The Amazing “Panel Cart”

I don’t want to tell you how many years I did moves without the benefit of a Panel Cart! I became a True Believer after a High-Rise to High-Rise move where we moved pieces from a German “Shrunk” (a German-made Wardrobe) It had these heavy six-foot tall doors, and we had no good way to move them down the hallways and elevator and long walk through the parking lot to the truck. A worker tried to put them on a Magliner Gemini box handtruck that folds down to a cart. The delicate finish on the Shrunk doors got scratched up on the metal handtruck. Major Disaster!! If we had a standard panel cart, we could have laid the doors down in the carpet-floored Panel Cart.

Most Movers and Customers first become acquainted with the Panel Cart while moving office cubicle partitions. But anything flat and long fits a Panel Cart nicely:

1) Mattresses and Box Springs (see picture below)

2) Tables

3) Pictures and Paintings

4) Flattened Out Boxes

When going on a Moving Job in a High-Rise, we will also roll moving equipment in the cart to the Origin unit. This includes pads, tape, shrink wrap, boxes, and other packing material.

Because the Panel Cart has big, heavy-duty, soft wheels, it is idea for rolling other items that are not so flat–closed-up boxes, end tables, chairs (see picture below)

CLAIM WARNING: If you push the cart through doors into residences or into office rooms, you have to be very careful that you don’t bang the unprotected metal handles against the door. The handles can easily leave scratches if they are unprotected. The one picture below shows the metal handles padded, and you can also buy at the Equipment Supply Store –special slip-on pads that fit the handles.

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A New Moving Hazard

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I experienced a new “moving hazard” today, but it is something a California-and-Atlanta-boy–I was born in California and lived there until age 31, and have been living in Atlanta ever since– would run into.   The customer wanted us to move his garden hose.  No big deal–just as long as you make sure there is no water leaking!  The hose was on a spindle and I turned it this way and that.  I shook it up and down;  I shook it sideways–no water leaking!  I left it on the ground so I could look it for awhile–no water leaking!  So I put it in the load, on top of a fully padded armoire.

Three hours later, while doing the unloading at the destination, I NOTICE WATER LEAKING OUT OF THE HOSE!  What gives?!  Where did the water come from?  Then I remembered that it was 18 degrees when we started the job this morning, and now its 39 degrees.  This morning there was no water leaking out of the hose, because it was FROZEN!  Only someone who only does a few moving jobs per year in freezing temperatures, would make that blunder.  I still kept the hose away from any mattresses or upholstery,  so only a relatively small amount of water dribbled down the pads.