Best way to move a heavy gun safe to a new house?

Call someone else and pay them to do it. It’s what I did.

Need more details.

Pay someone

Leave it behind and buy a new one.

Piano movers

Rron

Pay someone...

Find a local company that sells safes, and ask who they use to deliver and install safes.

1. How heavy?
2. Do you already own it or are you buying a new one?
3. If you already own it, what kind of job is it getting it out of it's current spot? Stairs, tight turns/doorways etc?
4. Where will you be putting it in the new home? Again, stairs, tight doorways/turns etc?

When I worked @ a gunshop in college I helped move a few I sold. We had pretty good luck just taking the door off (the ones I dealt with just slide up off of a big hinge-pin) moving the body into place and then bringing the door in after and setting it back on the hinges. The door is often 1/3-1/2 of the total weight of the safe.

That is the current thought when I move out of my house.

Neighbors are building a new house. They moved the safe into the basement before the joists were all installed.

They're literally building the house around the safe.

We bought a split level log cabin.

We two guys put the truck/camper in the front yard [rope attached to front bumper] and lowered the safe down the stairs by inching the truck forward.

Call a safe company and have them move it. They have specialized dollys and it well worth it.

Talk with guys at a furniture store. That’s who moved mine 10 yrs back. Best 100 bucks I spent.

Actually, unless you have a really large and heavy safe, they aren't all that hard to move. Getting them up and down stairs can be daunting, but possible with the right equipment. I've moved several safes with just minimal help. Moving it inside the house is as simple as lifting it up enough to get some pipe rollers under it and rolling it anywhere you want to go. Once the pipe rollers are under it you can spin it or turn it as well as roll it anywhere you want to go by simply removing the rollers as they come out the back and replacing them in front of the safe and keep rolling.
Once you get to your truck, you need to be sure the tailgate is below the tipping point. You may need a bit of help here, get the safe tipping against the tailgate with the majority of the weight above the tailgate and tip it over into the bed. I've done this with one person helping several times with safes weighing up to 650 lbs. Once it tips over you can slide it into the bed of the truck- use rollers to slide it in if necessary. Reverse the process when you get to your new house.

Need more info.
How capable are you at taking it on yourself? How far does it have to travel? What are logistic issues at it's current spot and where it needs to go?

Hire someone. Money well spent.

OR, sell the safe and let the new owner worry about moving it. Buy a new one for your new home.

That’s what I did. Had two safes, one 900 pounds and the other about 700 pounds, both empty.

Four young studs cam and moved both safes in minutes, from a truck to my lower level walk out.

It’s expensive, $500 or so, but cheaper than ruptured discs and hernias.

Hire 4 Mexican kids real cheap.

Rent a pair of safe dollies and have a couple of steels to lay across the door thresholds... if going out over tile floors have some sheets of hardboard to run along.



Phil

Safe movers, 750 lbs. out the basement into the moving truck in 20 minutes and 0 damage to wood floors. 200.00 if I remember correctly.

Heaviest one I ever moved was ~1100#. 3 guys and a fridge dolly. 3-steps up into the front door then it was smooth sailing.

Hire 3 dimocrap high school kids.

Helped a buddy move a safe into his 3rd story apartment. When he bought a house a couple years later, I told him I'd be over to help him move.......

......... After the safe had been moved in.

Leave it behind buy new and bigger,after all new house needs new guns .Get the safe company to deliver and install.

A few months back I moved our 700 pounder across a den, thru two doors and a utility room, into the garage then laid in a uHaul trailer by myself. I found words I didn’t know I knew. That will never happen again. From now own if there are not multiple strong back/weak mind type youngsters to do it I will pay or leave it on site.

Has it been mentioned yet to pay someone to do it? It usually costs me a couple hundred for cross town moves and worth every penny. For a longer move and not using a moving company for other large items, I might re-evaluate the logistics and leave it behind.

Mine is 1,700 pounds empty. When I installed it, I wanted it up off the floor, so the door didn't catch my bare feet when I opened it. So, I built a rebar reinforced 6" high concrete slab slightly larger than the bottom of the safe and anchored to the house slab in the den. When it dried, I covered it with stained and varnished oak. Using the safe dollies, I rolled it up over the slab and set it down, bolting it to the new slab. Now when I open the door its 8" up off the floor.

Phil

Nice.

A safe company has a machine to move fast and safe. It lays the safe down and the operator runs a control switch. The unit is on rubber tracks and goes upstairs and down stairs with ease. When I seen the machine in action I was very impressed. It was made for moving safes fast and safe. Cost about $150.00 for removal and set up. It is worth it too.

I have delivered and moved a bunch of them with muscle. Then my buddy that sells them invested in a safe dolly.

Pay someone that's in the safe business.

