Unloading concrete bumpers

Does anyone have any unique ways of loadind and unloading these monsters?

I rented a Toro Dingo with a set of forks, it is a light weight small unit that some you walk behind others you stand and ride on. I used it on one day old asphalt with no trouble, just did not turn sharp. It would only carry 3 at a time, but it beat handling by hand. My big fear was the new asphalt and the dingo was not that expensive to rent. I made 2 rods with tee handles to pull them off the forks and set in place, did not bend over at all.

I don't remember who makes them but there is a small version of the device they use to pick up the temporary concrete construction barriers on the highway. It's like a pair of tongs that can mount from a small truck crane or Bobcat etc. Anyway, when it is lifted the cable pulls the bottom part closed gripping the bumper, basically using the weight of the object to create the gripping force due to the hinged leverage. A company around here has small flatbeds set up with these on a service crane and one man can unload & install a truckload of the things, of course they do bunches of them but I've seen a 1 man just going "down the line" with one of these, a drill & driver setting them faster than you can imagine. If you didn't need a dedicated rig but had a Bobcat or tractor-loader or such it could be used the same way, you would just need to be more careful about "swinging" while moving them at the higher speeds.

We rent a forklift now, and that's been working out fairly well. Then we use the trailer from the forklift to transport the wheel stops. This works great, but we still have to do some of them by hand. We also use a hand truck if we have to move just a few. If we have to unload any by hand we put the rebar through the wheel stop and use it as a handle on each side. This saves the fingers, the wheel stops we use are around 220lbs.

I have the bumpers delievered to the job site and rent a forklift (200.00 per day/delivered). Picks up 5 per trip. Mike In-line

Hey Don, if you happen to see the bumper lift again, please send the info to me. I have a electric truck crane that would do that just dandy.

Here is the link to them. http://www.kenco.com/lifting_att.html Our traffic control company uses them to move barrier wall. They work pretty slick, but i believe you need to people two operate them. One running the fork lift and one flipping the lever to lift and release. It does one of them by itself and i believe its release. I think you need to hit the lever to make it pick one up again. Hope this helps.

I didn't go to the link but the ones I saw were just like the ones for barrier walls but much smaller and seemed to be a "1 man" operation. Otherwise just the same.

It looks like they make different sizes of them. Looks like they make one just for concrete curbing too. Those might be able to be used with just one person? It might be something different then what you've seen too Don? It just sounded very similar to what you described.

Got me, I was just watching in amazement from about 50 yards at how fast this guy was dropping & nailing concrete blocks on a big parking lot. Didn't pay super-close attention to the grabber, that's just what it looked like to me.

I posted this a little while back in more detail...who know where. All you need is a piece of chain with two eye bolts at either end. The eye bolts need to be a tad smaller than the holes in the wheel stops. If you have a handy dandy lift mounted on the truck like Chip, you can catch the chain in the middle. The horizontal force exerted on the eye bolts will cause them to try to spread outward gripping the stop. As soon as you have it off loaded and tension releases, the bolts are free.

Ken - If I am ever helping you unload wheel stops using your suggestion, do you mind if I work the lift?

Of course! But, but only one person is needed for car stops. We unloaded and positioned a bunch of 400 pound-er truck stops that way with the fork on front of a tractor. We'd drop the bolts in the holes, snag the chain in the middle and and go. They'd be swinging wildly under the lift and not one of them ever dropped. As soon as they were put in place and the chain given slack, the bolts would slip right out. No need for clamps, pry bars, dolly's, no nuthin. My helper thought the idea was crazy and wouldn't get close at first either. I thought it would work and very glad I tried it. One of my prouder moments. Saved LOTS of positioning effort. Those huge stops aren't easy to slide around. Much easier to put them in position while they are suspended. Assuming the chain is of sufficient strength, the only way the stop could fall would be for the center of the bolt(s) not be strong enough to sustain the horizontal pressure developed when the chain tightens when lifted. When the chain is lifted, the top side of the bolts try to go inward. The bottom of the bolts try to go outward. Kinda like a Chinese handcuff. The course threads on the bolt also provide friction.

Ken, I woulda thought that regular mild steel eye bolts would have bent under the stress. I guess the proof is in the fact that it did work. Did you use hardened steel or forged eye bolts rather than mild steel ones?

Just plain ol' galvanized bolts. Seems they did bend a little.