The Big Equipment Move
Started unloading the van this morning. U Haul vehicles come with a ramp so it was pretty easy to get stuff down...
Except...
The copy machine is huge and it weighs a good 800 pounds. It is on casters but the spacing on the casters was larger than the width of the ramp. Since I still need to keep an eye on my hip and not overdo it (and also, I either cracked a rib or sprained that area and it's still tender), I bailed, lashed it up again, made a few phone calls and drove into town to this place:
Fountain Rentals to get a van with a lift gate.
I drove by there occasionally on my trips into town but it never seemed to be a very big operation. Turns out most of it is hidden from the street.
Founded sixty years ago, it is in its third generation of owners and employees. Awesome people and the truck was in great shape. The U Haul truck was very "floaty" when driving on the freeway -- serious wheel alignment or tie rod troubles or some such. The truck I got from Fountain was solid as a rock although it had 90K miles on it.
And the best thing? U Haul charges $20/day plus $0.79/mile up to $0.99 on weekends.
Fountain is $30/day but $0.49 all the time. Weekends are $15/day.
The trip from U Haul to Monroe to Home and back to U Haul was over 200 miles. Guess who I will be using in the future.
And the lift gate seriously rocked my world -- made the move a very safe and smooth operation. I am hurting and will be stiff as a board tomorrow (thinking about the leftover Percosets from my hip operation) but everything got moved and I didn't tip the copy machine over...
Posted by DaveH at January 27, 2009 8:32 PM