Many safes have removable doors. My Browning has that feature and it drops the weight about 40%. Used an appliance hand truck and it wasn’t any harder than moving a refrigerator. On a larger safe over 7 or 8 hundred pounds, hire a pro.

If you don't think you can handle it (or want to) yourself you might try asking local safe sellers who they use / recommend to buyers to transport / install safes. Also, might check with local banks as to who they use to move / install ATMs. We used a couple of private contract ATM installers that worked by themselves or sometimes one extra man. They only set the really heavy ATMs and used just a minimum of tools -- open trailer, hyd. pallet jack, 'Mule' pry bar, crank winch -- and 'elbow grease'...

I paid a moving companyto take mine to the new house. Best $375 I've ever spent.

If you are asking how, there is a great chance you should heed the advice to pay someone.

There is a real risk of damaging the safe, the house, or someone a lot more than the move would cost. Hell, tripping going up steps, carrying gear could cost more than paying for the move!

Whether you rent roll-a-lifts or use pipe to roll it on you'll want to put plywood on the floor to keep from messing it up and make it easier to roll. Going aroud corners is easy on a roll-a-lift but it can be done with pipe by using a buck bar.

Empty it, and then take the door off and move it as two units.




GR

Nealglen37: I moved mine with LOTS of called in help and PLENTY of 3' long 1" diameter oak dowels as roller bearings when sliding across floors. These work on rugs as well as solid floors.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I've done it 5 times that I can remember, each time with amateur help. Anymore, I would say: 1. Leave it behind and buy new. 2. Hire professionals to do it. I'm just not moving any more gun safes.

You do not need to spend the money on oak dowels, schedule C plastic pipe works just fine. I moved both a 850lb and a 500+ Through my house and to the garage for a move.
Also moved a friends large safe on the same plastic.
Other than moving it around the house I would pay to have it moved to a new location.
I moved one once on a dolly, coming over a step I fell and the safe just about got me. I ended up with a hernia picking it back up

I moved my 800# safe twice including once up a flight of stairs with just a buddy and an appliance mover. When it had to be moved down the stairs I let the movers handle the job.

Pay them boys that know what the hell they are doing. They have battery dollies that raises and lowers safe to safely get it in and out of doors, trailers that raise and lower to the ground.

There’s heavy gun safes, then there’s heavy gun safes. How heavy?

I moved a heavy lathe into my shop (heavy being relative, in lathe terms it wasn’t super heavy) @ 1700 lbs myself last year. I used long heavy pinch bars from Harbor Freight, and rollers made of steel pipe, to move it across my concrete shop floor. Obviously I wasn’t real concerned about scratching the floor. To actually “move” it, I rented a box truck (moving truck) with a lift gate. The lift gate is the crucial part there.

Rent a portable Sky Hook.

If you are old like me hanco is correct, hire movers, save your back and knees for hunting season.

While they do the work, make sure to mix yourself a Martini or your favorite beverage, and thank God for young men with strong backs lol

Depends on how poor you are and if you are traversing stairs.

If you could possibly give less information, that would help.

Yep !

Just like people selling stuff on market place.

It's a crap shoot !

**I've stopped asking questions, if you're to dumb, to include all the relevant information, you aren't getting my money !

I have come to the conclusion that, in general, people are pretty damn dumb.

Or leave it there and buy another one. I helped move one for my brother, after he had a hip replacement. I wish he'd bought another one.

I like that idea

Mine is only 800 lb, and I have access to a skid steer with forks, so that makes the outside part easier.

Once at the front door we laid the safe down on a furniture dolly from Harbor Freight and rolled it through the house. To avoid damge to the floor from the dolly wheels, I threw 1/2 inch plywood down over the laminate floor.

We moved a few years later, into a house with vinyl floors. We set the safe in through the door with the fork lift, onto a 4'x6' piece of scrap rug. Two guys grabbed the front edge of the rug and pulled, one pushed from behind. We slid the safe quickly and easily right into the corner where it resides to this day. A safe can be set onto a heavy piece of cardboard and slid around quite easily.

But we had no stairs to traverse in either move.

800 or 1000 lbs can be loaded into or out of a pickup by three or four men if they tilt it into the truck. Especially if it is being loaded/unloaded from an elevated position as a step or deck.

I have never owned one, but right now , my days of moving heavy objects are over, anything as heavy as a gun safe is a "leaver right" , leave her right the phuque where it's at!

Hire somebody with a bonded moving business.

+1

Surprised that no one mentioned the baseball method wherein you use baseballs instead of sections of pipe.

Personally, I moved both my safes into place with family helping. Floor jack and a hand truck across the garage and transitioned onto roller pipes. Rolled them onto a plywood base and bolted them down.

I'll be 60 in November and planning a move 3 states away. The gun safes are going into a sea container with everything else. I will lay them on their backs and fill 'em up with cushioned or boxed guns. Obviously, correct protection measures will be used.

