Taking home a Winchester Safe??

[vwsergio]

I am getting ready to buy the winchester safe at Sams club. but first I need to know if i should rent a truck with a lift gate and a pallet jack. I have a double cab tundra but I dont know how i would strap it down or unload it if they place the safe in my truck on a palet. Any adivce you can give me?

[vonsmith]

Interestingly I had the exact same dilemma a couple of months ago.

If you got the same safe I did for about $586 then it's a Winchester made by Granite Safe. It weighs about 600 pounds.

Order of operations:
1) I invited 2 beefy friends to meet me at Sam's Club on Saturday morning.
2) I had borrowed a low trailer from a friend and towed it behind my Titan truck.
3) The safe is bolted upright to a pallet so Sam's Club used a forklift to place it upright in the middle of the trailer.
4) I used about 4 heavy duty tie-down straps to strap it in place.
5) I drove it home.
6) I had borrowed a heavy duty professional moving dolly (the kind typically used to move refrigerators).
7) We scooped up the pallet and safe onto the dolly and the 3 of us lowered it off the back edge of the trailer.
8) We unbolted it from the pallet.
9) We slid it off the pallet onto the dolly and used it to lift and maneuver the safe through the doors into the house.
10) In the house we used moving blankets to roll on to protect the carpet.
11) We removed it from the dolly onto a moving blanket.
12) Two of us pushed while the third sat of the carpet and pulled the blanket the safe was on in the direction we wanted to place it.
13) Voila! Done.

Notes:
1) Make sure you buy a 9v battery before taking the safe home. You can't open the door without the battery. You may have to open the door to get it through narrow doorways.
2) The heavy safe door can be lifted off, but it is very very difficult to put back on and its voids your warranty.
3) About .75 inch can be saved in depth by using a allen wrench to temporarily remove the handle from the door. The factory warns against doing this. I didn't have any problem taking it off or putting it back on.
4) I used a wide roll of plastic wrap (like the kind movers use to wrap furniture or stuff on pallets) to wrap all around the safe. It prevented scratchs during difficult maneuvers through my narrow doorways.
5) Three average size men can move the safe. Two could do it, but it will be much more difficult.

In the Los Angeles area you can hire safe movers for about $200. I decided it was cheaper to buy my two friends lunch after busting their butts.


=vonsmith=

[norcalsig]

I actually just bought the exact same one and the guy at sams club put it in my truck with a forklift and then he helped me tip it over and lay it on its back in the bed. I closed the tailgate and didn't even need to strap it down. Once I got it home I unloaded it myself and took it off the pallet myself. It only weighs just over 500lbs and if you just think about what you are doing, you can walk it in place yourself. Of course all of this would have been easier with help but I didn't feel like waiting on my friends to show up. My browning on the other hand took 4 guys to move..

[Neil McCauley]

My safe weighed like 1000 lbs and I did it with one other guy. You just need the dolly that has 4 wheels. It tips back and will roll on all 4's. The only scary part was rolling it over the living room floor, I could hear wood creaking underneath, I was afraid it would go through, but thankfully it didn't. Everything went okay and you "walk it in" side to side to get it into position. The only damage was some scratches on the painted concrete floor which I quickly fixed right up with a paint brush. Oh and it helps when you can bench 520 and squat over 590

[VeryCoolCat]

Remind me never to help any of you guys move

[69Mach1]

My safe weighed like 1000 lbs and I did it with one other guy. You just need the dolly that has 4 wheels. It tips back and will roll on all 4's. The only scary part was rolling it over the living room floor, I could hear wood creaking underneath, I was afraid it would go through, but thankfully it didn't. Everything went okay and you "walk it in" side to side to get it into position. The only damage was some scratches on the painted concrete floor which I quickly fixed right up with a paint brush. Oh and it helps when you can bench 520 and squat over 590

Show Off.

[vwsergio]

Taking home a Winchester Safe

Thanks to everyone for helping out. The guys at sam club would not help me lay the safe down so i endded up just straping it down to my tucks bed and drove carefully home. We where having eveyone over for fatherdays so after eveyone ate i had my brothers in laws all four of them help me unload it..