eldirector
Grandmaster
Got in over my head on this one....
Bought a new chicken coop. Amish made. 6' x 8'. Heavy. I mean seriously heavy. They dropped it in my driveway, so my wife could paint it easily. Now, it is time to move it to the back yard. And.... I have problems.
#1 - the gate is 7' wide. Means the coop can only go thru in the 6' dimension. The skids run the other way, of course.
#2 - The path to the gate isn't exactly wide, either. Eight foot if I go one way, a bit more the other way, if I trim back some trees/bushes. All the way around to the BACK of the yard, from the front drive.
#3 - It is freaking heavy. I'm guessing well over 1000#
How do I know it is that heavy? Well, the initial plan was to bolt casters to the skids, and roll it around with the lawnmower. Bought four 300# casters. Bolted them on, gave it a shove, and bent 2 before it even moved. That isn't going to work.
Next plan is to remove the casters, use 2x4s as skids the other direction, and drag it. Maybe "Egyptian Style" using plywood on the ground to slide the skids 8' at a time. Yay. Sounds like a great way to spend a day. If I felt better, I'd just do it. But, I don't, so....
What I would LOVE.... Find someone with a tractor or skid steer and forks. Just muscle the darned thing around in a few minutes, rather than half a day inventing new curse words. Can you pick up, say, 1500#, with a skid steer?
Wish we had a bunch of bored neighborhood teens. Pizza and soda, and start shoving. Alas, the oldest is 12, and the rest are under 10. Not much help.
Any other brilliant ideas how to move something like this?
Bought a new chicken coop. Amish made. 6' x 8'. Heavy. I mean seriously heavy. They dropped it in my driveway, so my wife could paint it easily. Now, it is time to move it to the back yard. And.... I have problems.
#1 - the gate is 7' wide. Means the coop can only go thru in the 6' dimension. The skids run the other way, of course.
#2 - The path to the gate isn't exactly wide, either. Eight foot if I go one way, a bit more the other way, if I trim back some trees/bushes. All the way around to the BACK of the yard, from the front drive.
#3 - It is freaking heavy. I'm guessing well over 1000#
How do I know it is that heavy? Well, the initial plan was to bolt casters to the skids, and roll it around with the lawnmower. Bought four 300# casters. Bolted them on, gave it a shove, and bent 2 before it even moved. That isn't going to work.
Next plan is to remove the casters, use 2x4s as skids the other direction, and drag it. Maybe "Egyptian Style" using plywood on the ground to slide the skids 8' at a time. Yay. Sounds like a great way to spend a day. If I felt better, I'd just do it. But, I don't, so....
What I would LOVE.... Find someone with a tractor or skid steer and forks. Just muscle the darned thing around in a few minutes, rather than half a day inventing new curse words. Can you pick up, say, 1500#, with a skid steer?
Wish we had a bunch of bored neighborhood teens. Pizza and soda, and start shoving. Alas, the oldest is 12, and the rest are under 10. Not much help.
Any other brilliant ideas how to move something like this?