have more seasoned wood at my Dad's place for next season)

Glad it worked out good for ya...................How did you get it down the 13 stairs ?

 

[DexterDay]

Time to update Signature and post some pics!

You know the saying.... Pics or it never happened

 

[Nimrod1911]

We got it down the stairs on the Appliance dolly with those roller straps to ease it down each stair. Five guys.....one step at a time. Not too bad once we figured out the best position. I'll get some better pictures up. This is the only one I have right now....cluttered with tools. Finishing basement. Carpet coming soon. I'm surprised how the entire stove heats up. The whole thing is putting off some serious heat. No cold spots. Even legs warm up. Starting fires is easier than in any other stove I've used. (I've only used Pre EPA stoves) Better draft system??