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Tips on moving a gun safe

6,449 Views | 22 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Credible Source
Ol Jock 99
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The Jock family move is upon us. I have a fairly large (but not huge) safe making the trip. We have movers, so they'll be doing the heavy lifting, but any tips/experience that would be helpful is welcome.

Thanks!
Ol Jock 99
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And of course, I'm moving it strictly for sentimental purposes, as my entire collection was lost tragic shrimp boat accident on White Rock Lake.
mts6175
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Honestly, if it's a local move I'd hire a safe company to come move it.
atmdds03
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+1 on the safe company. I paid a couple hundred to have them move one from our house , store it for about four months, and move it to the new house. Champion Safe company or something like that I think. They were out of Garland. It was about six years ago.

Edit to add: Sorry for your loss and happy Father's Day
mts6175
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The problem is of one of the secondary lock systems get tripped you're going to be calling them anyways, so you might as well put that on the safe company in the first place.
Ducks4brkfast
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Take the door off. Ive got a large safe and moved mine a couple months ago.
Guitarsoup
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Lift with your knees, not your back.
MookieBlaylock
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Thought you knew everything this is shocking
CharlieBrown17
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Golf balls help
skelso
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I used to sell safes and have moved more than I care to remember. Its easiest with 2 people but can be managed by yourself if you have room to get around from one side to the other.

Get 3 pieces of 3/4" black pipe about 3' long. Tip safe back enough to roll 1 piece of pipe back about 1/2 the depth of the safe. Place 2nd piece so it's under safe about 1" when you set it down. Then let the safe down onto 2nd pipe. (Person in back needs to hold pressure against safe so it doesn't roll backwards.)

At this point, safe should be fully raised off floor, sitting on both pipes. Have helper push it toward you, drop 3rd pipe in front of safe so it rolls up on it just before first piece comes out the back. When the first piece clears the back of the safe, have your helper hand it to you. Repeat process until you have it where you want it.

To get it on a trailer, roll it to where you can back trailer up. Work all but 1 pipe out from under safe. Using that pipe as a pivot point, lean back and get a 4" pipe 1/2 way under it. Roll forward and add 2nd piece of 4". If you need it higher, repeat with 6" or 8". If your safe is smaller than about 40 gun, you can probably get away with PVC once you get larger than 4". Smaller doesn't have the wall thickness to support the weight.

If you're moving to/from the BCS area, I still have the pipes I've used for years. Let me know if you need to borrow them and/or if you need a hand.
Credible Source
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Based on your experience, what's the best gun safe brand out there? Should I make the jump to UL15 or 30? TIA
schmellba99
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I have moved mine a couple of times now. It is not easy, but not impossibly difficult either.

I used two flat furniture dollies (you can rent them at u-haul). Tip safe over enough to get one under one side and it is fairly easy from there. Big thing is pre- planning yohr route and making sure you are able to navigate around,or over any obstacles.

Last time i laid it down in a u-haul trailer on top of moving blankets. It rode from Phoenix to here just fine.
Ag2thdr
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quote:
+1 on the safe company. I paid a couple hundred to have them move one from our house , store it for about four months, and move it to the new house. Champion Safe company or something like that I think. They were out of Garland. It was about six years ago.

Edit to add: Sorry for your loss and happy Father's Day
EskimoJoe
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The golf ball method made mine way too easy to move last year. It wound up being one of the easiest large items in the move.
aquaboss98
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I put mine on a heavy blanket and pulled it while other pushed. Mostly I've tile and wood but some carpet. Only issue was fitting it through the door put sliding it was easy.
lotsofhp
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I'll parrot the golf ball strategy. Moved my dads safe a few years back and once we got it up on the golf balls it moved really easily.
skelso
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Sorry for the delay bud, I'm travelling this week and just realized the reply I typed out and thought I sent using United's wi-fi didn't go through...

I've been out of the biz since mid/late 90's and haven't kept up with who's on top in terms of innovations. Also, everyone has different needs so what's not enough for one person may be overkill for another.

