How did you transport your stove from dealer to your house?

[stejus]

I can save roughly $300 on the stove (Hampton HI300) if I purchase about 80 miles outside of where I live. I would have to pick the stove up in a pickup truck. I have access to a pickup and figure gas expense these days would be around $50.00 and a case of beer for my farther inlaw. My net savings is $250 and my time of course.

For those of you who picked up your stove, how did it go and what should I look out for? My biggest concern is getting it off the pickup once i get home.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[MarcM]

Pick up truck plus 3 of my friends with strong backs.

 

[RedRanger]

I did exactly what you are contemplating. My 390 pound Kodiak was loaded on a pallet onto my pickup with a forklift, and it stayed on my truck for about 3 days until my sweep showed up to help me install it. I saved $400 with the cash and carry purchase. Minus the $100 I paid to the sweep to help with the install.

 

[burntime]

Make sure you pass out the beer after the delivery is done. You need minimum 2 big strong guys. If you are not up to the task then pay for delivery. In the end it will be cheaper than replacement parts if it is dropped. If you are up to the task, high five and get 'er done! By the way great choice on the stove ;-P Mine was lit last night and stoked this morning. Yesterday was the first time this season and the temps in WI hit 39.

 

[cannonballcobb]

I own a small expanded metal trailer with a fold down rear gate. I was able to bring my stove home myself and unloaded it with a hand truck and the help of my wife.

If all you have is a pickup, you might want to look for an embankment that you can back up to at your house. That way, the slope
will be not as steep. Make sure you have a good ramp, a hand truck, and at least one other adult to help.

 

[granpajohn]

The stove should be on a wooden pallete, probably in a cardboard box. I left it packaged and jacked the whole thing onto a dolly before rolling it down my ramps. A friend helped me guide it down.
Assuming you don't have much stairs, you can keep rolling it up to your hearth. Then, pull off the cardboard, remove the door, remove firebricks, remove blower. Use another jack to lift it to your hearth. Cut away part of the pallete. Place pipe rollers under the unit and on the heart. Roll it into place. Use another small jack to free the last pipe roller. Attach chimney. Attach other stuff you removed.

Or you could just recruit 3 strong friends/relatives.
Woodstock Stove Co. has a good guide for this: (broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/pdffiles/delivery.pdf) Anyone can do it if you don't rush it.

 

[BJN644]

I used 2 strong teenagers and a refidgerator dolly, this way I could drink all the beer.

We also removed anything we could to lighten it up, door, fire brick, ect.

 

[billb3]

I got a fridge and a small stove in the house by myself using cardboard, carpetting and leverage.

Luckily I have a ledge that is tail-gate height ten feet from the four steps that lead to the front door.
Cardboard slides on lawn fairly well, concrete sidewalk and stairs, not so well. Carpet is similar to lawn.



Worst came to worst I could attach a comealong to a stud and winch it in, then patch the hole.
I'm cheap, but some things are worth enticing help with a few Sam Adamses.

 

[eba1225]

Had the shop deliver the stove into my garage, was only $50. Then had a neighbor come over and help move it from garage to hearth with a dolly. Stove was not too heavy once I took out all of the fire brick.

 

[cd64133]

I would suggest using some sort of trailer instead of the back of your truck. This way you can just wheel the stove down with an appliance dolly and then into the house with the appliance dolly. Two adults could handle it this way.

 

[stejus]

Great advice. This link (broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/pdffiles/delivery.pdf) gives me the confidence that it can be done. I plan to have a sweep install this stove so I might just leave it on the truck (in the garage) until he comes. I figure he will have at least one assistant so that makes 3 of us in total to get this off the truck. With the 2x8 wood ramps shown in the guide, this will land in my garage. From there, it's two little steps up into the house. I would think he would bring a dolly to make this easy.

 

[ScottF]

I took off all the parts I could to lighten it up and carried the 200 lb body myself. I am really good at lifting heavy things myself. In high school I could bench press over 500lbs and I only weighed 180.

 

[linckeil]

they loaded it at the dealer no problem with a forklift. it's a 550lb hearthstone mansfield. i have a flatbed pickup (bed higher off the ground than a standard bed). i used two 2x12's that are my ramps for my lawnmower. i braced the center of the boards with jackstands, then slide the stove off the truck and onto the ground with the help of 3 of my strongest friends. then i put straps on the stove and my neighbor came over with his john deere and carried it to my front doorstep. inside the house was a heavy-duty dolley i built for rolling the stove from the front door to the hearth. the stove was lifted by the 4 of us through the doorway onto the dolley and then rolled to hearth, and placed with extreme caution on the hearthpad. the hardest part was for sure lifting it the 9 inches up and through the doorway. thats where i was most nervous, but everything went as smoothly as i could have hoped. but take the time to plan it all out, espacially with a 300 lb plus stove....

