Advice : liftgates and sit-down drivers

newsheriffintown

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Need some help on this one. I normally haul sit-down drivers with one of my trailers that has a ramp. The enclosed trailer is still full of stuff I took to the last expo, and the open trailer is about two hours out of my way. I have a good deal on a twin virtual on cab, one of those heavy as hell cabs that do not split, that needs to be picked up about three hours away. I am certain it will fit in the back of my long wheel base truck with a lift gate. The problem is the games are too long to fit on the lift gate sideways. Can anyone who loaded these things with a regular Tommy gate tell me the best way to do it? I was thinking just roll it on the gate monitor first and pointed to the cab of the truck, with the seat part hanging off, lift it up and slide it back, but it's hard to drive that far without knowing. What's the best way?
 
Before you do anything, compare the weight of the cab vs the weight limit of your liftgate. Don't need to get there, have it half loaded and break your lift.
 
I've done it with Sega's many times, basically like you said roll the top on and then leave the seat hanging off, after you lift the gate a couple inches it will catch about halfway down the rail so the back wheels will be hanging off and not allowing it to roll off the gate. It's precarious but what else can you do. After you get that one slid up to your window, the second one will only go beside the seat, so it won't roll all the way up to the front.. and you may end up with your gate down for the ride back. They're big beasts.

BTW I once was moving a set of Daytona 2's, same cabinet... COULD NOT lift the back up high enough to get the wheels rolled onto the damn gate. Took me about 30 minutes of trying to get one corner up on the gate... and remember when you move those, they'll fall over sideways if you're not careful. CRAZY heavy cabinets, because of all the steel.
 
Thanks a bunch, that's the info I needed. About an hour away from giving it a try. I'll post pics of the carnage if it pops the gate or flips off the back.
 
Before you do anything, compare the weight of the cab vs the weight limit of your liftgate. Don't need to get there, have it half loaded and break your lift.

+1 on this. There is a metal tag on the side of the tommy. It says its lift capacity. When I bought mine, the standard was 1040. some of them are rated to 1600. flyer says virtua on is 1016 lbs. If it does not split into two, you could be at the limit.

Also if yours is a cable lift tommy (the newer ones are all hydraulic), when the lift is down look at the cable if there are any frayed wires, you could have a failure. I noticed mine had 2 maybe 3 busted strands (I thought out of maybe 1000, no big deal), but right after that it failed. I had just lowered 2 crusin usa's and it snapped going back up. San jose truck said your supposed to replace the cables every 2 or 3 years. It had been like 10 years for mine.

BTW I once was moving a set of Daytona 2's, same cabinet... COULD NOT lift the back up high enough to get the wheels rolled onto the damn gate. Took me about 30 minutes of trying to get one corner up on the gate... and remember when you move those, they'll fall over sideways if you're not careful. CRAZY heavy cabinets, because of all the steel.

maybe you could have used a ratchet strap to help you pull the game up onto the liftgate?
 
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When i said they wouldnt split i meant the seat wouldnt split from the monitor. If both sides had to come up at the same time i doubt that old lift would have picked it up. It worked out exactly like Lyons arcade said it would. I had to remove the coin box and was able to slide then almost side by side so one didn't have to hang off the gate. Now for a 1 hour detour to get some of the best corn dogs and cheese on a stick in the South.
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Nice! I'm picking one up tomorrow, I hope my run goes as well as yours.

Cheers!

When i said they wouldnt split i meant the seat wouldnt split from the monitor. If both sides had to come up at the same time i doubt that old lift would have picked it up. It worked out exactly like Lyons arcade said it would. I had to remove the coin box and was able to slide then almost side by side so one didn't have to hang of the gate. Now for a 1 hour detour to get some of the best corn dogs and cheese on a stick in the South.
 
Nice job!

Sorry about not get the trailer back to you. My bad :(

Eat an extra corn dog for me :D
 
Not worried about that trailer at all... It was a ton easier with the lift gate. Only reservation I had was the old gal has 488,109 miles on her, but she's doing fine and getting a lot better gas mileage than the diesel pulling a trailer.

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It was nice to finally see a mall that's still doing well.
This guy was singing Springsteen's born in the USA and everyone was loving it. AMERICA baby...

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Thairoller.... You getting a virtual on or something else?
 

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Not worried about that trailer at all... It was a ton easier with the lift gate. Only reservation I had was the old gal has 488,109 miles on her, but she's doing fine and getting a lot better gas mileage than the diesel pulling a trailer.

It was nice to finally see a mall that's still doing well.
This guy was singing Springsteen's born in the USA and everyone was loving it. AMERICA baby...

Thairoller.... You getting a virtual on or something else?

That dog is gross.. Looks like your eating mr Hankey.
 
It certainly won no beauty contest, but beauty was not on the minds of any of those who indulged in their foot long deliciousness...

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They were lined up for them..

It's a little chain that used to be around in all the malls in my area when malls were strong. they just about were wiped out along with the alladins castles and diamond jims when mall traffic died and malls started closing. There are still a few in Texas and this one in Mississippi, but no more in Alabama. Back story on this one was my daughter came along with Hailrazr and I when he found me a sweat deal on a Asteroids in Mississippi, we ate there and since then she's been bugging me to find another game in Mississippi so she could go back. Wanted to take her this summer so I bought the first machine that I could find cheap. Wasnt really in the market for one of these but This one came up for a sweet heart deal because the guy selling it had a baby coming and needed to make some room. Its big enough to fill a nursery by itself, so it had to go.

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I got rid of my ID3's because moving them was too much of a hassle. I used the same lift gate technique but it's still just too much work.

Yeah, Sega sitdowns are so awkward and stupid heavy, but they are well built and are some of my favorites. In my life time I've moved several twin daytonas, a twin daytona 2, cool riders twin, LeMans 24 twin, sever super gt twin, crazy Taxi sit-down, Strike fighter, and airline pilots. In my lineup i currently have a king of route 66 deluxe, Strike fighter, pair of initial d 3s, crazy Taxi, Harley Davidson, and now these virtual ons. I've been a Sega fan for years. They make good stuff.
 
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