Tips/Advice needed please for action within next week!

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suzyqet

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OK, heres the problem. 24ft x 12ft mobile field shelter. On Metal Skids. One year old. Took 2 men all day to put up in my field.

Due to many changing circumstances, we have been forced to give up this field and just go back to having the one we originally had.

This field is about 100 yards down the road from the other.

We now need to move the mobile field shelter from the field it is in, to the other field down the road. But we have the following problems:

We cant tow it down the road (can we???)
We have a ditch, farmers field and row of very high oak trees between the 2 fields
It was built to last, not to be taken apart again so quickly.

Can anyone please, please, please suggest what we can do?

It cost over £3k so we are not just gonna leave it in the field, we definately want it in our other field. But have no idea on how we are gonna get it from one to the other.

Has anyone else had to overcome this hurdle at all in the past?

Any and all ideas welcome.

We have until the end of March to move it.

if we take it apart, we think we will probably have to replace about £200's worth of materials, as, like I say, it was built to last.

Thanks all in advance

(A very stressed and unhappy Sue)
 
One of the things we thought about was a crane hire company but the width of the road is not enough for them to be able to put their stabilising legs down. As the ground is not stable at this time of the year, they would need to lift it out over the hedge, then manouvre it down the road and lift it in the new field over the hedge.

Have been told this would probably take about half a day to do too, so would need to shut off the road for that length of time!

Argghh!!!!

Why cant things be simple!

Thanks for the suggestion though.
 
I don't really understand why you can't tow it down the road. Would you need to ask the police to close the road for a short time? Or are you worried that the skids would be damaged?
 
frostie652 said:
- if it is a busy road could you tow it down the verge?
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This would be great, but unfortunately, the road goes from hedge to hedge.

daydreambeliever said:
What about contacting the makers or the people that errected it for advice, or are you able to fit some wheels to it temporarily just to get it along the road?
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Believe it or not, they have never actually taken one down!!! Only put them up. lol. But!!! Ahh, yes, wheels, we have been thinking about this over and over again. But cant seem to figure out a way to do this. Any ideas? This is definately on the top of the list at the moment.

Pearlsasinger said:
I don't really understand why you can't tow it down the road. Would you need to ask the police to close the road for a short time? Or are you worried that the skids would be damaged?
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Firstly, we would need to ask to get the road shut off as it is a very narrow stretch of road and the shelter would definitely take up 75% of the width of the road. Then we would have to try and make the turn out of the gateway from one field to go along this said narrow road with the shelter. I'm not sure if the shelterwill be able to handle to sudden joults round the corner out the field it would neen to take. They are designed to be towed in a more or less straight line. But might work. (We do have 2 x corner brackets for strengthening if going round a corner to stop the framework twisting).

If getting through the gate is not an issue, then we do still have the worry of towing metal skids 100 yads down a road! Surely this will not only damage the skids and the shelter, but will make some pretty horendous grooves in the road with some pretty effective fireworks I would have thought? Please correct if I am thinking wrongly here, but metal being dragged on tarmac doesnt look pretty I'm sure.



We are quite literally banging our heads up against brick walls at the moment and I really am appreciating all your input. It is gladly received and good to see other peoples opinions. Thanks everyone so far for the thoughts.
 
suzyqet said:
If getting through the gate is not an issue, then we do still have the worry of towing metal skids 100 yads down a road! Surely this will not only damage the skids and the shelter, but will make some pretty horendous grooves in the road with some pretty effective fireworks I would have thought? Please correct if I am thinking wrongly here, but metal being dragged on tarmac doesnt look pretty I'm sure.
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Ah yes, I should think that would be quite spectacular! Some shelters have wooden skids, a shame yours doesn't.
It's probably worth you spending the extra money to take the shelter apart and re-erect it in the other field.
 
Could you possibly source some lengths of pipe or similar and use them as rollers moving the back one to the front as you go? This would work on the road, not through gate ways, but I am guessing the gateways are not tarmac. We have moved a heavy cupboard from an out building to the house using this method, obviously all would need scaling up, but the principle is the same. I would also suggest a team of fairly hefty people to move the rollers :)
 
Have you thought of a friendly farmer who has a flat bed trailer? It maybe possible for them to lift it onto the trailer for you with an attachment, say forks for lifting hay bales? I am thinking the forks may go under the skids?
 
I certainly wouldn't be trying to tow it on the metal skids, chances are it would be wrecked just from that. You could do with some trailer wheels on a wide axle (better 2 axles) if that makes sense, like the trailer frame from a horse trailer without the top on. Have a think about vehicle recovery trailers, farmers with trailers and winches at the top pulled by a tractor, you need to be getting it onto some sort of trailer. The road being blocked as you drive it down isn't a problem in itself, a tractor would have the same effect, cars will just have to reverse and let you pass if you meet any. Hope you find a way to get it moved but if you have to take it apart then it may be the safest way.
 
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