Don't get hurt!

If no flights of stairs are involved, and the doorways are wide enough, it's no big deal. Rent the pair of safe dollies, though.

Bought a safe at a bankruptcy auction last year. Perfect condition (just don't have the key, or the combination), but for its size it is one heavy piece of steel... about 28" square and 34" tall and weighs in at 1,000 pounds. They used a forklift to load it for me, and I used my Duct-Lift to off-load it and put it into the garage temporarily until I can figure out what I want to do with it. Think I gave $100 bucks for it, and plan on using it as a machine base for a benchtop mill (maybe putting a rubber pad under it for vibration. Price, they want for safe-cracking and supplying a new key and combination is outrageous and I don't expect there to be anything in it. But that being said, I have thought about turning it upside down and grinding out the bottom metal with a diamond wheel just to see. I can always weld the bottom back on after getting it open. I suppose welding a eye to the top, it would make a good boat anchor too.

Phil

You should have given the trafficked brown people 50 bucks instead.


It's the least you could do for supporting their slavery...you slimy cocķsucker.

Can always count on the little pissant cowboy on his plywood horse, always acts like the child he is. Spinless little [bleep]...

Phil

Spineless eh?

At least I don't support child sex trafficking and wage busting black folk.


Damn Phyllis.

I inherited my dads safe a couple of years ago. His was on wheels and rolled easily. I watched a couple of videos and it was a piece of cake. Loaded it in my trailer by myself and when I got homw, I loaded it in the garage by myself. There were zero stairs though. I'm not kidding, watch a couple of videos and it's not that hard.

Yup!

Pallet jack and plywood

Those that have a 1000 or 800 lb safe what flooring support system is in place? Slab, 2x10, 2x12 16 OC ?

You’re all retards . You’re welcome

I had movers move my old safe from the basement to the garage. Had a vault put in the new house. Builder finished the inside of the vault in exchange for my old safe. I helped him load it onto a trailer. Win win.

Bullfuqkingsheit . . . . . . . .nobody is gonna try and steal your pink and purple d i l d o collection.

Drill a hole in the top close to the center. If the door is heavier than the rest, offset the hole slightly towards the door. Put a 1/2 eye bolt in. Pick it up with a cherry picker and set it on a quality dolly.

You are a lying piece of sheit

Moved a couple, up stairs to outside and across lawn, had to lay down plywood to get to driveway.

I would hire someone next time I move.

Three medium size guys and brute strength is how my moving crew got mine in my basement. I'm lucky enough to be in a Cabela's store city so I was able to hire the company that moves safes for them. I thought they would have some magic equipment, but nothing of the sort. Just muscles and a dolly.

Edited to add: From the truck they had to go up three steps, make a fairly tight 90 degree turn and then go down 12 which ruled out a safe dolly. Safe weighs a shade over 800 pounds and it cost me $350.00 and a 30 of Busch Light.

I moved three safes - two very large/heavy - 350 miles from the former place in the forest down to where we are. No steep stairs involved, but had to cross some sills and deal with rise/fall of levels.

Needed two additional guys at each end of trip. Raised safe from floor with sharp edge of crowbar and small wedges/blocks until I could get five 1 inch Sched 40 pipe sections as rollers. Ran a stout strap or rope around it just below mid point for some control and used come along as needed.

Rolled them onto truck bed using ramp - make sure to support ramp at its center - strap safe securely to bed wall. Reverse process for unloading. Just takes time, common sense and some sweat.

Funny. The OP makes a one-line question without any relevant details. And 8 months later, there are 75 responses without a single response from the OP.

And this sock brought it to the top

Seriously. F all information.

Heaviest I moved was 2.2tonnes with pallet trolley then truck with hiab.

Heavy got to watch it doesn’t go through floor etc, or get away from you.

For sloped driveway we lashed it to the bullbar of 4wd on pallet trolley. Wouldn’t do that again. Ended up selling it as too difficult to move and too heavy for wooden floors, I only had it on a slab.

Bloke needs to supply more information.

Yep. They have electric dollies, special trailers

I moved mine by myself, 800lbs empty. Just gotta be smarter than the load.

That being said, be careful. The business that I bought mine from is a Mom & Pop safe dealer with a couple of stores. The owner ran one store and his wife, the other. About a month ago the owner was in the store working alone as he always did, a safe fell over on him as he was moving it around and he was dead when found some time later in the evening. He was a fine example of what God would have us be and I pray that he didn't suffer.

Why in the world would you’d bolt down a 1700# safe?? Oh wait your a cocksucking liberal dumbass from California

you can move a safe or any heavy object easily with a Roll-a-Lift. Strap the two halves together, lift and roll it anywhere you want then let the hydraulic jacks down and crib it any way you want. You can probably rent them.

