Moving carboys across country.

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MirImage

MirImage

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Hey all,

I'm moving from TX to WI and I think the most fragile and awkward things we're moving at the carboys. They need to go in the moving truck.

Anyone have pointers? Is the best bet just to wrap them in blankets?

Thanks!
 
Moving blankets and maybe bubble wrap. I would also recommend duct tape the stoppers down if you can.

Where in wi are you landing?
 
You could wrap'em and put em in a sleeping bag if you have any, just to keep em from unraveling going down the road. Something to that extent, or box them up.
Where you moving to?? You realize it's winter up here :) It's been pretty mild though. hopefully that keeps up!
 
Do you really need to move the beer in carboys? My advice would be to bottle or keg the beer before you move.
 
You could probably just wrap them in blankets.

Personally, I'd leave them behind and hit up craigslist in Wisconsin. There's some good stuff on there, but a bit too far for me to pillage...
 
Assuming they're empty you should have few problems. Go to a store that has moving supplies, most boxes are 18"X18" and height dependant on size. If need be you can always make telescopic boxes by leaving the flaps on the "bottom" pointing straight up, and the flaps on the "top" straight down. One per box and loads of paper around it and it'll be alright. If possible make sure they are packed in accordance with "This side up, fragile." Not the cheapest option, but the only one I can think of to get them transported safely.

I would almost be tempted to bail on moving them. Put them onto a used stuff website and sell them for what you can get. Then hope to have luck getting some used after you've moved. Not ideal, and I fully understand wanting to keep your own carboys. Just another option. Could also use it as an opportunity (excuse) to get better bottles or plastic big mouths.

Back to the topic of moving, most long distance companies will charge by weight. If you are paying yourself (vs company paying) it may be a better option to not move them. They aren't exactly light and fragile. No matter how well things are packed sometimes crap happens. I move personal effects long distance as my current employment.
 
Are you driving the truck or is it a contract hauler? Box the carboys with bubble wrap, mark as glass. If a contract hauler breaks them, they will buy you new ones.
 
One mentioned it BUT, are they empty or full? If full good luck. Maybe bottle or keg it first so they're empty. If empty, id say stuff news paper or something else soft in them so they have something inside as well then bubble wrap or blanket the jell out of them. I also like the sleeping bag idea. Wouldn't have thought of that. Boxes with packing foam maybe? Don't blame you for wanting to keep your own. They are yours after all.
 
I wrapped mine up in sleeping bags and then used the bed extender on my truck turned inward to hold them in place...took two carboys from CT to CO in the back of my pickup. Pickup was strapped to a trailer and I drove a 17' box truck hauling it.

One of them is 80 years old and was used by my great grandfather for winemaking, it had to come :D
 
Wrap in sleeping bags and secure the bag around them with bungie cords. Either that or cocoon in bubble wrap and secure that with shipping tape.

We moved recently and they just wrapped mine in brown wrapping paper. Seems chancy to me - I'd go with something more secure.
 
To summarize, padding is the answer. And placement in the moving truck. You don't want to put anything heavy or irregular, like a refrigerator or couch on top of them. They should stay upright, toward the top of the load, but unable to move and bounce around.

Regardless who's driving, things rock and bounce in the back.
 
I guess my last post didn't post...

We are driving the uhaul.

I think we will go with wrapping in blankets and placing them strategically (under a desk and whatnot). I just now realized I'll have an empty keezer that'll hold two 6.5s and my 2.5s! And all the carboys are empty

I'm moving back to the fox valley early Jan. Sick of wearing shorts and t-shirts in December. We also have a 6 month old and thought it'd be better to move closer to family.

Thanks for the ideas guys!
 
flars said:
Are you driving the truck or is it a contract hauler? Box the carboys with bubble wrap, mark as glass. If a contract hauler breaks them, they will buy you new ones.
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None that I've seen. We have codes "PBO" or stateside "CP." Packed by owner or Customer Pack. It is written strictly into the contract that the carrier is not liable for any packed goods that the client has done themselves. Reason being that often a client has no idea how to pack things. I moved a plastic flip top tote full of china and wine glasses. About 1/2 sheet of newsprint for the bunch. Client was properly informed that not only is the hauler not responsible for items the client packed, but this particular one wasn't done well at all.

Not to say that nobody has a clue. But clients filing damage claims because they didn't do it properly hurts the bottom line. Now 4 major coast to coast and international carriers I've got experience with simply say "If we didn't pack it, we're not liable to packed items." A few bad apples spoil the bunch.

MirImage said:
We are driving the uhaul.

I think we will go with wrapping in blankets and placing them strategically (under a desk and whatnot). I just now realized I'll have an empty keezer that'll hold two 6.5s and my 2.5s! And all the carboys are empty
Click to expand...
Most U-hauls have a section of the box that extends above the driver cab. This is a perfect location. On the very top of the load with a good sturdy support underneath.
 
