Crating and shipping a lower unit

[powrguy]

Does anyone have a drawing of a simple/inexpensive way to crate and ship a lower unit? I have one to ship, and am hoping to be able to do a ground UPS or FEDEX shipment, not have to strap to a pallet and go through a Freight company. I am guessing the weight in the 70 pound range (it's a 150HP Merc 2.0L lower unit, without prop). Thanks.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

strap it on to a pallet.

 

[powrguy]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

strap it on to a pallet.

Do UPS and/or FedEx ship pallet-mounted items, or would you mean take it to a freight terminal?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

strap it to a pallet. then call freight center.com. UPS freight handles pallets. Fedex does not. i use freightcenter.com exclusively.

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

I have made up boxes for units I've sold through eBay using large cardboard boxes from a local appliance store. I custom fit the box to the unit, tripling (or more) the thickness of the cardboard anywhere it contacts the outside of the box. I basically suspend the unit in the middle of the box. Usually end up being about 8x28x48 for a X-long shaft unit and right around 70 lbs. Takes me about 2 hours to do it up right...

 

[eli_lilly]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

When I bought a used lower unit a while back, it came in a big cardboard box.

Should cost just under $100 to ship via Fedex or UPS. Looks like it'd run about the same palletized, too (I'm using 100 pounds as the weight, from FL to CA).


-E

 

[powrguy]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

I have made up boxes for units I've sold through eBay using large cardboard boxes from a local appliance store. I custom fit the box to the unit, tripling (or more) the thickness of the cardboard anywhere it contacts the outside of the box. I basically suspend the unit in the middle of the box. Usually end up being about 8x28x48 for a X-long shaft unit and right around 70 lbs. Takes me about 2 hours to do it up right...

I figured it weighs 50-60 pounds (it's an xl from a 150HP), and I started trying to make a cage/crate today. Using 3/4" plywood for the base, then 1x2 rails/braces around the perimeter. The size is about your dimensions, too. I some 3/4" plywood "rack" brackets at about 3 places, so the whole thing is parallel to the sides. The thing that is of concern is that if I add 20 pounds of wood framing/plywood to the weight of the unit, I may go over the common UPS or FedEx weight limits to ship normally, and would wind up having to ship it freight, anyway. If that's the case, strapping on a pallet would save all the crate building effort, I think. I might try an appliance store for some cardboard/misc. packing materials, and see if I can work out a cardboard deal like you're talking about.

thanks for the input.

 

[powrguy]

Cost of Crating and shipping a lower unit

Cost of Crating and shipping a lower unit

Does anyone have a drawing of a simple/inexpensive way to crate and ship a lower unit? I have one to ship, and am hoping to be able to do a ground UPS or FEDEX shipment, not have to strap to a pallet and go through a Freight company. I am guessing the weight in the 70 pound range (it's a 150HP Merc 2.0L lower unit, without prop). Thanks.

After building a crate myself of plywood and pieces/parts, my lower unit from a Merc 150HP weighed in at about 75 pounds.

I shipped it today, via FedEx ground, and it only cost $48, from Ohio to N. Carolina. They will ship via Ground FedEx all the way up to 150 pounds, before it has to go via Freght.

Just thought I'd share the info, if anyone has parts to ship, FedEx is a great way to handle it.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

So if that same box was screwed to a pallet they would still send it FedEx Ground or Freight?

One trick I do when shipping palletized is I build a wooden cage out of 1x2's or similar in a teepee or pyramid/wedge shape from the perimeter of the pallet up. It does not add but a few pounds but it prevents the freight company from stacking anything on top.

 

[powrguy]

Re: Crating and shipping a lower unit

So if that same box was screwed to a pallet they would still send it FedEx Ground or Freight?

One trick I do when shipping palletized is I build a wooden cage out of 1x2's or similar in a teepee or pyramid/wedge shape from the perimeter of the pallet up. It does not add but a few pounds but it prevents the freight company from stacking anything on top.

I don't know if they would accept palletized for ground shipping; that's a good question. For me, the crate was easiest to build, and I didn't put skids on the bottom for forklift-handling. My concern initiailly was that 70 pounds was the ground-ship limit, but I found that FedEx would take up to 150 pounds, so I was fine. I don't know where I saw the 70 pounds limit; it might have been on the UPS site. I have a block assembly that unfortunately looks like it weighs about 175 pounds (after my over-built crating effort), and I was hoping to go FedEx ground, but it's over the limit for weight, and it looks like the cheapest Freight I could find was between $150 and $200 to ship it. I tried Freightcenter.com, and that's the best price I found (about $170).