How not to move an arcade machine

[RayB]

Me: "OK we're moving this one here."

Friend: "Does the back come off?"

Me: "Good idea. Lighten the weight a bit and gives me a place to grip it."

Me: "Ready?"

Friend: "Go"

*CRACK!!*

[opt2not]

Oh man, looks like it's time to invest in a dolly!

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

At least it came off inone piece?

[RayB]

I have a dolly. We had to take it off the dolly at the last step because the landing was too small.

Next, we moved my MAME cabinet which is larger than the Centipede cabaret, but not by much (mostly just taller). Come the 2nd to last step it somehow skipped a step, and I ended up inside the machine (monitor area facing player), got bonked on the head , shoulder scraped, and kinda pinned there with a mambe cabinet on my head! Neck still hurts three days later.

Ah joy!

Anyone else got injuries and damage stories?

[SavannahLion]

Yeah. I dropped a Z-back off the back of my truck. The original post is around here somewhere.

[gnateye]

i manhandled my 'mortal kombat' big boy cab by myself; into my van in then, without a dolly, from my van into my basement, down steps and all. didn't really 'hurt' myself except for totally pulling every muscle in my back and neck and shoulders "walking it" inside.

then another time i found a 'turbo' in the garbage 2 blocks from my house. so like a fool i walked down 2 blocks with my dolly, grabbed the cab, and walked 2 blocks with it over speed bumps down and alley to my house. this time i had my friend help me get the bastage inside. still managed to pull every muscle in my body, but the dolly-ing was by far worse then he steps, it was deceptive difficult to go 2 blocks with all the potholes and gravel and people stopping me to ask me what i was doing and the cab was riding weird on the dolly and pressing on my arm painfully, but i was rushing to get back home and be done....

luckily in both instances the adrenaline was coursing through my veins at the prospect of a new cab....

[Q*Bert_OP]

then another time i found a 'turbo' in the garbage 2 blocks from my house. so like a fool i walked down 2 blocks with my dolly, grabbed the cab, and walked 2 blocks with it over speed bumps down and alley to my house. this time i had my friend help me get the bastage inside. still managed to pull every muscle in my body, but the dolly-ing was by far worse then he steps, it was deceptive difficult to go 2 blocks with all the potholes and gravel and people stopping me to ask me what i was doing and the cab was riding weird on the dolly and pressing on my arm painfully, but i was rushing to get back home and be done....

Sounds like you need one of these:

luckily in both instances the adrenaline was coursing through my veins at the prospect of a new cab....

That feeling wears off by 50 game cabinets and turns into "Where am I going to put this  ?"

[Q*Bert_OP]

Oh look, it's Qbert complain-bragging about how many games he has again.

 

Wow! Jim's being an ass again...what a surprise 

Seriously though...it does get old trying to store them...so I switched to pinball 

[Vigo]

My condolences to your cabinet (and your neck), Ray. Can it just be nailed back in, or is there more severe damage?

[RayB]

My condolences to your cabinet (and your neck), Ray. Can it just be nailed back in, or is there more severe damage?

It was held in only with long staples, so yeah it's totally fixable.

@PBJim: What the heck did you do with just the top of a game ?! Turned it into a big bartop??

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Not really an injury story, but last time I moved, I decided to take my EGret III with me sintead of leaving it at a friend's place. Turns out the friggin staircase was too small, so I had to get it back on the truck and drive it 100km to my pal's house. All in all, this little mistake must have cost me 150 Euros or so. Stupid stupid....

