Here's the Trip Report.
You know what they say about the best laid plans....
We had a bit of an adventure getting the PT over the last little bit to get it here.
After hearing the freight quote to have the tractor delivered to my place, I opted for having it delivered at a nearby loading dock. Not that anything is all that near to here, but that's another story. It took awhile calling around to find a free loading dock, but I finally found one at our local freight yard. They said that they could take a "dock drop" of the tractor and pallets, no problem. I arranged with Power Trac to ship the tractor (3950lbs) and ~4000lbs over four pallets of equipment. I reserved a trailer that could take a low tractor and a rental truck big enough to take three large pallets.
On Thursday, the tractor left Tazewell, to be delivered the following Thursday. On Monday, I received a call from the manager of the freight yard, asking about "what the heck was this about a tractor coming in". With a feeling of mild panic, I explained, and explained, and I told him that I had double checked with his assistant and that the tractor was enroute at the moment, and I hoped that all we were going to do was drive the tractor off and to the ground. He relented and said he wouldn't leave me high and dry, ("Thank you, thank you!"), but that they don't normally do this. He said that he would arrange for it on Thursday, mid morning, when the action was a bit slow.
Tuesday evening rolls around and the trucker calls me to say that he is early, and wants to drop off the load on Wednesday. ("Yikes!") So, Wednesday morning, I have multiple phone calls to find out if I can change the truck and trailer rental reservations, then calling my buddy up who was to drive the other truck and see if he can take off work on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, double check with the freight yard, call back to change the rental reservations, and complete the loop. Most everything gets arranged, but I don't have a jerry can of diesel for the tractor, which has me hoping that PT will have left enough diesel in it to complete the task.
After running out of the house with all my chains and tiedowns, I drive down to the trailer rental place, where they try to talk me into a flat bed car carrier instead of the tilt up equpment trailer that I had reserved. The sales job is going great, until the assistant says
"Oh, don't turn the wheel of the car when you are on the car carrier ramps- they tend to fall off if you do that." Next...
"We'll take the tilt up, thanks."
After picking up my buddy and the rental truck for the pallets, we drive over to the freight yard, only to discover the magnitude of the diasaster looming over us.
The issue was that the tractor and the four pallets were shipped on a standard 80,000lb flat bed semitrailer. The trailer was 48' long, and the bed was four feet off the ground. It was supposed to have pulled up to a loading dock at the freight yard, where the tractor would have been driven down to ground level via a ramp, and the pallets were be put on our rental truck with a fork lift.
The problems were several; the semi truck was too long to get into the freight yard. That meant that we would have to unload it using a fork lift in a parking lot nearby. That was OK for the four pallets, but that left the tractor. The tractor was parked toward one side of the trailer, but not at the edge for obvious reasons. While we were collectively head scratching on how to get it down to the ground without a loading dock, I wasn't looking forward to trying to parallel park a brand new tractor next to a four foot drop off so that the forklifts would have a better pickup point. After many ideas, it was decided to try to lift it off with a forklift.
"But it'll scratch the paint, buddy."
"It's a tractor! It'll have scratched paint the moment it goes to work. Do what it takes to get it off in one piece."
Then there was the load issue. The forklifts at the freight facility had a 4000lb capacity, and the tractor is supposed to be 3950, which would be OK, but and it is a big but, you have to derate the fork lift capaicity for not lifting close to the fork lift. Lifting weight near the end of the forks is likely to cause the fork lift to tip, and if you have to add tip extensions, it gets worse. And they were going to have to add tip extensions to get far enough under the tractor.
This then raised the issue of where the center of gravity was for the tractor fore/aft. By eyeball, it was close to where the seat is, but that raised center of gravity issues left right, if the fork lift raised it from underneath.
Fortunately, one of the fork lift operators eye balled the location, voiced the opinion that it would work, and tried it. The tractor tipped a little to one side, but only about four inches. The fork lift wobbled a little, but not badly. As he lifted it, he yelled out something, and I was afraid that he wasn't going to make it. What he actually said was "Wow, when they say 4000lbs, they mean it!" (Tractor, plus tip extensions, plus ?) He backed up slowly, and then slowly lowered the tractor to the ground. TaaDaa! No tractor omlet!
With the assistance of the forklift operators, and the trucker, we got everything chained down to their preferences. I took all the advice that I could get. Luckily, I had extra chains.
As it turned out, the pallets were a little larger than Power-Trac had said, so I wasn't able to get all three of them in the rental truck, as I had planned. What to do with the extra pallet? In the end, we just attached pallet with the forks to the tractor and backed the tractor onto the tilt trailer. The 1200lb post driver went into the back of my truck. And yes, Virginia, a 20 year old one ton diesel can haul 1200lbs in the bed, plus 6500lbs in a trailer from a standing start on a 10 degree slope, but only just.
Ultimately, it all worked out, but 10% less capacity on the fork lift would have killed off the project, as would having the tractor another 12" farther toward the center of the semi, or a few more pounds on the tractor. Most of all, the fork lift operators, and their company, could have just said "Nah, not our problem. See ya later." Instead, they really tried to make it work, even though their company didn't end up handling anything officially, and I am sure, isn't going to get paid by the company that hauled the tractor, since I didn't see any paperwork change hands.
So, I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten it accomplished with everyone's help, because I don't know where we would have found a rental fork lift, and an open parking lot at 5:30 at night.
In contrast, unloading it at night at my place went like a charm. For my money, the forks paid for themselves in the ease of unloading and packing of the toys, I mean attachments.
And, yes, I went back as soon as I could and dropped off a few cases of good beer for the guys at the freight yard that made it all possible. They were really great about it when I walked in with the beer- "Wow, the good stuff!"
Just goes to show you that not all of your PT adventures happen at home.
Drive safe!
Peter
