Moving a Biomass 40

[danfredw]

Hi,

I've found a BioMass 40 for sale which apparently hasn't been used, and I'm planning on purchasing it. I've been reading this site a good deal so far and I'll certainly be coming back for help with the install later, but for now, I'm trying to figure out moving it.

Both the current owner and myself have walk out basements, so we believe we'd be able to back a trailer up to it easily enough. And so I think that from what I've read, some plywood and some pipes will make it easy enough to slide it in and out. My main concern at this point is getting it on our trailer. My trailer doesn't have a ramp, and I know the weight listed is 1400 lbs. I don't have a tractor or anything that could pick it up either.

So I have few questions:
1) Is 1400 the dry or wet weight? I saw that it has a 40 gallon capacity and so that would be a change of ~300lbs that it might drop when not filled. Or is that always filled?
2) Do you think it's sturdy enough to lay it on its side? I think with some ratchet straps we would have a good method of lowering it down.
3) Can it be taken apart to some degree?
4) Do you have other suggestions? I've got access to a flatbed trailer or a box trailer with sides.

My family and I have been throwing ideas around about getting it up on there, but haven't figured anything out yet.

Thanks!
-Dan

 

[huffdawg]

I moved my Eko 40 around with a bobcat.. a 180 will lift over 2000lbs. Or you could build a ramp and tailhold a winch to the front of the trailer. If you back the tow vehicle up on some blocking it will make a better approach angle on the trailer.. I would say the 1400 lbs is the dry weight .

 

[Bob Rohr]

I moved my Eko 40 around with a bobcat.. a 180 will lift over 2000lbs. Or you could build a ramp and tailhold a winch to the front of the trailer. If you back the tow vehicle up on some blocking it will make a better approach angle on the trailer.. I would say the 1400 lbs is the dry weight .

With the sheetmetal jacketing removed they are just a big chunk of welded plate. It may be safer to roll it up on some planks with steel pipe rollers on it's side, if manual loading is your requirement.

A come- a long makes pulling easy and safe. Wear steel toes

 

[maple1]

I haven't had any hands on with a Biomass, but I would first pull out all the ceramics & refractory that will easily come out. That might be a couple hundred pounds right there, and I might want it out anyway so it doesn't get damaged when the boiler is being moved. One slip at the wrong time & it would be a hard jolt to them, they are likely the most fragile part of the whole thing. Just round up lots of planks for a ramp, and yes maybe a piece of plywood as a toboggan for it. Maybe use ropes around the bottom part of it and/or thru holes in the plywood for pulling purposes. If you have snow, a little bit thrown in the right places should make for easy sliding. Don't want to get it too easy though. I would also keep it upright the whole time. Pallet jack &/or dollies might be a big help in the basements - actually if you can round up a pallet jack, the best thing to do might be to get it on a (stout) pallet first. Then you can slide that whole thing (after strapping the boiler to the pallet) on & off plywood as needed for sliding. How is it sitting now? Maybe it's on a pallet now if it's never been used? If there is anyone close to either you or the seller who has a FEL big enough, might be worthwile buying a bit of his time for the on and/or off part.

 

[woodsmaster]

1400 would be dry weight. Taking the bottom refractories out will remove a little weight but not a whole lot overall.

 

[WoodChoppa]

Pay a wrecker $50 to pick it up and back your trailer under it, cheap and it will save you a lot of grief.

 

[mustash29]

A few years ago I moved an Empyre Elite 100 (about 950 lbs) out of a walk out and into my walk out.

Small floor jack to get some blocks under the boiler feet, then used the factory lifting eye and an engine hoist to lift it up in the air. Borrowed my girlfriends sisters Suzuki Quadmaster 500 and hooked a 3.5 x 7 foot U-Haul trailer to the hitch. The trailer cost 17 bucks to rent for the day. I was able to back the trailer right into the other guys basement (he had 2 French doors) and drive it through his very crappy and off camber back yard and up to the driveway.

Strapped the boiler to the trailer and pulled it home with my S-10 blazer. My GF drove the duramax with the quad in the bed.

Once home, I backed the trailer into the garage and lifted it off with the engine hoist. I attached a landscape timber to the boiler feet to make 2 "skis". A plastic pallet was the perfect height to bridge the height difference from my garage floor to my walk out basement / rec room floor. A couple pipes and a few good pushes got it through the door.

Once in the rec room I put a 3 wheeled snowmobile dolly under each corner of the boiler and moved it into position. Floor jack to get the dollies and "skis" out from under it.

These pics are in reverse order, so start at the end and go backwards for the correct sequence of events.

http://s23.photobucket.com/user/Mustash29/library/Empyre?sort=3&page=1

 

[danfredw]

Thanks for all the answers. I'm going to rent a trailer with ramps just to make it easier, jack it up, and use a come along to get it up and on. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll leave it in my garage for the winter or try to slide it or not around the house to our walkout basement. We've got a good bit of snow so sliding it now might be the easiest option.

I'm sure there will be some fun times. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[WoodChoppa]

Thanks for all the answers. I'm going to rent a trailer with ramps just to make it easier, jack it up, and use a come along to get it up and on. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll leave it in my garage for the winter or try to slide it or not around the house to our walkout basement. We've got a good bit of snow so sliding it now might be the easiest option.

I'm sure there will be some fun times. I'll let you know how it goes.