If I was in the market for a new safe, here's what I would look for.

1) 1.5 -2 times the size you think you need.
2) as good of fire rating as budget allows
3) Bolts on at least 2 sides of the door (all 4 sides is best)
4) dial mechanism (I personally don't like electronic locks)
5) prewired, or has ability to be wired to home alarm system

No matter what safe someone has I always recommend the following:

1) bolt to floor and/or wall depending upon substrate
2) wire pressure and tilt triggers to monitored alarm system
3) Setup 2nd zone on alarm system and put safe on that zone with triggers set as "hold up" triggers.
TommyGun
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Golf ball method works great. The only downside to it is getting them all out from underneath it once it's at the final location.
kyledr04
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A good furniture dolly will work if there's space, especially the ones with the kicker that comes out the back with swivel wheels.

Another easy way is a few big cardboard boxes. Lay the boxes down and the safe will slide on them. Keep moving the boxes ahead of the safe.
Sailor
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Just get a girl who can suck a golf ball through a straw and problem solved.
trip
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Use golf balls or pvc pipe. I moved 3 safes using this. one was a 72 gun safe. super easy.
Credible Source
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Thanks for the info, I'm currently looking at getting a commercial safe and making it a gun safe, or just buying a UL30 safe. Budget isn't much of a concern, as the value of my collection increases, protecting it is more important. Wiring the door to my alarm is a brilliant idea, thanks for that.

Has anyone heard anything good or bad about the Pendleton safes?
skelso
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No problem.

I recommend hard wired triggers mounted inside the safe. Exterior triggers and wireless triggers are much easier to overcome. Trigger should be wired as "end of line"so a cut in wiring will be seen as trigger engagement.

The reasoning behind a second alarm zone is that zone stays armed when the rest of the house is disarmed. Setting the triggers as "hold up" rather than "burglar" will get a much different response from local police if they get triggered. Hold Ups are considered hostage situations"in progress". Safes are setup that way because in the (unlikely) even you are overtaken and forced to open the safe it will send a "hold up" alarm to central monitoring but will not sound siren and alert perp.

One word of advice on TL ratings. They only apply to intrusion attempt. It often doesn't matter how long it takes to breech the safe because thieves only crack safes onsite in the movies. In real life, they yank the whole safe out of your house and cut it open with a torch elsewhere... A good friend learned this the hard way when they used a stolen wrecker to pull his safe through the back wall of his house a few years ago. He had a huge safe with a lot of weapons and other stuff stored inside and made the incorrect assumption that it weighed too much for anyone to move.. I never had the balls to remind him I told him to bolt it down or point out that $10 worth of bolts would have prevented them from taking it.



Credible Source
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quote:
No problem.

I recommend hard wired triggers mounted inside the safe. Exterior triggers and wireless triggers are much easier to overcome. Trigger should be wired as "end of line"so a cut in wiring will be seen as trigger engagement.

The reasoning behind a second alarm zone is that zone stays armed when the rest of the house is disarmed. Setting the triggers as "hold up" rather than "burglar" will get a much different response from local police if they get triggered. Hold Ups are considered hostage situations"in progress". Safes are setup that way because in the (unlikely) even you are overtaken and forced to open the safe it will send a "hold up" alarm to central monitoring but will not sound siren and alert perp.

One word of advice on TL ratings. They only apply to intrusion attempt. It often doesn't matter how long it takes to breech the safe because thieves only crack safes onsite in the movies. In real life, they yank the whole safe out of your house and cut it open with a torch elsewhere... A good friend learned this the hard way when they used a stolen wrecker to pull his safe through the back wall of his house a few years ago. He had a huge safe with a lot of weapons and other stuff stored inside and made the incorrect assumption that it weighed too much for anyone to move.. I never had the balls to remind him I told him to bolt it down or point out that $10 worth of bolts would have prevented them from taking it.





Wow! Amazing info. I will definitely bolt down my safe no matter what. Saving this info for the alarm people.
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