[mvsfan]

i manhandled my 'mortal kombat' big boy cab by myself; into my van in then, without a dolly, from my van into my basement, down steps and all. didn't really 'hurt' myself except for totally pulling every muscle in my back and neck and shoulders "walking it" inside.

then another time i found a 'turbo' in the garbage 2 blocks from my house. so like a fool i walked down 2 blocks with my dolly, grabbed the cab, and walked 2 blocks with it over speed bumps down and alley to my house. this time i had my friend help me get the bastage inside. still managed to pull every muscle in my body, but the dolly-ing was by far worse then he steps, it was deceptive difficult to go 2 blocks with all the potholes and gravel and people stopping me to ask me what i was doing and the cab was riding weird on the dolly and pressing on my arm painfully, but i was rushing to get back home and be done....

luckily in both instances the adrenaline was coursing through my veins at the prospect of a new cab....

if you have an unfinished basement that really wouldnt be worse for the wear, and has the extra length, do what my friend did before you start collecting these things. rip out the stairs and build a flighted ramp.

picture this. Small, slightly steep ramp, that hits a flat area about halfway down so you can rest. then another ramp down to the bottom.

myself, i got lucky. my basement already has a steep ramp outside. thats the only bad thing though, the ramp is way more steep than it needs to be.

anything heavy and wheeled like a pressure cleaner, will simply pull 1 person downstairs, when it shouldnt.

[mvsfan]

forgot one thing. the point was that at least i have a relatively safe avenue, armed with a dolly and 1 extra person, to get almost anything downstairs. The same idea would apply to someone ripping out their stairs. it might be too steep for 1 person with the space you have, but two people and a dolly can safely move anything into the basement that way.

also, an arcade cabinet is not a washing machine or a tv. it can easily kill you going downstairs because of sheer mass. its pretty unlikely that a washing machine or a tv will crush you to death, although it could.

[Gray_Area]

Not really an injury story, but last time I moved, I decided to take my EGret III with me sintead of leaving it at a friend's place. Turns out the friggin staircase was too small, so I had to get it back on the truck and drive it 100km to my pal's house. All in all, this little mistake must have cost me 150 Euros or so. Stupid stupid....

You needed Alien_Mame's intrepid gumption.

thats the only bad thing though, the ramp is way more steep than it needs to be.

anything heavy and wheeled like a pressure cleaner, will simply pull 1 person downstairs, when it shouldnt.

You need to first fill a backpack with rocks. Then put it on and go wrestle that beast!

This thread is terribly too much like the ninja fail videos I just watched.

[mvsfan]

Not really an injury story, but last time I moved, I decided to take my EGret III with me sintead of leaving it at a friend's place. Turns out the friggin staircase was too small, so I had to get it back on the truck and drive it 100km to my pal's house. All in all, this little mistake must have cost me 150 Euros or so. Stupid stupid....

You needed Alien_Mame's intrepid gumption.

thats the only bad thing though, the ramp is way more steep than it needs to be.

anything heavy and wheeled like a pressure cleaner, will simply pull 1 person downstairs, when it shouldnt.

You need to first fill a backpack with rocks. Then put it on and go wrestle that beast!

My solution was to buy a decent trailer for my 4 wheeler. but it still wont handle a cabinet, or rather i dont want to try it.

[Pinball Wizard]

Well I lost a High Speed out of the back of a pickup truck, the backglass shattered but the playfield glass survived. Wish it was the other way.

I also had a Robotron go down a flight of stairs by itself. I was feeling lazy so I used a come-along to pull it up, I couldn't get the hook off for anything, I turn around for a second and all of the sudden I hear "thunk, thunk, thunk" as it hops down the steps. It still works today with no damage with a fall.

[RayB]

I also had a Robotron go down a flight of stairs by itself. I was feeling lazy so I used a come-along to pull it up, I couldn't get the hook off for anything, I turn around for a second and all of the sudden I hear "thunk, thunk, thunk" as it hops down the steps. It still works today with no damage with a fall.

How about your walls?

[Pinball Wizard]

How about your walls?

Who cares?

My basement is unfinished and the walls of the stairs made it out fine since it went straight down the stairs.

[RayB]

How about your walls?

Who cares?

Did you just wake up?

[THE POKER BRAT]

HOW NOT TO MOVE YOUR PRECIOUS MACHINE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!!!

[Gray_Area]

They forgot to include pinball box in the cast.

[SavannahLion]

K

They forgot to include pinball box in the cast.

At least the pin wasn't in the cast.

