How do you ship gear for work?

[Alec]

Anyone have tips about how to get gear from A to B? I'm in Louisiana and heading to NYC for a couple months of work. Will need climbing kit, rigging, chainsaw and a couple pole tools. Anyone accustomed to moving all that jazz around?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Greyhound is cheap

fastenal has come up in discussions

Empty saw of fluids

Clean with solvents of choice. Brake or carb cleaner is my choice. Let them air out in the sun

Ask your saw repair shop how they ship

 

[Reach]

If you are looking to send it separately from yourself, box it up and send it UPS. Or if there really is a lot of it, put it on a pallet and send it freight.

If you decide to box in and ship it, ship the saws and anything that would contain fuel separately from your gear, just in case there is an issue with a fuel smell, that way most of your stuff will be there.

And any chainsaw you send must be free of gasoline; drain it and air it out well before you box it up. You might even buy a couple giant Ziploc bags, and seal the saw powerheads in those, to keep any fuel smell contained.

 

[SeanRuel]

You flying? Probably easier to just buy pole tools when you get where you're going

 

[Tony]

Having shipped a lot of gear a lot of places over the years I can concur with what has been said so far. If this is going to be a frequent thing, get a/ some pelican cases and use those. Don’t go cheap! You will need the lifetime warranty. The cases will stay structurally sound,but the wheels, handles, etc. Will get broken, and the occasional hole.

If this is a seldom/ one off any study box will do. The studier the box the more likely you will be able to use it to ship it all back. If you are using cases, use as big a zip tie as you can in the lock latches. Pack extra for the return trip. If you are using boxes, include heavy duty packing tape. It suck tying to find that on the way to the shipping place.

Take the bars of of all the saws. Put the bar and chain together in a plastic scabbard and pack them flat, preferably on the bottom. (Battery saws excel at shipping but you have to carry on the batteries or borrow/buy local). Use packing material to keep the saws stable. Use rope to keep ypur climbing gear stable.

Declare it as climbing equip and/or power tools. I would stay away from listing specifically as chainsaws. You are asking for attention.

Make a thorough inventory list, preferably with pictures and serial numbers where applicable. This will make any insurance claim easier if the while plan all goes to shit.

And Sean nailed it. Buy/ borrow pole tools local. Better yet wean your self away from them with few exceptions. You will be a better climber.

my .02

Tony

 

[EasternArborist]

I did some tree work in New Orleans a few years ago, and rented everything from home depot, not climbing gear but saw/pole saws / even stump grinder, it was a shit show but worked ! By the way bananna tree removals are disgusting, so much water in them and found a cockroach nest in the middle of the stump. You could also reach out to a local company, its a longshot but maybe they would let you use some basic gear for some cash money if they feel you know what your doing. Good luck!

 

[Barc Buster]

If you are shipping saws via fedex, ups, usps it’s best to expect the delivery person to kick it like a soccer ball the entire way to your destination! Box inside a box is the best bet & put the saw in a garbage bag after you have drained the mix and bar oil out of it.

 

[evo]

Might not be helpful as this was a different life and time. Back when I bred reptiles delta air cargo was my go to. At the time it was $70 to ship ‘dash’ drop it off at the air cargo facility an hour before the flight left, and pick up an hour after touch down.
They had a slower 2 day option too. It does need an account

 

[Alec]

A belated thank you for the feedback. That was a great collection of ideas and experience.

I ended up doing a hodgepodge of the above:

• Shipped chainsaw batteries b/c they seemed to be higher capacity than what's allowed on board. (Am I wrong about this for things like BLI200 and 300 bateries?)
• Borrowed/bought pole tools and rope on the other end
• DRUMROLL PLEASE .... realized that upgrading to a first class ticket wasn't far off from the cost of shipping or the cost of addition and overweight bags. On Delta a first class ticket gets an extra checked bag and the weight allowance for each checked bag increases from 50lbs to 70lbs. So I treated myself ... or the client treated me. I highly recommend going that route! Checked a large Courant bag with climbing gear and a large duffel with misc. stuff, including a drained and bettery-less Husky 540 with bar removed. Everything travelled just fine in both directions, though the duffel took a bit of a beating.

Thanks so much everyone!

 

[Tuebor]

Not sure how you shipped the batteries, but please don't put lithium-ion batteries in checked baggage. If they overheat and ignite adjacent materials during flight, the crew has no way to fight the fire, and then you're praying they can get the airplane on the ground quickly.

 

[UrbanAddict]

Buy a larger container/tote, i'd use UPS for sure.

 

[AlanKekoa]

I’ve been having to do a bit of back and forth from my home state it’s a bit to bring thru the airport but if you fly southwest you get 2 free checked bags. I can fit my gear and chainsaws in 3 checked bags besides pole saws and the like. It has worked out pretty well for me.

 

[ghostice]

My two cents . . . UPS Lithium Battery shipping info is here.
You generally can ship Li batteries at less than 30% charge state in the equipment they're made for but not separate/ loose batteries - go figure. I don't think that batteries or even saws with batteries should be in checked baggage, at least not from my days working on the ramp. Some airlines (like Air Canada) have kinda arcane regulations on the number of watthours blah blah blah you can even ship with them. So I'd contact my airline/ carrier because this stuff changes and it IS different for domestic and for International travel (which tends to be more strict yet - IATA regs).
I have air freighted a chainsaw emptied of gas and oil and vented out, with bar and chain off and the power head inside a high density ziploc plastic bag (dogs removed!) - the kind used for bear bags when hiking in bear country - these are way less porus than normal plastic bags - you just have to find them in big enough size for your powerhead. It seemed to me at the time that with all the battery craze going on now (battery car, battery mower, battery blower . . . ) this was one more place where gas stuff just seemed simpler. But that's just me. I like the idea of calling it "power tools" though!
Cheers