Arcade moving/storage tools

DogP

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Hey,

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just now finally getting around to it. I bought a house last year, so I had to move my games out of my parents' and friend's basement... which of course wasn't very fun. But with a ton of games and parts to be moved in a short amount of time like that, it made me use some creativity to not kill myself, and maybe even make the job kinda easy. I figured I'd share... so maybe it'll help someone else.

Here's the run down of the stuff:
First, is the obvious hand truck (visible in some of the pics). I have a really heavy duty one with the wheels that kick back (Stevens Escort), and it's great for moving games, except that the hand truck weights a lot, so you're moving more than just the game. But, it was great for accepting the abuse I was about to give it.

Next, is the ramp and winch setup I built to get the games up the stairs. I basically made a ramp for the cart to roll/slide up, and bought a cheap winch from Harbor Freight (~$50). I attached the winch to a 4x4 that ran across the stairwell, pushed back by a ~3' 4x4 to give room at the top of the stairwell to stand the game up. It ran it off a 12V jumpstart battery, and though it was a little bit slow, it had no problem pulling up the heavy games, like SF Rush, Pinballs, etc. I found it to be too slow for hauling up the small stuff though... I still did those by hand (it took a few mins to get up the stairs, plus connecting/disconnecting the cable, and the winch cable would sometimes need to be untangled).

Also, notice in the bottom of the stairwell is a platform I built to make the patio door level to go out. This is REALLY useful... it saves having to turn the game around in the bottom of the stairwell on the hand truck (to go over the several inch door hump).

Next is the hoist, which I put up in the attic to lower lots of the parts and monitors that I had stored up there... as well as using it to raise the stuff to my new attic. Once again, it was ~$50 from Harbor Freight. Well worth it, as I can use it to easily store even 27" monitors up in the attic. In my friend's attic, I attached it to a black iron pipe straddling the opening, to lower stuff out. In my attic, I mounted a hook-like thing over the opening (I can't think of the name... it's meant to hold a board, like for barricading a gate/door), then I just set the black iron pipe w/ the hoist in the hook when I want to use it and raise/lower from there. The hoist I got runs off 115V, so I plug it into the light socket up in the attic, or you could run an extension cord.

After getting stuck in the grass moving a few games on the hand truck, I decided I needed some sort of off road cart. I had just come across some off road wheels, which I decided would work perfectly. I put the 4 swivel ones on the corners and put two non-swiveling ones in the middle (kinda like those wood hauling carts at Home Depot). I probably didn't need the non-swivel ones, but I figured they'd help support a little bit under a heavy load. My main purpose for this was moving the Top Skater base, so I made sure it was at least as big as that. But after using it to move a couple regular games, I realized how nice it was for moving everything. I just lay the games back on it, then pull with the large rope I attached to the front. It's easy enough that one person can move a game through the grass with it. And riding down the hill on an SF Rush seat makes moving fun ;) .

Last is the shed... I have a LOT of parts, so I went through them all, put them in boxes, made a spreadsheet of everything I have, numbered the boxes, and put them on shelves. Now, when I need something, I check the spreadsheet, go out to the shed, and I know exactly where everything is at. That is REALLY nice! Also, the 4 drawer lateral file works great for holding PCBs. I'd recommend getting as tall of drawers as possible.

Anyway, I hope you guys find this interesting, and maybe helpful. Attached are a bunch of pics.

DogP
 

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Very clever arrangement. Only suggestion I might offer is to add some UHMW plastic skids to the top of your handtruck handles for less friction. It's not much, but it might help out your winch speed/battery life a bit.

Since you've obviously put some thought into this, may I pick your brain? I just picked up a video machine at a company that had a truck loading dock. Armed with straps, dollies, and a decent hand truck (mag liner, not uhaul), and just myself. Getting the machine to the truck was a piece of cake. Getting it into the truck, however, was a different story. Since I'm in a pickup, the bed was about 24" below the dock. I can only describe that last two feet as "falling with style". I tilted the truck back and tried to walk her down, but as she got lower and my leverage decreased her decent rate kept increasing. The last 3-4" were just short of freefall. Thankfully, between the truck springs and the handtruck dragging the concrete, it wasn't fast enough to cause any damage. Which brings me to my question; Short of a liftgate or low trailer, does anyone have any better methods for loading pickup beds? I have 2x8 ramps, but that seemed a bit risky since I couldn't see the ramps for the machine.
 