[venkman]

haha nice video.. shame they didn't show us the machine after the fall.

i always take the monitor out if i'm moving it any distance. makes it 1/2 the weight,
plus there's a lot less stuff in there to break if it's out!

[Vigo]

I'm guessing the owner is the short guy who blow a circuit after the pinball machine falls. From the camera angle, it looked like he was the one who dropped it because he couldn't hold up his corner.

They probably could have successfully moved it if the camera guy helped out as well. I just love how he keeps on filming though.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I think I'm going to agree with the comments on the video that it looked a little fake.

[SavannahLion]

I'm guessing the owner is the short guy who blow a circuit after the pinball machine falls. From the camera angle, it looked like he was the one who dropped it because he couldn't hold up his corner.

They probably could have successfully moved it if the camera guy helped out as well. I just love how he keeps on filming though.

Ummm.. its staged. He makes a huge point of pointing out that the box has fragile marked on it then drops an already opened box. 

[Vigo]

I'm guessing the owner is the short guy who blow a circuit after the pinball machine falls. From the camera angle, it looked like he was the one who dropped it because he couldn't hold up his corner.

They probably could have successfully moved it if the camera guy helped out as well. I just love how he keeps on filming though.

Ummm.. its staged. He makes a huge point of pointing out that the box has fragile marked on it then drops an already opened box. 

Didn't catch that, but in my defense I was only watching few second bursts of the video muted (while watching behind my back for my boss). 

Oh, and the cardboard box thing didn't phase me. My wife saves every friggin' cardboard box for just about anything we buy, just in case we have to box it up again for moving. I have piles of boxes in the my basement 

[Pinball Wizard]

Convince your wife to get rid of the boxes and replace them with arcade games, a much more entertaining thing.

[RayB]

A good compromise would be to convince her to at least flatten the boxes. Then all it takes is some packing tape if you ever need to use it.

[Gray_Area]

They probably could have successfully moved it if the camera guy helped out as well. I just love how he keeps on filming though.

Easier than that. Get inside, tip it toward you and lay it down almost. Then slide it forward, with guy outside pulling. Despite the gag here, it's good food for thought: move the box, don't let the box move you.

[Thaevil1]

This topic reminds me about when me and my dad picked up my Masterplay cabinet.
When I went picking it up everything went smooth.

- Fitted in the car.
- Fitted trough the front door.
- No damage done to it, during moving it to my house.

Now my dad told me: After I come back from business travel I want that cab gone here, and how and where? That is your problem.
So next day I phoned my mate who knew I got the cab and asked him kindly to help me move it upstairs.
We drank a couple of beers and started thinking about how to move it upstairs.

- Remove the doors from the toilet and the hall entrance.
- Should we part the upper bit and the lower bit of the cab and the CP to make it light and easier to turn?
NAH! There is no such need we tought.
- Should we remove the staircase guardrails?
NAH! It will fit perfectly!

So we lifted the thing and when almost on top of the stairs my mate asked me: Is there still room left?
I said: Yeh plenty!
Pushed the cab a bit further and I felt the wall touching my back and said: STOP!
He was in for a joke and pushed the cab gently a few more times so I was 100% stuck between wall and cab.
I started laughing and the cab slipped out of my hands.

It bumped 2 steps down. (Luckly my mate could hold it again then.)
We moved the thing downstairs again and checked the damage of the cab.

No damage to it (as it did hit the stairs with the wheels)... but you could easily see the stairs was damaged.
Two deep marks on the steps.

So we removed the staircase guardrails, parted the cab and moved it upstairs succesfully this time.

I told my mate: The damage seems minor no one will even notice it.
When my sister came home first thing she screamed when she walked the stairs was: Someone ruined the stairs!

Untill today the stairs is still not fixed. <--- lol.
This because my parents are going to redo the shower upstairs soon and will then fix it.

So what did I learn: Do take your cab apart if possible and remove as much as possible in the area you try to lift it in.

I guess this is common sence, but we tought we could pull it off the easy way.

[hayabusa_fmw]

karma + stairs  = something breaking


dolly is your friend ^^