Zepth said:
[...] Most U-hauls have a section of the box that extends above the driver cab. This is a perfect location. On the very top of the load with a good sturdy support underneath.
Click to expand...

Only perfect IF one knows how to pack a truck. Otherwise a tumbling disaster waiting to happen. I actually found it quite difficult to restrain the items on "Mom's Attic" so they wouldn't slide off. Nevertheless it is a great spot for breakables once you've got that figured out.
 
what we did was tied ropes to the necks of all my carboys (one of them was full) and drug them behind the U-Haul truck. from Moorcroft, WY to Windom, MN with no problems. and all that shaking kept the yeast in suspension and lowered that beer from 1.999 to 0.0000000001!
 
Brettomomyces said:
I wrapped mine up in sleeping bags and then used the bed extender on my truck turned inward to hold them in place...took two carboys from CT to CO in the back of my pickup. Pickup was strapped to a trailer and I drove a 17' box truck hauling it.

One of them is 80 years old and was used by my great grandfather for winemaking, it had to come :D
Click to expand...

Grandpas carboy woulda been wrapped nicely and parked in the seat next to me with a seatbelt lol. When we moved 25 miles down the road that's how mine was. Lol my wife thinks I'm a little weird. At least we had another vehicle for her to ride in so she didn't have to sit in the back if the truck right?
 
I was a mover for too many years, and here is how I would handle those:
There are boxes that the professional movers use called 'Dishbarrels' (see link below) that should fit a carboy. Crumple up 3 or 4 sheets of newspaper/white packing paper (or bubble wrap if you prefer) and build a 'pad' of paper on the bottom of the box 3-5 inches thick. Put the carboy in the box and then crush 3-5 sheets of paper in a wad and shove it down around the carboy-repeat this until the box is full. Make sure to fill the box so that it tight and you don't feel anthing 'moving' as you shake the box, including padding around the neck and over the top of the neck. I would try to load that somewhere in the middle to the top of the wall of stuff in the truck. I would also pack other misc. things in th box as well as the carboy. I might put it inside of a bucket fermentor as well as packing other tools in the space around the carboy in the (wrapping them in paper), and pushing crushed paper in the spaces. As long as you are using paper as a cusion you can fill every corner of the box.
You might try your local moving company to see if they sell used packing material or can give you a better price than u-haul, but this is how I handled my stuff when I moved in the spring.

http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Boxes/Kitchen-moving-boxes/Dish-Barrel-Box?id=2573
 
Okay truck mostly loaded. Fit a few in the keezer, two 2.5gal in boxes in a book self and some boxes and some wrapped and sandwiched between couch cushions. Didn't have time for buying the large boxes/sick of packing and said f* it. We'll see how we fare out this weekend. Thank you for the suggestions.
 
MirImage said:
Okay truck mostly loaded. Fit a few in the keezer, two 2.5gal in boxes in a book self and some boxes and some wrapped and sandwiched between couch cushions. Didn't have time for buying the large boxes/sick of packing and said f* it. We'll see how we fare out this weekend. Thank you for the suggestions.
Click to expand...

Have a safe trip! Welcome to frost country.
 
Ebay has a packing forum, if you used cling wrap, then masking tape, then packing peanuts, and marked it as glass. I don't see why they wouldn't make it. If they were mine, I would carefully put them in a dumpster
 
Mine were packed in boxes with lots of paper by the moving company. No casualties. They all came through great. I took one 6 gallon one via car. That worked out also.
 
mikescooling said:
Ebay has a packing forum, if you used cling wrap, then masking tape, then packing peanuts, and marked it as glass. I don't see why they wouldn't make it. If they were mine, I would carefully put them in a dumpster
Click to expand...

you are a mean individual. I kinda want to get you a nice garden gnome and then steal it 2 months later.
 
I've kept the original boxes to all of my carboys. I haven't moved in several years but when I started brewing I was moving every year or two. I moved four times with carboys in their original boxes in the back of a moving truck. Think about it; Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, et al. ship these things all over the country every day. Use the same box it came to you in. ;)
 
mikescooling said:
Or just move it a few feet every night.
OP, I just got finished moving, and my heart goes out to you.
Click to expand...

true story: me & my brother Bob used to get all hammered up at his brothers and rearrange the lawn ornaments in all the cul-de-sacs.wew quit when we made the paper as an oddity.
 
fimpster said:
I've kept the original boxes to all of my carboys. I haven't moved in several years but when I started brewing I was moving every year or two. I moved four times with carboys in their original boxes in the back of a moving truck. Think about it; Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, et al. ship these things all over the country every day. Use the same box it came to you in. ;)
Click to expand...

You are the second person I've heard of (my father being the other) to get new carboys. All my glass is second hand. Or eighth hand.

I keep checking back when this thread has new posts to see if the OP got back to it with how things went. You know you're a homebrewer when... you check in to see if somebody's carboys made it safely in a cross country move.
 
A good old cardboard box is a good start. Label it Glass and Fragile. Maybe wrap up the boxes in something like a moving blanket, but it isn't really difficult.
 

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