Advice on moving a snap-on epic toolbox full of tools.

GRM hive. It's been another tough week. My uncle who taught me to wrench passed away. For those in the Cleveland area and like corvettes, you may know him. Ron Parton. Awesome guy and a life long diesel mechanic and a corvette lover. 

As part of the will, I know I got all of his tools. The biggest part of that is a Span-on epic tool box with the top box and the side chest. My understanding is it's a 4K LBs box over all. Honestly, that doesn't surprise me given the amount of tools he had. 

So any advice getting it from Medina to Omaha or is there anyone in the Cleveland area coming to the Solo Nationals that have room for a big tool box? 

What an honor and a blessing to get those tools from a loved Uncle. 

Only idea I got is unloading tools into 5 gallon buckets and a rental box truck.  Lighten the boxes to move them?  Sounds like kind of a crap idea.  

Shrink wrap it closed and have a LTL firm move it?  What about those hot shot truckers from that TV show?

Just to share, This was the last car he built. 572 BB Chevy with a viper 6 speed. He repainted it black in his final days. I got the honor to be the only person other than him to drive it. He was one of us for sure. His first hot rod was a 327 healey 3000

572 BB and those side pipes?

yowza - I'll head over to YouTube now to look for a clip 

Sorry for your loss.  Maybe try a wrecker with a roll back for the tool box.

Sorry to hear about your loss. It sounds like it was pretty sudden. 

I have a large SnapOn box and I paid a rollback to move it. They cost too much to risk scratching it.

By the way........it's spelled Epiq. 

Rollback to get it to an intermediate storage. Enclosed trailer or if still small enough a uhaul open trailer with a ramp. Treat it just like a car, it's just as big and heavy. Or I'd I'd have the coin a local hotshot driver.

1. Car trailer if you can navigate it up and down the ramps with a winch. ( Open or closed will work, pallet wrap is your friend for open.
2. Rollback tow truck for local moves if you can't do 1
3. Rollback to lift it up into rental moving truck if longer distance, another different rollback at destination.

Are you willing to haul it but cant get it on a trailer or into a pickup? If thats the case you could either have a rollback load it on to your vehicle for you, or you could take all the drawers out, load the empty box on your vehicle, then reinstall the drawers. I've done mine that way. That method has the advantage of making it easy to unstack the top and bottom so you have a more stable load.

4,000 lbs box!!!  That mean the box weighs more than the Corvette shown above.  As mentioned above, when a mechanic quits one shop and begins working at another shop, they usually have a roll-back tow truck move their box for them (since it is as heavy as a big car!)  

Sample:

But, moving 800 miles, this isn't going to work for you.

My recommendation...  Drop Deck Trailer rental.  

A quick google of such in Omaha bring up this company who's trailer is rated at 4,500 lbs.  Do you already have a full size truck?  No one-way rentals so you'll need to drive the empty trailer to Ohio and take it back full.  

You'll need to strap it down really well and then you'll want to tarp-the-heck out of the load so that it is very hard to tell what is actually on the trailer.  Once loaded, your gonna want to drive the 12 hours home straight.  Any overnight stays like a hotel parking lot would be too risky for theft. 

I missed the 800 miles part. Throw my rollback suggestion out. 
 

Rent a Penske truck with a lift gate. A 20k dollar toolbox is worth whatever hassle it takes to do it right and not scratch it up. 

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It wasn't sudden but it was quick enough. 

John, It's almost exactly like the setup you pictured on the rollback. Bottom box, top box, and side box. That's how we got that to the storage unit. 

It's safely in a storage unit so there is no rush. I'm just looking at ideas right now.

I really like that drop deck trailer idea if I decide to get it myself. For sure it will be a straight through run. No way I'm stopping for too long with that on the back. 

I'm sorry for your loss.
 

Penske box truck with a lift gate. 
 

That has the added benefit of keeping it out of sight while in transit. 

Sorry to hear about your uncle.  Sounds like was quite a guy!

Check the width of the lift gate v/s the length of the chest before you rent anything.  You can't really approach a lift gate from the side very easily.  I had some fun tribulations trying to get a motorcycle in and out of a box truck via lift gate once.

If you can get access to a loading dock (or maybe a lift?) to be able to roll it in and out, that would be pretty easy.  Otherwise, a rollback truck can be hired to get it off the ground and then deposited into a box truck.  And, of course, vise-versa once you reach the other side.

If you don't want to self-move, I was pointed to goship.com a while back and had really good success with that. Granted, I wasn't trying to move a 2-ton chest, but you should be able to get a quote from them fairly easily.

EDIT: Oh, and check the rating on the lift gate.  4,000 may be too heavy for that.

If you go with a box truck and lift gate, just expect that you will have to empty the box before taking the ride up the lift.  I can't imagine there is a lift gate that will support the weight of a large car, 4,000 lbs.  If your are emptying the box then I might agree with the 5 gallon buckets recommended and keep the tools in the buckets for the ride.  All that extra weight, in buckets and low on the truck floor will be good for weight distribution.  

Getting someone else to do it? Perhaps piano movers. Do it yourself? Perhaps a heavy wrecker with a rotator to load and unload.

The liftgate trucks also usually have a lot of ways you can strap it to the sides.

I was involved in two whole-shop moves in a short span of time, the liftgate truck is THE way to do it.

If you cannot arrange that, then a regular box truck probably would be okay.  The drawers can be removed with the contents inside to make the box a lot lighter to work with.  I used this method to move my Matco toolbox in an RX-7.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Maybe contact one of the high end auto transports that does enclosed shipments. I've seen several with lift gates that can lift a car, and would be enclosed for security.

No Time said:

I'm sorry for your loss.

Maybe contact one of the high end auto transports that does enclosed shipments. I've seen several with lift gates that can lift a car, and would be enclosed for security.

These trucks rarely have "solid" floors. They are kinda like an open air car hauler with walls. Penske truck with lift gate for the win.

My first instinct was also box truck with liftgate. But a quick googling suggests most liftgates max out at 3k lbs:

I've had some questionably large/heavy things on liftgates, but none of them cost $20k+ while also being 1k lbs over capacity.

Thanks all for the info. I am worried about a lift gate. Plus, the box is about 8' long so I can't see it getting on a lift gate. My current tool box was a bit of a strain on lift gates. 

I have a truck so right now I think a trailer option is probably the best option or just writing a check and leaving it to someone else. 

If you are near the storage , how about bringing back 500-1000 pounds of tools each time you are in the area.....

Buy an old Snap-on truck?

The side box is removable, pare weight down till it works.

Remove the drawers to get it under the lift gate weight limit.