I've dealt with that issue once or twice, and if the warehouse has their own trucks, sometimes they have a box truck with a tommy gate you can use. Wheel game onto tommie game...pull truck forward..back pick up to it...lower game to pickup.

Another suggestion may be to get a pair of mechanics ramps, and back onto them as your pulling up to the dock. Not the easiest nor best idea but it buys you 12 inches or so.
 
I used one of those hand trucks at CAX this weekend, and I think that I will buy one of those before I buy another game. It was so nice to not have to worry about the game sliding off of a little truck.
 
Yeah, something to help with friction may have good, though the metal on wood wasn't too bad... but the winch speed didn't really suffer when pulling heavy loads, but you're probably right about the battery life (though I never drained that battery). The speed of that winch is something like 10ft/min with no load, and 6ft/min at full 3000lb load.

But yeah... going down a loading dock, especially with one person is definitely difficult. If at all possible, I'd get it to ground level, then do the usual tip and push into the truck. I guess you could lay the machine on its back, slowly slide it over the edge of the loading dock until the machine starts to tip, then stand it up in the truck bed.

DogP
 
Great ideas. Some of which I wish you posted sooner since I just moved. I'm definitely going to have to look into getting that hoist at least for non hobby related things. Need to start an orgainization chart like that as well.

BTW, what do you put up in the attic? Seems hot as hell and am pretty hesitant on storing electrical items up there.
 
But yeah... going down a loading dock, especially with one person is definitely difficult. If at all possible, I'd get it to ground level, then do the usual tip and push into the truck.

As in start with it standing upright with the back to the tailgate, and the lift it's base until it's laying on it's back in the truck, the slide forward? I contemplated that, but having never done it solo with an arcade machine I wasn't sure how much load I would be under in mid lift.


I guess you could lay the machine on its back, slowly slide it over the edge of the loading dock until the machine starts to tip, then stand it up in the truck bed.

That's basically what I did. The hand truck was laid down when I started and I rolled it over the edge horizontally. It worked good at first, but when it got about 45° the balance of leverage had shifted and it was loading me more than I was loading it. By 75° it was pretty much in free fall, but fortunately by then I was in the the last 3-4". The seller was impressed, but I knew it was a pretty dicey maneuver.

It would have worked better with a taller hand truck for more leverage, and those "stair climbers" on the back to help once the wheels passed the edge. If it had a second set of casters at the top of the hand truck and handles 6' taller, it would have been no problem at all. I may just have to make those...
 
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Great ideas. Some of which I wish you posted sooner since I just moved. I'm definitely going to have to look into getting that hoist at least for non hobby related things. Need to start an orgainization chart like that as well.

BTW, what do you put up in the attic? Seems hot as hell and am pretty hesitant on storing electrical items up there.

Yeah, people not in this hobby don't understand what it means to "move" ;) .

The majority of my attic is spare monitors, though I've also got some stuff like dollar bill acceptors, coin mechs, control panels, etc. It does get hot (and cold) up there, but probably not much more than my uninsulated shed... and I'm not putting stuff like EDOT backglasses up there ;) .

DogP
 
As in start with it standing upright with the back to the tailgate, and the lift it's base until it's laying on it's back in the truck, the slide forward? I contemplated that, but having never done it solo with an arcade machine I wasn't sure how much load I would be under in mid lift.

Yeah, kinda. Basically, put the game with the back toward the tailgate, but 1-2ft away and tilt the game until it's laying against the tailgate. Depending on the height of the truck (lower is better), the game will have some weight above the tailgate which will try to lay into the truck bed, and some weight that you have to lift. You basically want to use the tailgate as the fulcrum, so try to position it for the most advantage. See the attached badly drawn paint picture.

That's basically what I did. The hand truck was laid down when I started and I rolled it over the edge horizontally. It worked good at first, but when it got about 45° the balance of leverage had shifted and it was loading me more than I was loading it. By 75° it was pretty much in free fall, but fortunately by then I was in the the last 3-4". The seller was impressed, but I knew it was a pretty dicey maneuver.

It would have worked better with a taller hand truck for more leverage, and those "stair climbers" on the back to help once the wheels passed the edge. If it had a second set of casters at the top of the hand truck and handles 6' taller, it would have been no problem at all. I may just have to make those...

So, I assume you were on the loading dock the whole time? That's difficult because you lose advantage as you lower it, and the only advantage you have is by pushing down, which is nearly impossible from that angle. I would have laid the game on it's back on the dock without a hand truck on it, got into the bed of the pickup truck, pulled it toward me until it started to tip... which I'd then let it rock on the fulcrum until it was touching the bed of the truck, then I'd stand it up from either the side (especially if it had wheels) or above from the loading dock. Basically, the reverse of the loading from the ground picture (same way you'd unload from the pickup truck). Note the location of the stick figure... it's the same for both (below the game).

