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I'm just back from Columbus, Ohio with a car trailer full of mezzanine. I'll take a second to explain that a mezzanine is a balcony-type deal installed in a shop so that there is additional overhead storage, office space, or whatever you need the space for. I mention this because you wouldn't believe how many blank stares I get when I tell folks I'm getting a "mezzanine" - evidently, lots of folks don't know that term.
Anyhow, I've been wanting some sort of overhead storage since we moved to Wilmington and we lost having a basement for that purpose. Quite a bit of my shop space has been used up for storage and it REALLY adds to making the shop a snake pit. I mentioned this to David Perris (Rack4U on here) at Maxton last year and he said that his company was removing rack storage from a huge warehouse in Columbus and that he was also charged with removing a bunch of mezzanine, which he offered to me for scrap price. I went to Columbus and looked at the set up and determined that there was a 19' X 14' section that would work nicely over one bay in my shop.
So how do I get this from Columbus to Wilmington, NC? Well, I own a car trailer - and just how heavy can one mezzanine be, anyhow? So off I go. The trip there was incident-free. I also found out that my trailer weighs just about exactly a ton when I did the empty weight of the rig.
David's guys did a magnificent job of loading but I didn't get any pics. David took some and I'm hoping he'll post them. The only real issue was that the two long beams and the decking are all 19 feet long and the trailer isn't so I had about 3 feet hanging over the back end. A couple of pieces of caution tape and problem solved. It also became important to get enough tongue weight but a little careful stacking and we were there. We got everything on my load except the stairs and some handrail, which David generously offered to take to his place in Eastern NC for me to retrieve later - or he may be able to deliver depending on how everyone's schedules work out.
So here's the pics:
The whole rig sitting in my driveway this morning:
The LOAD:
The Dakota was magnificent! All the way back thru the mountains in WV and VA with not so much as a sneeze. It's a 318/5.2 with an auto and the factory trailer towing package. On a few of the mountain passes we were in 3rd. at 4500 rpm (about 45- 50 mph) but other than that we zipped along at 60 MPH with the cruise "on". I did the whole 1400 or so miles in 3 days, including the loading. Using premium on the return trip, average FE was - 12.3 according to the on-board readout. Total weight according to the Cat scales outside of Columbus - 11,060. BTW - DO NOT attempt this w/o trailer brakes!
I'll follow up with assembly pics as I dig the parts off the trailer and start putting it in place. Stay tuned!
HUGE thanks to David and three cheers to all us BSers! Where else do you make these kinds of connections?
Dan
Anyhow, I've been wanting some sort of overhead storage since we moved to Wilmington and we lost having a basement for that purpose. Quite a bit of my shop space has been used up for storage and it REALLY adds to making the shop a snake pit. I mentioned this to David Perris (Rack4U on here) at Maxton last year and he said that his company was removing rack storage from a huge warehouse in Columbus and that he was also charged with removing a bunch of mezzanine, which he offered to me for scrap price. I went to Columbus and looked at the set up and determined that there was a 19' X 14' section that would work nicely over one bay in my shop.
So how do I get this from Columbus to Wilmington, NC? Well, I own a car trailer - and just how heavy can one mezzanine be, anyhow? So off I go. The trip there was incident-free. I also found out that my trailer weighs just about exactly a ton when I did the empty weight of the rig.
David's guys did a magnificent job of loading but I didn't get any pics. David took some and I'm hoping he'll post them. The only real issue was that the two long beams and the decking are all 19 feet long and the trailer isn't so I had about 3 feet hanging over the back end. A couple of pieces of caution tape and problem solved. It also became important to get enough tongue weight but a little careful stacking and we were there. We got everything on my load except the stairs and some handrail, which David generously offered to take to his place in Eastern NC for me to retrieve later - or he may be able to deliver depending on how everyone's schedules work out.
So here's the pics:
The whole rig sitting in my driveway this morning:
The LOAD:
The Dakota was magnificent! All the way back thru the mountains in WV and VA with not so much as a sneeze. It's a 318/5.2 with an auto and the factory trailer towing package. On a few of the mountain passes we were in 3rd. at 4500 rpm (about 45- 50 mph) but other than that we zipped along at 60 MPH with the cruise "on". I did the whole 1400 or so miles in 3 days, including the loading. Using premium on the return trip, average FE was - 12.3 according to the on-board readout. Total weight according to the Cat scales outside of Columbus - 11,060. BTW - DO NOT attempt this w/o trailer brakes!
I'll follow up with assembly pics as I dig the parts off the trailer and start putting it in place. Stay tuned!
HUGE thanks to David and three cheers to all us BSers! Where else do you make these kinds of connections?
Dan
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