I bought a large steel, homemade toolbox at an auction. It's probably 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It took a forklift to get it in the bed, but when I got home I was surprised to find it packed with tools, nuts and bolts and other crap. After unloading all that (probably 200+ pounds), I'm able to move it around in the bed by myself - straining pretty hard.

I'm no spring chicken and all my friends are older than 50 as well. First, can the tailgate hold that much weight? Should I get some ramps at Harbor Freight and try to slide it down with a couple friends? Thoughts?

Ramps and several young/strong friends!

Forearm forklifts and then a dolly!

What gauge is the metal? If its strong enough, I would just slide it down some ramps into the grass or dirt

Is there a drainage ditch next to your driveway you can back down into? I've had good luck with using sloped driveways and landscape mounds to reduce the effective drop enough to simply use a couple 2x6's for unloading heavy items from truck beds.

Carport? Garage?

A couple of heavy duty ratchet straps will be slow but can lift it, then lower it safely. Just need a solid place to attach them above.

what general location do you live?

Secure drawers of toolbox so they do not open.

Spread moving blanket on truck bed surface.

Lay the toolbox down on blanket

Place dolly in position where the toolbox can be lowered on to the dolly.

Using above mentioned forearm forklifts and blanket, lower on the dolly.

Place toolbox in desired spot and enjoy a cold beverage.

So would you guess it is about 400 lbs ?

I unloaded a very large gun safe by myself once. I took off the tailgate just in case it couldn't hold the weight. I put plywood on the porch (concrete floor). I pulled the safe out to the tip-over point and let it slide down.

It worked great but was not the smartest thing to do by myself. If I remember right that safe weighed in the 700's.
A team of construction workers who were building our house moved it to the location in the house where it still resides. We made that deal with them when we chose them as our builder.

Trying to estimate your tool box weight.... it depends upon what kind of truck bed surface you have. I have a 300 lb welder that I can move around with quite a bit of effort and that is the only thing I have to compare. If it is on a slick truck bed it can slide fairly easily. But on a concrete or wood surface it takes a bit of effort to move it around.

Step 1: Find a gay rodeo clown...

Accelerate in Reverse
Liberal application of the brakes
???
Profit

Tagguy said:

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Accelerate in Reverse
Liberal application of the brakes
???
Profit

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I was going to suggest a hand brake turn for significant boost in style points.

Very carefully

If you did need to calculate the weight first, measure the steel thickness. If it is made of 10 gauge it is 5.625 lbs per square foot, or just google it.

You said 5 ft x 3 ft .... what is the third dimension ?

tailgate down & PUNCH IT!!!

ought1ag said:

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tailgate down & PUNCH IT!!!

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Park under a tree. Put some tow straps on it attached to a rope secured to the tree. Ratchet that thing up enough to clear the bed. Move the truck. Untie the rope, and slowly lower it down. Then you just need a dolly right?

Drive real fast in reverse, slam on the brakes, problem solved.

DriftwoodAg said:

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What gauge is the metal? If its strong enough, I would just slide it down some ramps into the grass or dirt

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I think this is the way to go. There's a large enough space of grass next to the driveway.

I would say it's 400-500 pounds. I'm a big boy and I can turn it and pick up one end by myself.

Thanks everyone.

Go rent a forklift or a small tractor with forks.

Use the tie down brackets at the front of the bed. Attach the rope to the toolbox securely. Tilt the toolbox over the edge of the tailgate and use the rope to slowly lower it to the ground.

Sliding it down a ramp is good but consider sliding it onto something with wheels (like a furniture dolly if on concrete) so if you want to move it after it's out of the truck, it'd be easier.

Am a fan of the back-into-ditch redneck method, but caution needs to be paid to the inherent sloping, uneven footing in those scenarios. I know this.

I recently bought a generator. Had help loading it at home depot. When I got home no help. I put my rtic cooler under the edge of the tailgate and got the generator to its tipping point and slid it it slowly from the tailgte to the cooler. Then did the same from the cooler to the ground. The generator was 200 pounds and it sounds like the tool box probably weighs more so a cooler might not be appropriate for your situation, but the same principal could work.

How big a boy are ya

My father-in-law has one of these that he uses all the time for getting heavy objects out of this truck bed or off of a trailer.

Harbor Freight Foldable Crane

Off loading a couple of 30 gal trees from my truck a couple of years ago. I backed the truck up to the curb and had a couple of 2x6's screwed together with 2x4 pieces and used them as a slide. Worked well for the trees.

An appliance dolly with three guys should work.

I have unloaded and loaded several refrigerators with those by myself. With 3 guys 2 on the dolly and one extra should be able to do it.

If you're in the Frisco/Plano burbs, I'll help you.

I am in awe at the number of actual serious responses on this thread to this question....what the hatties is going on here on the OB? Where is the heckling and why is the OP not catching crap for asking a question about being a man?

One thing required to hold a man card is the ability to overload the crap out of the bed of your truck and then to figure out how to get said overloaded crap out of it with 2x4s and orange ratchet straps.

AndersonAg08 said:

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Sliding it down a ramp is good but consider sliding it onto something with wheels (like a furniture dolly if on concrete) so if you want to move it after it's out of the truck, it'd be easier.

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There are 3 wheels (missing a fourth) that are trash. I'll replace them Saturday.

very slick material handling

Have you considered a liberal application of Tannerite?

Get stronger.