Mine weighed 760. I put in myself. Slid it into place on cardboard and a rug. Stood it up by hand. It was my physical limit at the time. I would never do something so foolish again.
Hire movers that know how to do it.
If I move mine is staying in place. I will buy a new larger one and have pros install it.

^^^^^

Empty it, and then take the door off.


It's the simple things...




GR

This right here.... ^^^^^^^

I was quoted $4400 to move a Fat Boy and a Liberty 50 from the Atlanta area to west of Ft. Worth. I sold my safes to friends for $1k each and they moved them. I put that $2K with the $4400 i would have spent moving and bought new. I am happy and my friends now have relatively inexpensive decent safes.

Kris

I move mine around for exercise with a Toyota narrow pallet jack.

Hire a safe mover, did it for years. Not bad if you have the right equipment.
I did learn-
Stairs are a bitch
Tile can crack
Schedule 80 PVC 1.5 - 2" is your friend

It simply amazes me that these marxist c unts continue to come back here.

Should be obvious to even most DumbPhucks like yourself! Its because with most large safes, most of the weight is in the front of the safe, and with the door fully open there is a tipping hazard if not bolted down...

Phil

Be careful moving safes please.

Pretty sure a business owner passed recently due to a safe falling on him, but not 100%.

Also, I tried moving one with a U-Haul and a dolly by myself. I did it, but quite honestly, I got lucky and it could have been bad.

Check the safe. I moved my safe at least two times before I learned that the door, (about 200lbs) came off the hinges when opened. Sure made moving the safe easier and safer.

If moving the safe up or down stairs, rent a fridge dolley with the tracks that ride the stairs.

Geeze, just rent a pair of Safe Dollies at any rental yard for $50. Strapped together one on each end (which also keeps the door in the unlocked and closed position) and the jacks do all the lifting.





One person can do it, but two is better. Protect the floors, and use a couple steels to go over thresholds.


Phil

Pay somebody with the right equipment and young guys with good backs.

If new construction

Build the safe around the construction

In a basement corner

split level house, put the gun safe in the basement.

lower the safe down the stairs with a rope tied to a truck in the yard.

I got a set of those heavy as fuqk

yep pay someone to do it.

Another vote to pay someone. Me and some buddies moved one down into a friend’s basement. Two on top with a rope and me and another on the bottom. Halfway down the rope slipped leaving the two of us on the bottom trying to stop 1000# on a 35* slope. We controlled crashed halfway down the remaining stairs and got pinned against the wall at the bottom. It ripped the handrail off the wall, tore the carpet, and my ass broke the drywall too. One trip like this and someone maybe getting hurt is a lot more than paying someone $300 who has a stair climbing dolly and does it professionally.

Would never say you should not hire a safe moving outfit or rent that special equipment. But, in most cases there are safe/sane ways to do it yourself.

I used an engine cherry picker boom on our Kubota and some 3” ratchet straps. Moved it from one end of the house on ground level to new bedroom addition and hoisted mine up onto a 4ft high deck. Then pipe rolled it thru double french doors into my tornado room. About 800 lbs. Not a big safe but still would kill ya.

If I had to move another one I would use my front end loader.

I’d only hire some pros if stairs were involved.

Excellent in my view. Safe and sane.

A. Pay someone
B. Leave it and buy a new one
C. Pay someone to move/install the new one.

Rick Bin,


We got a Bot!

Rolla lift

Had mine moved across town for 175 bucks, tipped the guys 20 a piece on top of it. I just watched.

Funny, had to move my first safe, about a 23 gun, to a 2nd story apartment. Did the dolly thing, evidently it was a cheap dolly, got it about halfway up the stairs and the wheels broke off. Guy at the bottom was wiggin out, cant blame him, we got a corner wedged into the stair railing to keep it from sliding all the way down and give us a break. Ended up both at the bottom pushing it up the stairs as hard as we could, just sliding on the frame of that dolly. After that I said I'd never move another safe.

Not even close there buddy. Yes the door is the heaviest component, but you are not tipping a safe over with the weight of the door. No way, no how. Especially as you get bigger and bigger, the likelihood decreases. I just opened my 1100 pound safe up and hung on the very edge of the door when it was opened to 90 degrees. Even Jim (no offense Jim) couldn't get the safe to move or threaten to tip with just dead weight hanging on the door so there is no way a safe is at risk..

Yikes!!!

Harbor freight dolly? 😳

Remove the door



Duh

I had one in a basement, a bunch of friends came over to help.

One of them showed me how to lift door off it hinges.

Cake

When I bought mine at Farm and Fleet me and the young kid at the store laid it on its back on my trailer. I hooked the trailer to my at and drove it around to the back door. We have a set of those plastic ski type things and the wife and I just drug it into the house and tilted it up in the spot we were going to put it. Easy peasy.