Gun safes and moving them .

[Greguw]

Hey guys , I have been reading alot of the posts on here about gun safes .... I currently have a few really nice heavy steel cabinets ... 1/4 thick in a closet that has double 5/8 dry ... not much of a fire rating but better than most .
I need more gun space ... I have my own house but won't be in this house forever ... I want a safe I can move on my own .
I have a large industrail building moving it around there is a piece of cake , I was going to have the safe sent there and I have a truck with a lift gate to bring it home , getting it home is not a issue ...The safe I was looking at is a light weight compaired to most ...550lbs Getting it in the house could be a work out .
I really need a safe that holds over 20 long guns , I was considering 2 smaller safes but from a cost effective stand point the one is better .
Any thoughts from you guys ... You guys who had ones delivered , do most come with the doors off ?

[seed]

If you want a safe you can move (i.e. in some future home that is not like a warehouse), do not get a big heavy one. They are an absolute pain to move, especially if they are tall and of course heavy.

I have a tall Amsec (400 pounds) and a small Winchester (300 pound, double-walled). Both came with the door on and both were delivered to the front door. The rest was up to me...with help. They both sucked to move, but the tall one was infinitely worse due to its higher center of gravity.

[any4xx]

I've got one extremely large safe and two smaller ones. The smaller ones are more of a "standard" size. For what I paid for the one large one, I could have bought SIX standard sized ones like you see at Sam's Club and the like. The big one holds about half again as many guns as the smaller ones. If you do the math, you can see that it is not cost effective. Also, the big one is now sitting on the third floor of my other place three states away. I'm still not sure I'm not going to abandon in when I sell that place, as it took four of us the better part of a day to get it up there. I'm not sure it's worth the aggravation to try to get it out again.

[Erik]

I find that taking the doors off of gun safes makes for an easier moving experience. YMMV.

[Greguw]

I think I am going to go with 2 safes ...Instead of one 600 lb safe that holds 24 guns I will go with 2 that hold 15 each and weigh 300 lbs.
Put the call in to the safe rep and said if he'll ship the 2 for the same price as the one 600 lb I will take two 300 lbs .
Thanks guys .

greg

[a1abdj]

Rule #1 is safety. It's not worth hurting or killing yourself. If you don't think you can do it safely yourself, hire a professional.

Moving safes is not rocket science, but when you do it all day long, you can make it look easy. Below you will see me and one of my guys who weigh less than 300 pounds combined moving a large gun safe. The safe weighs a little over 5,000 pounds, and we moved it without a problem.

[Greguw]

Looks great ... I have very similar jack dollies ...my only consern with a large safe over 500lbs is moving it around inside a house , I would have to plywood the floors and it would be pretty tricky .
I was considering 2 safes that are in the 300 lb range ...the only thing is I just found out there not fire rated... I am going to have to reseach that ...How important is a fire-rating with these safes ?

[a1abdj]

Those roll lifts will probably weigh as much as a smaller gun safe. Using them would actually double your work

I don't know what kind of floors you have, but I move 10 or so gun safes a week. I very rarely lay down anything on the floors. If you have a few friends, you could do up to 800 pounds or so on a heavy appliance dolly. Our dolly has "mild" rubber wheels, so I can use it across tile, wood, or carpet without issue. If you have carpet, you can also get teflon slides and slide the safe easily without any equipment.

Most importantly is thinking things through ahead of time. Once you have a plan, things go much smoother.

Gun safes are not fire rated the same way a real fire rated safe is. They will offer minimal protection, but usually don't hold up well in severe fires.

[10 Spot Terminator]

Ancient technology will help here ,,, As you cant always be afforded the opportunity to use a heavy appliance dolly or other piece of equipment moving apparatus due to space constrictions look to how the Egyptians noved heavy objects and get yourself some pieces of dowel , tip up the end of the safe and insert a section at a time to make them work as rollers with one person in front and one behind continuously feeding them under the safe as they work their way through . Larger 1 in. or bigger work better especially on carpet and did I mention is easier if the safe is laid out flat ? It's not mandatory if space does not permit but be careful, we all saw the movies where they were building pyramids didnt we ???

[Bogie]

Golf balls. Lots and lots of golf balls.

[Coopersrcool]

I have a Patriot 24 x 30 x 60 holds 24 rifles & dozen handguns. Thats if you put them in pretty tight. It weighs 725 lbs.
I rented a moving dolly with straps for the day. My little (petite) wife and I picked it up from the trucking Co.. They put it in the back of our pickup, laying flat. Just the two of us and a dolly unloaded it out of the pickup into our detached garage and then moved into the house up two flights of stairs ( 3 steps in each flight) into several different rooms and ended up in the office.
You would be amazed how much two people can move with a good dolly.
Dowls...ggeeezz...you might not think so but you can actually walk a 725 lb safe thats 60 inches high.

[tegemu]

I had a locksmith use about 4 lengths of 1" PVC pipe.