 

[BillT]

I just bought, picked up and delivered mine a few weeks ago. I have my own pick up, so no problem there. Like many have mentioned, it came on a pallet and the forklift loaded it on the back of the truck with no problem. I tied it down good and carefully drove it home. Now the big problem, how do I unload it ?? I am all alone trying to figure out the best way to get it off the truck without damaging the stove or getting hurt. (It weighs 300 lbs). After some thought, I decided I wanted it on the front porch and not in my garage. I then backed up to the porch, but still have about a 15 inch drop from the tailgate to the porch floor. I study on it for about another 30 minutes and after thinking about many different procedures, I decided on getting 2 strong 2X10-8 foot pressure treated boards and slid them into the pallet where the forks would go. I then slid the stove back and forth and started to let it go off the tailgate, which let the opposite end of the boards finally hit the floor (support these ends of the boards to be safe). I then wiggled the stove back and forth down the boards until the pallet reached the floor (watch your fingers when the pallet drops off the gate and fully onto the boards). I then got a floor jack and jacked up the boards to free it from the tailgate, then drove the truck away. I then just lowered the boards down to free them up and slid them out. I wouldn't call it the safest way, but it worked for me and even though I did it alone, I would recommend some help.

If you are going into the house and if the back of the truck is not too steep to your door opening, use a strong wide ramp and a hand truck (with some help).

Also when loading the stove, if you do not slide it all the way up to the front of the truck, tie it back real good in case you need to hit your brakes hard while transporting.

Bill

 

[tg4360]

Ford F250. The guys at Lowes stood around for a few moments wondering how they were going to pick up a pallet with a 400lb stove on it and get it to the tailgate.

At home I'm lucky and the tailgate almost exactly lines up with the back door to my sun room.

Heavy duty furniture dolly and into the door. Once there I took the packaging apart and the next day dollied it back onto the bed of the truck to burn it to cure the paint.

It's on it's back on the pallet with the bricks and door removed awaiting install within the next week. I'll make a board to span the back legs and strap it to the dolly to get it to the hearth.

From there I'll set it on masonite and I can dead lift it up the two inches to the hearth.


TG

 

[Beanscoot]

"I used 2 strong teenagers and a refidgerator dolly, this way I could drink all the beer."
Here in Canada teenagers can legally buy beer at age 18 or 19 depending on the province (or any age if in Quebec!) so unfortunately you'd have to share the beer.

To deliver my used Hearthstone II a friend brought his VW van and we slid it along old plywood and ramps. Worked very well, as the loading height was much lower than my pickup.

 

[d.n.f.]

Free delivery to my door.
Narrow staircase caused me to get a boom truck to deliver my T6 to my second floor balcony. Combo motorcycle jask and dollys moved it close to hearth. Four of us then moved it onto the hearth.
Would not want to carry this stove up some stairs.

 

[firefighterjake]

I took off all the parts I could to lighten it up and carried the 200 lb body myself. I am really good at lifting heavy things myself. In high school I could bench press over 500lbs and I only weighed 180.

Mental note to self . . . don't tick off ScottF . . . ever.

 

[firefighterjake]

I picked up my Oslo at the dealer since they had it in stock and at the best price around. Dealer loaded it up with a forklift. At home I off-loaded the stove in my garage with my wife's help as we used her mind and my might to tip the trailer up and gingerly slide it off the back of the trailer while she held the trailer tongue up (mind you the stove was on a wooden pallet and packaged nine ways to Sunday.

When it came time to move the stove inside I enlisted my father, younger brother and four friends . . . and bribed them with offers of a free beer at the local pizza place (yeah, I felt pretty generous). To make things go a bit easier I did strip off the doors and a few other easily removable parts and pieces.

In the end my father (who doesn't even drink) showed us all that age with wisdom can always beat out young brawn as he used a handcart to bring the stove up three stairs and on to the hearth with the aid of only one or two of us (the rest of my friends were pressed into service as impromptu "cheerleaders"). After the stove was in place we did have to make one lift and the pallet was slid out from underneath the stove.

