New shipping container shop...

[Maxfli]

Ok, so here is the thing that fires me up. My land (6ac) is mostly trees or what the county might call wetlands. The covenants for the land say no trailers, and a barn needs to be minimum 1200 SqFt. 1200' feet would be great for a barn (small by all your standards) but the best (and almost only) place for me to locate the barn I would need to take out a few more large oaks, and quite frankly I am just not willing to sacrifice the trees (at least not yet). I could squeeze an 700' shed in there, so I go to the developer (he lives 2 lots down on similar land) to say I want to build below the covenants. He says no way no how it needs to be 1200'. I haven't challenged anything with the county yet as the Funds have not materialized for this project. So now its a year later and the developer puts a 40' Container in the back of his property and paints it forest green to blend with its surroundings. I want to get along with this guy, we are going to be neighbors for a long time, this thread makes me want to put a container out back.

 

[newbury]

In the interest of reviving old threads with a lot of good info -
I too want several of these.
The best price I've found on the web in NE Mississippi is getting a 40' out of Memphis, TN. About 1700 for the container and $700 for delivery.

I also have to move a household from Alexandria, VA to NE Ms.
From my mind yesterday while driving fro Ft. Campbell to Va:

Mind - what about buying 20' containers in Va. filling it up and getting it to Ms.?
Me - how would you ship it? It won't fit your 18' trailer (in pic)?
Mind - Ask on tractorbynet, somebody would have a good suggestion.

Things I've thought of:
Build a base frame for the container so it fits on my trailer to set a 20'er on (so it clears the wheel wells).
Would justify getting a newer prime mover, say about a 2003 GM2500 diesel (needed anyways )

Hire a "hotshot" to haul one to my house then to my land after I fill it.

Any thoughts people?

 

[EddieWalker]

When I moved from CA to TX, I ran the numbers on allot of ideas that hoped would save me money. In the end, U Haul was the cheapest and easiest. Too many of my idea revolved around pricing that I couldn't guarantee, or selling something that I was unsure of what it would sell for. I would be very careful in figuring out the numbers for this with an emphasis on using safe numbers for the unknowns.

The other big question would be weight. It doesn't take much to fill up a 20 or even a 40 ft container. Once full, that could easily become too heavy of a load for the trailer and/or the truck pulling it. I know from experience in helping my parents move that a trailer that's too heavy will loose tires and destroy axles. It's a royal pain to have to find a place to replace an axle in the Mojave Desert!!!!!

While I would never hire a national moving company to move my household items, doing it yourself by renting a Penske or U Haul truck was the best way for me. I made three trips this way and don't regret going that route. If you ever think about hiring it done, do some searches online about moving companies. The stories are horrifying and after awhile, you'll see a patern of changing the price after they leave, not getting back with you, and holding your stuff until they get the new adjusted price because it was heavier then they bid on.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[newbury]

Thanks Eddie - I really respect your opinions.

The other big question would be weight. It doesn't take much to fill up a 20 or even a 40 ft container. Once full, that could easily become too heavy of a load for the trailer and/or the truck pulling it.

I know, last week I helped my BIL fill a 40' trailer.
The 20' container tare is about 5,000lb. My trailer is rated for a 10,000 lb load, plus 2,000lb for the trailer.
Like I said I want these containers anyways, my tradeoff is buying them here or buying them in Memphis empty. And I'm also trying to support getting a truck with another ton or so of capacity than my van
One of the advantages I'm looking at for shipping containers is that we could fill it gradually, over the course of a several weeks even, and not have to rent a truck while we fill it, and not have to empty it immediately.
I've a friend that rented a "POD" temporarily while he was redoing a floor. That has stretched into a year rental, the floor was done in a month.

While I would never hire a national moving company to move my household items, doing it yourself by renting a Penske or U Haul truck was the best way for me. I made three trips this way and don't regret going that route. If you ever think about hiring it done, do some searches online about moving companies. The stories are horrifying and after awhile, you'll see a patern of changing the price after they leave, not getting back with you, and holding your stuff until they get the new adjusted price because it was heavier then they bid on.

Good luck,
Eddie

My father and mother moved several times in the decade before they passed away.
Beside being grossly overcharged, having a great deal of original Chinese carved ivory pieces "lost", most furniture broken and not repaired everything got moved in peices. Sort of like that commercial where they deliver a piano in a Glad bag after dropping it several stories.
The only thing I would use professional movers for is a price quote for comparison.

I have also thought of building a frame and plywood sides on the trailer, but that doesn't get me shipping containers or a nice used diesel truck.

 

[J_J]

I have hauled 20 ft container on my 6 wheel mobile home axle trailer, by putting 8 x 8 blocks on the trailer to clear the wheels. Chained it down and away we went. The roll back wreckers will deliver those around town.

 

[theboman]

That is very cool.

Long term plans are to get one and kinda bury it for a storm shelter. It'll make life, er the wife, happy for those 2-3 times a year we get the bad boy thunder storms blowing thru the hills of northeastern Ky. I'd have to figure a way to keep the floor from rotting being a bit underground (kinda). Again, that's down the road a mile or two...

 

[DELInstallations]

ABF does a you load onto their trailer, then call for them to pick up and then deliver wherever you want. They come and drop it off for a period of time, then drive it to your destination. All sizes and types of trailers that I've seen used firsthand.

 

[newbury]

That is very cool.

Long term plans are to get one and kinda bury it for a storm shelter. It'll make life, er the wife, happy for those 2-3 times a year we get the bad boy thunder storms blowing thru the hills of northeastern Ky. I'd have to figure a way to keep the floor from rotting being a bit underground (kinda). Again, that's down the road a mile or two...

You've got to be real careful about all sides - steel rusts.

 

[Gary Fowler]

A good coal tar epoxy paint would fix you up on the rust or the POR 15 that folks here recommend (kinda pricey) for ground burial.

As for making sheds from containers, we use them a lot in construction. we usually start by placing them 30-40 feet apart. Then we install a 2 foot riser on both inside container edges. We then set the prefabbed joist on top of that. We can then use 2x4 to extend the roof line from the prefab joist out past the edge of the 8 foot wide container. The 2 foot riser not only gives us enough slope to carry the roof out beyond the outside edge on each side, but increases the roof height so we get about 11 feet ground clearance with the container up about 1 foot off the ground for ventilation. You could adjust the riser according to the slope needed to reach the edge of your container so if you wanted a higher slope just make the riser higer.

 

[WilliamBos]

Eddie,

That is an amazing idea. Could also close in one end, and have a nice dry work area.

Would you have pics of that?

A few years ago, I bought two containers and put a roof over them to create a larger area under roof between them. Then I added a storage area to one side and a cabin to the other. For very little money, it came out pretty good.

Here's the link to the barn I built with those two containers. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/33401-my-container-barn.html

Eddie