I predict hours of misery with this approach. The boiler is surrounded by a light metal skin so finding an attachment point and a solid opposing anchor point for the come-along could be difficult. Second obstacle is sliding the beast as it would prefer to tip over rather than slide even with 2 hefty men pushing on it, snow only makes it worse. If you can get it up onto a pallet jack you're in business and by flipping 2 sheets of plywood along it's path you can wheel it pretty much anywhere 8 ft. at a time.

 

[danfredw]

I predict hours of misery with this approach. The boiler is surrounded by a light metal skin so finding an attachment point and a solid opposing anchor point for the come-along could be difficult. Second obstacle is sliding the beast as it would prefer to tip over rather than slide even with 2 hefty men pushing on it, snow only makes it worse. If you can get it up onto a pallet jack you're in business and by flipping 2 sheets of plywood along it's path you can wheel it pretty much anywhere 8 ft. at a time.

True - I wasn't quite as clear as I could have been. Was certainly thinking of bolting 2 4x4"s onto the boiler feet like mustash29 said and either sliding it on them like skis or even using them as something easier to roll on. I'm not really planning on having people push anywhere I can use the come along - I feel the minor movements made by that will be much more steady than people pushing.

Was aiming to do it today, but the current owner has cancelled for now. I do believe he has access to a pallet jack, so I'll look into that approach when we give it a try next weekend.

 

[dogwood]

I rented Penske van with a lift gate for about $60 for four hours to take our boiler home. I then moved the boiler around on a pallet jack on sheets of plywood just like Woodchoppa suggested. I got the pallet jack on Craigslist for this purpose. One advantage of a pallet jack is you can let the air out of it's "lift" mechanism and quickly lower it to the ground, braking it in effect if the load starts to get away from you. Don't ask how I figured that out. Simply getting that boiler up onto your trailer without heavy equipment or a tractor will be a major undertaking.

Don't underestimate how much weight you're dealing with. Our driveway has a slight slope which caused the boiler, once on the pallet jack, to try and roll backwards inside the rented moving van even before I could even get it onto the lift gate. I had to turn the truck around and unload on our level front lawn. I then with the help of a come-along winch, slowly pulled the boiler with the pallet jack onto the lift gate. I then lowered it to the ground with the lift gate, then off the lift gate, and over to and up that slight slope on sheets of plywood. All the while having the come-along attached to the pallet jack to help move that weight along.

The final few feet, while inside the garage and finally off the pallet jack, the boiler was rolled on a number pieces of 1" pvc pipe into its final resting place onto a four inch high slab I had poured. I don't recall how I raised it up those four inches. The whole operation was dangerous and precarious at best.

This is not the time to save a few bucks as that weight can squash you like a bug. Moving our thousand gallon propane water storage was a similar adventure you might look forward to. Good luck and be safe.

Mike

 

[danfredw]

Thought I'd update:

We did get it moved this past weekend. It looks to be in great/brand new shape - just a bit of age on some areas. I'm still deciding on buying the triple wall pipe that was installed - it was 25' for 1K.

Anyways - we removed the ceramic brick to cut down on the weight. Managed to pry it up to get it up on some wood blocks and did get a pallet jack under it. Moved it near the sliding glass door, and put it in the middle of 2 8' 4x4" skids that we had mitered the ends on. From there, we used the owner's 4x4 mule with its winch to winch it out the door onto the lawn, then again up onto his driveway. I tried my comealong, but it wasn't working well, so again, the winch to the rescue over the front edge of the uhaul trailer I rented. Strapped it down, and home we went.

Getting it off wasn't as easy as we had thought - I tried using my lawn/garden tractor to pull it off, but my garage cement floor was a bit too slick for it. So in the end, I slowly pulled it off with the rear tow hook on my Elantra, and pulled the trailer out from underneath when most of it was on the floor. And then used some pvc pipe under the front and picked up the back with a large metal bar to slide it forwards.

It's still in the garage, but I think I'll use either the plywood + tractor approach on a dolly if I can that I saw someone else here post for moving his Eko, or the slower 1 or 2 pipe plus lifting the back up way we did already. It's a slight downhill grade to my basement doors, so I want to take it slow.

Thanks!

 

[dogwood]

Congratulations getting it home, danfredw.

 

[velvetfoot]

Those were the days. I had a hill to go down as well to get in down to the back door of the basement.

 

[woodsmaster]

Cost me a case of beer to have a neighbor come over and move mine with his forklift. He drinks cheap beer to. lol

 

[flyingcow]

If you still plan on using a tractor to lift with, it really needs to be bigger than a 40 or 50hp unit. Remember, the rated lifting power of tractors is close to the FEL. Not out on the end of a bucket and especially not at the end of a set of forks. Just a foot away from the pins, is a big deal. I've got a 75hp unit, FEL is rated for 2500lbs. I lifted a 1400lb solo,with forks. It was all it needed to do. Did it OK, but.....

When I bought that unit a guy had his 40hp kubota.. Barely lifted it, and he almost rolled the unit over.

 

[arbutus]

Thanks for all the answers. I'm going to rent a trailer with ramps just to make it easier, jack it up, and use a come along to get it up and on. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll leave it in my garage for the winter or try to slide it or not around the house to our walkout basement. We've got a good bit of snow so sliding it now might be the easiest option.

I'm sure there will be some fun times. I'll let you know how it goes.

I used a comealong to drag an Empyre Elite 100 onto a tilting utility trailer last year. Standard automotive jack and a 2x4 made quick work of any realignment needs. Took half an hour total to get it out a 36" door and secured on the trailer. From there I used the built in lifting eye (would have used slings if it didn't have one), and a neighbor's L series Kubota FEL with welded top hook and chain to lift it off my trailer and onto the buyer's truck bed.