How to move heavy (~50kg) bulky (~1m cubed) items a short (1km) distance?

Question

The items in question are in fact sports equipment, for an outdoor sport. Its a niche sport, we had to manufacture the equipment ourselves, so there is no standard way to move it.

The main problem items are the wooden bases for the goals. These are heavy, maybe 20kg each, and about 1m across, and there are 6 of them. They are hexagonal sheets of wood, maybe 2 inches thick, with a large block of wood in the centre on one side. We cannot put wheels on them as this would present a trip hazard during play.

There are lots of other lighter items too, mostly rods (roughly 1m long, PVC), hoops (1m wide, plastic), dodge-balls and a tackle-bag. We tend to have a fair number of people to help carry these, but if there was a way to move them with less people that would be good too.

The route is about 1km total and its half on the street and half over short grass. We move them twice a week every week. The current suggestion is to move them with a car, but the car would not be able to get very close and fuel cost is an issue. We can't afford to spend much on this.

Summary; Is there a cheap way to regularly move bulky, heavy things across grass and pavements?

Answer 1

You don't state where you live, but I'll assume UK since you've posted a question about UK over at academia.

This means that Eur-Pallets should be readily available at your location; i found used ones on ebay for about €10 each. They are rated to hold 1250 kg, which should be more than enough for your use case.

Fasten some wheels like these to the corners. Use the biggest screws you can get (that fit the holes); since the corners of the pallets are made of chunks of solid wood, they should hold on well. (Did you note that pallet+wheels are advertised as "often being sold together" on Amazon?) As half of your route is over grass, you'll probably want to get the largest wheels you can get, this will help with bumps. Skateboard wheels are another option if you can get them cheaply.

You might even fix small pieces of wood to the top of the pallets to hold your stuff in place.

Result:

Answer 2

How about a wheelbarrow?

The wide wheel(s) should easily be able to handle grass without sinking, and its very design is to move reasonably heavy loads over reasonably short distances. (Which might make it not a life hack! 😉)

Depending on the size you need, prices are about £20-£60

[Source]

Answer 3

How are the bases shaped?

At item is easier to move if it

• has wheels
• is tall enough to push

So if it it is normally flat it can be upended, as I see done with choir risers and the like. It can have wheels built-in, and the package to move should be a handy shape. So we need to know more about the shapes and what goes together.

Foes each station get carried off in a different direction, or does the entire stack traverse the course and you drop off one unit at intervals?

Answer 4

I find moving heavy objects on some sort of "base" is easiest by just "walking" them. That is, tilt them to the side a bit so part of the base is raised, push that side forward, let it down, tilt the other way, etc. Kind of a rocking motion, back and forth. If you think of the far 2 sides of the base as the "feet", you'll see the "walking" action .. ;)

If it's sports equipment, it sounds sturdy enough to stand up to this type of movement. (some things are fragile enough this doesn't work well ;) )

This works nicely regardless of terrain, I've moved large cement blocks up stairs using this method as well. Fairly easy to manage on your own.

Good luck!

[edit] hmm, when I first read the question, I saw the "short distance" .. now I just noticed "1km" (funny definition of "short")... heh
well, it'll get the item to the car, anyway .. ;) lol [/edit]

Answer 5

Just wanted to note that our final solution was to put the objects on two runners then pick it up like a stretcher.

This works if you are moving heavy but stiff objects. Its much easyer if you fix the runners a set distance apart.