Step 1: Getting it to my shop

Challenge:  How do you move a nearly four ton piece of equipment sitting on dirt in a back yard to a shop 300 miles away? A logical idea is to get an even bigger piece of equipment to lift the engine up and set it on my trailer.  That’s how it got there in the first place. Seems reasonable. Who wouldn’t want to watch a crane lift a big hunk of iron and skillfully set it on a trailer. But I had a couple of issues with that approach. First, I was having difficulty getting commitments or even call-backs from riggers. And in Door County there aren’t a lot of choices. I was also concerned about how it could be lifted without risk of damage. And I was pretty sure that lifting the engine would leave the partially rotted beams stuck in the dirt. And on top of all that having a crane load it means I’d have to have another crane on the other end of the trip to both lift it off the trailer and then move it laterally into my shop. Sounded expensive and kind of a pain.

Soooo, how about putting the engine on wheels? That eliminates the need for a rigger every time I want it moved. How hard could it be? Google time. Turns out stuff like this has been accomplished before by other cultures. Mayans, Egyptians, Romans, Youtube, etc. They came up with some damn clever ideas on how to move and place really heavy stuff. I may be way short on slaves and domesticated beasts (I’m looking at you, Shadow) but centuries of progress should make up for some of that, right?

Some other complications included the inability to get a trailer to the engine. The engine would need to come a ways to the trailer. And make an S-turn in the process. Also, a big problem is the rot in the beams, particularly in the back. After quite a few ditched pencil drawings I settled on a fairly simple design: A Radio Flyer on steroids.

I started with used mobile home axles/wheels/tires found on The List of Craig. Then a trip to my favorite retail establishment, Discount Steel (seriously, the best-run retail store, period). Add a few nights of cutting, grinding and welding. And there we have it. Probably have about $200 in it. And it’s reusable!

Jack up the engine, attach the plate to the front underside of the beams, slide the four wheel/axle assemblies in from the side, attach with lags and ready to pull. It even steers just like your old wagon. Sounds easy perhaps but it took a whole day. And it didn’t go without incident(s) (more on that in the future).

But it worked!

And I only used volunteer beasts (thanks Dad, Lyle and Charlie).