Gently, Gently, Booooom

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Do you ever go to move an arcade and as you lower the dolly the weight gets ahead of you and all of a sudden it's crash and a new round of troubleshooting begins? Man I hate that. That is all.
 
Do you ever go to move an arcade and as you lower the dolly the weight gets ahead of you and all of a sudden it's crash and a new round of troubleshooting begins? Man I hate that. That is all.

Yep I just experienced this Monday night. Was picking up a dig dug, galaga, and xybots from this burnt out self-proclaimed heroine addict. You should have seen his wife...she was worse. She basically was completely fried left only with massive paranoia.

Anyway, I backed up my trailer down his windy-ass very long drive way that ran downhill all the way to his garage.

I loaded the Dig Dug fine. I was then on to the Xybots (solo as the dude was inside tripping balls or something). I got it all the way up into the open trailer solo. Then as I am lowering the dolly...the weight got away from me...AND "WATCH OUT!!" *WHAM!!!* Xybots took a face plant!

All I could manage to do as the game fell away from me was yell for his paranoid wife to watch out so the machine didn't crush her like a crack rock. I then completely fell with the machine, landing on top of it, and promptly rolling off.

The end result was a damaged cab, my dolly sent flying off the edge of the driveway down a fairly steep embankment, and two big ass gouges/scrapes across my chest & one on my right shin.

Well, the crash sent the crazy-ass paranoid wife into a freak-out causing her to promptly go inside LOL.

I found out later that the whole accident was because the axle literally bent on my supposed "high quality" outdoor dolly. That one will be going back to Harbor Freight. Wish there was more I could do but I doubt it.

The good news? Only the back piece of wood and a couple of the smaller wood pieces under the "topper" portion of the machine were significantly damaged. One small corner of the front artwork under the player 2 controls did get bent/dented & scraped a tiny bit but the artwork was already in average condition. The wood damage is completely repairable/replaceable.

The best part? I get home an hour later than I should have and before my fiance starts bitching I tell her about it. She helps me get the three games inside. I immediately go to plug in Xybots. My fiance asks why and I tell her, "This will decide if I keep & repair this game or get rid of it!".

...INTRUDER ALERT.... Game fires up perfectly fine. It plays with no problems! Looks like it's in for some repairs.
 
Happens all the time. Worst case so far was with a Joust. We were loading up a truck to take games to the Houston Arcade show. The lift on the truck was tipped forward like it had tried to pick up a loading dock at some point. so I was below trying to brace the Joust and another game. When the lift stopped, it jiggled and both games started to topple off. I grabbed the one and watched in horror as the Joust faceplants from 4 feet up. We got the other game into the truck and wrangled the Joust back upright (it was face down on the ground and bottom up, still on the lift). I was sure it was toast, but I didn't have time to grab a different one, so off to the show it went.

The tube never looked better. The crash must have knocked all the crap out of the guns like a rejuve. The only damage was some road rash on the t-molding.

ken

BTW, I recommend a rejuvenator to clean up CRTs not dropping them 4 feet onto their faces.
 
Happens all the time. Worst case so far was with a Joust. We were loading up a truck to take games to the Houston Arcade show. The lift on the truck was tipped forward like it had tried to pick up a loading dock at some point. so I was below trying to brace the Joust and another game. When the lift stopped, it jiggled and both games started to topple off. I grabbed the one and watched in horror as the Joust faceplants from 4 feet up. We got the other game into the truck and wrangled the Joust back upright (it was face down on the ground and bottom up, still on the lift). I was sure it was toast, but I didn't have time to grab a different one, so off to the show it went.

The tube never looked better. The crash must have knocked all the crap out of the guns like a rejuve. The only damage was some road rash on the t-molding.

ken

BTW, I recommend a rejuvenator to clean up CRTs not dropping them 4 feet onto their faces.

Yep the same thing happened with my Xybots. The monitor now looks great lol. The hit to my pride is still there as this was my first ever drop of an arcade machine. I assume this happens more often than ever admitted. I'm just glad it wasn't the dig dug or the galaga that took the fall.

It did confirm that I found a winner in my fiance as her only response other than "OMG I am so glad you weren't seriously hurt" was "Okay, from now on you take me or someone else to help you load games!" :D
 
I heave hoed a Midway Gangbusters gun game up the one large step into my game room and it just kept coming somehow I managed to keep from backing into the pool table at speed but ended up under the game and hand trucks when I called my buddy Chris Hutchins to tell him about it all he said was "How's the equipment?"
 
