I have shipped and moved a LOT of tower over the last six years, including
the grand finale of shipping over three hundred feet of Rohn 65, 55 and 25,
along with several thousand feet of guy wire, antennas, miscellaneous hardware
and our household possessions to KH6.
Don't even consider a U-Haul rental, since the weight limit of even a 24
footer is 6000 lbs and you would easily hit that with all the radio crap you
have. However, in renting U-Hauls for smaller loads, you can sometimes get
well
over 1/2 off if you pick up the truck 40 or 50 miles from a different
location. I found that with the trailer I used to haul my Rohn 65 to FL, if I
picked up the trailer in VA as opposed to MD, 80 miles away the cost was less
than half....no small issue for a cross country move
If you are considering a commercial method, the first thing you need to do
is to look into getting a commercial account at several different trucking
companies since you get a HUGE discount with them. Roadway, which I used a
lot,
gave me a discount of around 50%. You really don't have to be in business,
just talk the talk if you know what I mean.
In moving our stuff out to KH6, we talked to Matson, a company which
specializes in shipping to KH6. There was no weight limit, just a flat fee
for as
much stuff as we could cram into a 40-foot container (the kind that ride piggy
back on flat bed railroad cars). OK, I think the gross weight limit was
around 67000 pounds, but that was a non-issue. They also have 20 and 30
footers
available.
They brought the trailer out to our place and we had seven days to load it
up...I mean stuff it. Total price from our house near Tampa to Hilo, Hawaii
for the 40 footer was around $8500.
>From my experience I think one would do much better shipping a whole trailer
full of radio stuff (a 20, 30, or a 40 footer) by volume, than by shipping
by weight, since tower is so heavy. Plus, if you telescope the stuff, you can
really cram a lot in....kinda like those Russian eggs. Rohn 65, then Rohn
55 inside that and then finally Rohn 25 after that. Finally all the masts,
booms and antennas go inside the 25.
In closing you might also look into brokers who specialize in rounding up
shipments for various trucking companies and independent truckers.
The first time through all this stuff can be pretty daunting, but I would
not hesitate doing it again. I hope this stuff is useful. I learned a lot of
it the hard way and I hope some of you can use this info.
Bill K4XS/KH7XS
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