 

[ScottF]

ScottF - 16 October 2008 01:20 PM
I took off all the parts I could to lighten it up and carried the 200 lb body myself. I am really good at lifting heavy things myself. In high school I could bench press over 500lbs and I only weighed 180.

Mental note to self . . . don’t tick off ScottF . . . ever.

FirefighterJake, You can tick me off any time you want. I am a big wimp. Just good at lifting heavy things but a regular teddy bear. People always freak out when they see me lift a 3 ft diameter oak log by 18 inches long into my truck.

 

[stejus]

I picked up my Oslo at the dealer since they had it in stock and at the best price around. Dealer loaded it up with a forklift. At home I off-loaded the stove in my garage with my wife's help as we used her mind and my might to tip the trailer up and gingerly slide it off the back of the trailer while she held the trailer tongue up (mind you the stove was on a wooden pallet and packaged nine ways to Sunday.

When it came time to move the stove inside I enlisted my father, younger brother and four friends . . . and bribed them with offers of a free beer at the local pizza place (yeah, I felt pretty generous). To make things go a bit easier I did strip off the doors and a few other easily removable parts and pieces.

In the end my father (who doesn't even drink) showed us all that age with wisdom can always beat out young brawn as he used a handcart to bring the stove up three stairs and on to the hearth with the aid of only one or two of us (the rest of my friends were pressed into service as impromptu "cheerleaders"). After the stove was in place we did have to make one lift and the pallet was slid out from underneath the stove.

Great idea. I have a utility trailer and I think my father in-laws truck has a hitch. Like you described, I can tip the trailer slowly and the stove should slide down at the speed in which we tip and push it. Either way, on the truck bed or utility trailer, it should be achievable if I take my time.

 

[MrGriz]

The dealer loaded the insert (bolted to a pallet) into my pick-up with a fork lift Once I got it home, I stripped the door off, took the firebrick out and anything else I could remove. Once it was stripped down and un--bolted from the pallet by Brother-In-Law and I carried it in the house and down to the hearth.

I was actually amazed at how easy the whole process went.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

I used my van (Eurovan), with the middle seats out, and improvised wooden ramps (2x8" with extra supports) spaced to fit my hand truck. Same ramps then took me up the three steps to the house.

Several years ago I bought the hand truck to help with a water heater replacement. Seemed a little extravagant at the time, but dang that thing's one of the handier tools I have and gets used at least monthly. I move everything with it -- furniture, appliances, big flowerpots, bags of concrete, firewood rounds -- and save a lot of wear and tear on my back. Truly a case of seldom regretting buying the right tool for the job... I only wish I'd gotten the nice aluminum one with pneumatic tires, not the heavy steel cheapie.

Eddy

 

[buzcranne]

Less than 2 weeks ago I did exactly what you're hoping to do. Getting the stove into the truck was no problem... it was on a pallet and they used a forklift. And really getting it off the truck and into the house was not so bad. The stove was 450lbs, probably 400 after i removed the bricks from inside and the door. My wife and I got it into the house, just the two of us. And no, she's not a beast.

I backed the truck up to the deck so there was only about a foot of drop. Slid the stove, pallet and all, to the back of the truck. Just push/pull hard... it will move without much trouble. I put a 8x8 block of wood on the deck then tipped the whole thing down onto it and did a sort of sliding board thing to get the stove & pallet onto the deck.

Wife and I then carried the stove into the house. Just find a comfortable way to grip it and give the lighter end to the weaker person. A few feet at a time. No big deal.

Then once inside we had to get it up into the fireplace, about 20 inches off the ground. I lifted one end, she slid a cinder block under each of those two legs, then i lifted the other end and two more cinder blocks went under those. That got the stove 8 or so inches off the ground. Repeat to get another block under each leg. At this point it was not that big of a problem to move the stove a few inches to get the back legs onto the hearth. Once the back legs were on the hearth I held up the front end that was floating in the air while she moved the two cinder blocks back under each of the front legs.

Take a rest, pick it back up, and push 'er in. (The stove, not the wife).

I would guess the cinder block method could be done in reverse for getting it off the truck as well.

Good luck.

 

[Risser09]

Stove was delivered in a crate to my work. Shipping manager put it on my friends truck with a forklift. We used his built in ratchet straps to hold it down. Backed into the driveway and had four guys working. We used a fridge dolly and strapped it in. Two guys at the top holding and 2 at the bottom lowering. Going down the stairs to the basement was actually quite easy with the fridge mover.