Been there, done that. Good thing my cab was set to be restored.

DigDug.jpg
 
I just did this a few weeks ago. Spent all day cleaning and tuning up my new Wizards of Wor on the loading dock of my building. It doesnt have a back on it so when I was done I had to put it up on the dolly from the side to get it inside. When I tilted it back I snapped the monitor neck off on the door jam. As soon as I heard the Psssssssssssss coming from the monitor I just put my head down in shame.
 
Never dropped a game, but I did drop a fridge down 3 or 4 steps. I was trying to use a regular hand truck (instead of an appliance one) to get my old fridge down the stairs to the basement. I was sitting down reaching under to hang on (hand truck was too short, you see) as I took it down and lost grip. Wife wasn't in the way, so no injuries, and other than needing to keep tension on the freezer door, it still works fine.

I was happy to have learned a lesson on something replaceable!
 
I almost rolled my Playchoice dual monitor out of my truck. It was my first arcade haul and I thought "I dont need to take my toolbox out, Ill just lean the game on it in the back with maybe 1 or 2 straps holding it down". Made it to the last turn before my house and I took a turn a little too tight and watched the straps fly off and the cabinet start rolling out and almost fell. Bricks were shit.

I also almost launched my Space Invaders after hauling it up with a chain hoist. Get it up to the top porch fine, put the dolly under it, took 2 steps and a floor board broke, launching me and the game sideways and almost down the hole in the floor we used to hoist em up
 
Back a few years ago I went to my first arcade auction with a couple friends randomly and picked up a Crazy Taxi sit down and Virtual On. The downside was no rental trucks in the area had a lift gate and two of us had to put them in the truck because the third guy was a wimp. After 5 or so hour drive back home with pouring rain and being awake over 30 hours, we tried to move these out of the truck. There was a moving rug that got hung up under the crazy taxi and right at the very edge drop straight down about 4ft and only split a small bit of wood under the coin box. After a crazy loud bang and letting it dry off for about an hour, I plugged it in and works great. :)
 
Have not lost a vid, but once dropped a Black Knight 2000 pin about 3 feet off the back of a truck when strapped to an appliance dolly.

I think the incicent was my fault, and luckily the machine was mine. There was a miscomminication with the person that was helping me move the machine. Was very happy (seriously) that he just let go of the handtruck when it started to fall. The games can be fixed, people are much harder to fix.

Machine tuened out to be okay. Seems the handtruck took the brunt of the fall. Was very suprised the backglass did not break. we got very lucky that day.

Chris
 
Dropped my robotron down a flight of stairs with dolly in tow. It bent the wood on the back cab, but otherwise played perfectly afterwards.
 
Somehow I have never dropped one, despite moving several hundred (usually up and down stairs to boot). I guess I have been pretty lucky.
 
I haven't dropped one yet but it's early in my career as a collector so I will take your posts as warning. I did almost drop my Tempest though. I caught it but it was heavier than I thought. Like a damn fridge. Makes a Nintendo cab seem like a plastic toy.
 
You could use one of these. They are expensive but it won't fall back on you. We put equipment at least 3 or 4 times the weight of an arcade cabinet on one of these in the Switching facility I work in. They ain't cheap.

http://www.handtrucksrus.com/crashdetail.aspx?id=797&cx=dutro

That would have definitely helped out but in my case I'm not sure it would have made any difference on the outcome of my loading failure.

The reason for my accident was primarily due to my approach and less due to my dolly; although, the axle did bend on my dolly. I made the mistake of taking the wrong approach with machine when the driveway was on an incline and thus the trailer was on an incline. It was a bad judgement call.

The only thing I can attribute my bad call to was the fact that it was after 10 pm, it was cold as hell, I was tired as hell after working all day, and I was doing it all solo.

Live and learn.
 
I was a taking a Galaga (first machine) down into my basement (by myself),
slipped on the loose rug at the top of the stairs and watched it slide down a
fight of steps strapped on the dolly. It hit the concrete wall at the end of the
steps. Suprisingly everything survived. No real damage. game worked. Still
use the same dolly today. Very lucky.. Has never happened since!

Mike
 
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