NEW Loading and hauling disasters

You cannot call yourself a "collector" if you haven't necked-a-tube at least once.

I picked up my Robotron many years ago. (was a real noob back then)
The seller put in a new monitor.
He forgot to bolt it in.
I took the game and loaded it in my Explorer on its back.
Got it home ... and you know the rest.
That was my initiation into always checking the CRT is mounted tight before moving the game. (Or loading the game on it's side; or removing the monitor completely).

:(

Lost a 6100 this way in a SD. Assumed it was bolted down and it wasn't. Taught me a hell of a lesson. Now I always check. Not sure how it survived all it's prior moves like that. Guy I got it from never touched it. Just wheeled it from A to B and it sat. I think that's why I made the dumb assumption that it must be bolted down. Could probably feel my heartache for miles when I leaned the dolly back and heard that noise. Ugh.

Also had a GF do the old 'I got it' and then watched a PP cockpit take a 3 foot drop. Also, never dolly a ST cockpit chair from the rear without a 2x4 between the dolly and the sides. This is precisely why all the chairs have busted plexi and formed right angle connectors but nobody will say how it got that way. And for the grande finale, I was run over by a Hard Drivin. You never want to know how that feels...
 
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If this helps anybody, then I did some good to the world. I do not drive tractors trailers any more, ( it was a brief stint ) but they taught me in school that after you load your cargo and drive down the road a few miles, stop and recheck all your straps or hold downs. I have always remembered this and used that information with my arcade trips.
You be surprised how loose your straps can get after bouncing and stretching after just a couple of miles. Hope this tip helps someone in the future.
This is a must do ! No matter how tight you get the straps the games will always shift and the straps will loosen up! I always make "stops" to check on the straps and always find one that has loosened up !!!!!!!!!!!!!
FWIW, I just wanted to say thanks to the forum itself for helping me prevent moving disasters. Before I ever moved a game I posted here (my very first post I think) and people told me the basics in that thread and others I read back then:

1) Make sure monitor is secure
2) make sure boards, power brick,etc. are secure
3) be aware of loose brackets & secure the bezel if no back door so it doesn't blow out
4) Never use bungy cords :p.

All that seems like common sense, but had I not asked as a total newb I have no doubt I would have had a disaster or two in the beginning. Especially since I didn't own ratchet straps yet and had loads of bungy cords :p.

Oh, and in the event a total newb is reading this and needs to buy straps I would recommend that you buy the widest ones at the store (or get wider ones online). They spread the pressure out and make it less likely that you'll damage a cab. I learned that lesson the hard way with 1" straps that I had too tight as I compressed the mdf on a cab and you could see a 1" wide dent in it after I unloaded it. Oh, and go for 12' in length over 8' or 10'.
 
ive had some close calls where the monitors were REALLY loose, but still had bolts.
id find the loose bolts when i got home and it bothered me for a while after that .
"what if the bolts let go" was all i though.

Then ive had friends ask me to go with them to look at machines.
Really nice condition machines...

They call me later and say they dont work, but i saw it work with my own two eyes before hand.

I get over my friends house and the machine is all banged up and the monitor is necked
or dropped on the ground and plugs are now in backwards.
daughter boards hanging by the ribbons.

They try moving the machines themselves down a flight of stairs lol.

So you offer to fix it, for the most part you do.
But it needs parts now.
SO
They order parts in front of you, You go home.. you get a call two days later.
Instead of them waiting for me, They attempt to fix it themselves.
Imagine somebody doing a cap kit by just pushing the cap legs through then bending
the legs back to hold them in. no solder.

so they fry that ...
then they buy a monitor off of ebay for 300 bux.
I come over and set it up on a small table behind the machine to make adjustments.
go outside for some air , have him come out and tell me all three of his dogs
just got into the basement (one was a great dane) and knocked everything over.
I gave up and just went home lol.
 
I bought my wife a really really nice centipede for Christmas very early in my collecting days. I was adjusting the rear leg levelers at the storage area where it was being hidden and the damn thing fell on its face destroying the coin door and banging up the control panel area. I tell everyone I turned a 9 into a 5 in a matter of seconds.

She must really have a homely disappointed face.
 
Also had a GF do the old 'I got it' and then watched a PP cockpit take a 3 foot drop.
You sound like my buddy who had his GF hold the mattress in the back of his truck. When she and it flew out of the truck, she did NOT land on it.
 
You sound like my buddy who had his GF hold the mattress in the back of his truck. When she and it flew out of the truck, she did NOT land on it.