DogP
 

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Some great ideas there. They will come in handy for moving some of my machines upstairs. Thanks for sharing and the great pictures.
 
Hey,

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just now finally getting around to it. I bought a house last year, so I had to move my games out of my parents' and friend's basement... which of course wasn't very fun. But with a ton of games and parts to be moved in a short amount of time like that, it made me use some creativity to not kill myself, and maybe even make the job kinda easy. I figured I'd share... so maybe it'll help someone else.

Here's the run down of the stuff:
First, is the obvious hand truck (visible in some of the pics). I have a really heavy duty one with the wheels that kick back (Stevens Escort), and it's great for moving games, except that the hand truck weights a lot, so you're moving more than just the game. But, it was great for accepting the abuse I was about to give it.

Next, is the ramp and winch setup I built to get the games up the stairs. I basically made a ramp for the cart to roll/slide up, and bought a cheap winch from Harbor Freight (~$50). I attached the winch to a 4x4 that ran across the stairwell, pushed back by a ~3' 4x4 to give room at the top of the stairwell to stand the game up. It ran it off a 12V jumpstart battery, and though it was a little bit slow, it had no problem pulling up the heavy games, like SF Rush, Pinballs, etc. I found it to be too slow for hauling up the small stuff though... I still did those by hand (it took a few mins to get up the stairs, plus connecting/disconnecting the cable, and the winch cable would sometimes need to be untangled).

Also, notice in the bottom of the stairwell is a platform I built to make the patio door level to go out. This is REALLY useful... it saves having to turn the game around in the bottom of the stairwell on the hand truck (to go over the several inch door hump).


DogP


Awesome idea! How many games did you move? You used a car battery? I'm wondering how long you could use it without killing the battery.
 
Hauling Games Up/Down Stairs....

The rig you made looks like a great DIY project, but they do make an appliance dolly that climbs stairs with ease. It can handle up to 700 lbs, more than enough for any video game, has a long running time, and most importantly, saves your back. A bit pricy at $1900 new, but money well spent in my case. If interested, I'll look up the manufacturer and post it here.
 
Awesome idea! How many games did you move? You used a car battery? I'm wondering how long you could use it without killing the battery.
I used a car jumpstarter battery, which had a 22Ah battery in it, and IIRC, the winch would draw around 50A when pulling (so it should get almost 30 minutes of use on a full charge). I kept the charger nearby to keep it charged between pulls, and never had it get weak. It would take around 2-3 minutes for it to pull the game to the top of the steps, and it'd be around 20 minutes between pulls (once out of the basement, we had to haul the games from the back yard to the garage).

I had around 30 games come out of the basement, but some of the light ones (Nintendo cabs, Pac-Man, etc.) my friend and I just lifted out the old fashioned way, since they were light/easy. We probably pulled around 20 games with the winch throughout the day (sit down drivers, pins, Atari cabs, etc).

The rig you made looks like a great DIY project, but they do make an appliance dolly that climbs stairs with ease. It can handle up to 700 lbs, more than enough for any video game, has a long running time, and most importantly, saves your back. A bit pricy at $1900 new, but money well spent in my case. If interested, I'll look up the manufacturer and post it here.
Yep... stair climbing appliance dollies looks great, but I couldn't justify buying one for a one-time move when I had most of the stuff to build this on-hand. I may check into renting one the next time I move though.

DogP
 
The rig you made looks like a great DIY project, but they do make an appliance dolly that climbs stairs with ease. It can handle up to 700 lbs, more than enough for any video game, has a long running time, and most importantly, saves your back. A bit pricy at $1900 new, but money well spent in my case. If interested, I'll look up the manufacturer and post it here.

they save the back and everything else but they aren't cheap especially when you add options to them. i wonder if any bigger rental outfits may have something similar for rent or a local locksmith that does alot of safe moving may rent it.
 
It's a escalera and it's the best moving dolly you can buy. I have one and can move games in and out of my basement by myself no problem.

I have also used it to move jukeboxes, and many other things as well. All by myself..
 
Yep, an Escalera Staircat to be exact, not sure if they make others. All of my games are in a basement so it was a must for me. I also use it for pins too, they make an attachment for that. I just used it today actually to hold my GB playfield.
 

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