Yeah i heard that from my GF before i hear the big piece of side glass cracking on my
claw machine. I musta yelled HOLD ON.. five or six times
 
I tore my shoulder,
Hauled a zaxxon machine up 3 flights of stairs,, the last step i felt that hot ripping burning
in the front, side and back of my shoulder.
I just kinda looked at the ceiling with a blank painful stare.
My doctor told me it will never heal on its own.
I have a zaxxon cab, in my opinion Sega cabinets are heavy.
 
Dual PlayChoice 10 of Crushing Death

Pulling a dual monitor PlayChoice 10 out of a location in downtown San Francisco. I have the machine tilted back on a hand truck, and I am walking it backwards out the door. My wife and previous owner are on the inside of the store, pushing it.

The wheels on the truck get stuck on the door jam, and I have to tilt it back up, so I tell them to stop pushing so I can reorient myself.

The PlayChoice 10 tilts back upright, then suddenly starts tipping back over.

"Stop pushing!"

It keeps lurching over me.

"Stop Pushing!"

It's not stopping.

"STOP PUSHING!"

It comes crashing down on top of me. I just toss my hand up to catch it and barely keep myself from winding up sandwiched between myself and the concrete. The thumb on the hand keeping the machine off of me snaps back and dislocates. I get the handtruck to roll out of the jam, somehow, and it levels back out. I have to hold the machine with my other arm while I quickly whip my injured hand out to snap my thumb back in place.

My wife and the previous owner come out all smiles, "That went easier than we thought it would!"

They had no clue they almost crushed me.

Babality

I drove about 3 to 4 hours out to a warehouse to pick up a super cheap Mortal Kombat II project. My wife was due to give birth next week, but we saw it as our last arcade adventure before the kid comes.

We pick up the game just fine, but 20 minutes into the drive back and I blow a tire on the freeway. It's 90+ degrees in September, and as we are sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck, she starts having contractions!

...

Luckily, it was a false alarm. Braxton hicks. But I thought I was going to have a baby on the side of the Fresno highway.

Mario Bros. Crush

I was helping a friend move his wide Mario Bros. out of his house, through the front door, for CAX one year. He's on the handtruck, moving forward, and I am on the outside helping lift/guide the cab over the front steps.

One of my hands grabs a hold of the front board of the cabinet base as we go over the front door jam. The next moment, the board is in my hand and in the air, and my friend is yelling from underneath the Mario Bros, which is now laying on top of him.

The Cursed Tales From the Crypt

The last time I brought games to Pin-A-GoGo, I was loading up a friend's Tales From the Crypt pinball machine. I was super stressed, because I was responsible for a truck of about 20-30 games, and on this stop I was loading up about 5-6 machines.

The procedure for folding up a machine, for people in my circle ... that is ..., is you bring the head down. Strap the head to the body. Then take the back legs off, ease it down, lay it on its back, then remove the front legs. At that point, Bob's your uncle, grab a hand truck and wheel that bitch out!

In my rush and nervousness, I forgot the "Strap the head to the body" part for this game. I removed the back legs, eased it down, then stood it on its back. The head comes crashing down and smacks a wall!

Luckily, the game wasn't damaged. But it knocked a huge hole in the dry wall. My ego and pride were more bruised than anything else, and I would constantly have to hear about this incident throughout the show.

This game, we would soon realize, was cursed.

Pin-A-GoGo ends, and it's time to start packing games up. A buddy in our group tends to get plastered at almost any time of the day, and at this time he was especially drunk. He went over to the exact same Tales From the Crypt and proceeded to help us pack it up.

Unlocked the head.

Put the head down.

Unbolted the back leg bolts.

Removed the back legs.

Set it down.

Tilted the machine back.

WHAM! CRACK!

He did the same exact thing I had done loading the machine, and had forgotten to strap the head down. This time, however, there were no walls to protect the head. It went all the way back and snapped loose. It wound up requiring wood work to fix.

In the end, he meant well. I was distracted by stress ... and he was drunk. We both learned lessons that trip.

Also, obviously, the owner of Tales From the Crypt never let us borrow his machine again. ;)
 
I did the same thing with my DE Star Wars pin this year before MGC. Packed up 4 pins and hauled them upstairs. Star Wars was 5 and i forgot the strap for the head, slammed against the wall, some scratched paint but no damage.
 
I have packed up many pins for moving/shipping. I follow the same procedure and have somehow always managed to remember to strap the head down. I did once set a Shadow pin on my foot while lowering the back of the body to the ground. That sure smarted.
 
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