Victor Safe Moving Questions

jrose

I’ve been lurking for a while trying to soak up information, but this is my first post.

I’m inheriting a victor safe and need to move it about 450 miles, all within the US from Massachusetts to Maryland. I’m open to lots of options but I’d love some advice. So I have a few questions. The safe is in good working order and I know the combination.

1: Is it something I could do ‘myself’ with some help and the proper tools? If so, I assume an appliance dolly or another heavy equipment dolly would be ideal. I believe the door should lift off which would help reduce the weight a bit.

2: If not, I assume I would need to construct a shipping crate, so any advice about how to do that would be very helpful. Also, does anyone have suggestions about who to contact for shipping?

3: Lastly, and probably a totally separate issue. Does anyone have suggestions on who to contact about potentially having the safe restored. The paint is thin or worn off in several places and some of the detailing is coming off.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to provide helpful advice.

Doug MacQueen

Before going into whether you should tackle the job, several questions need to be answered regardless who does the moving. What are the dimensions and what is the weight? Are ANY steps or stairs involved? All too often customers fail to mention that one or two steps that have to be negotiated. Is the move all flat or are there sloping grades the safe has to go up or down? Since it is obviously not a huge safe, not likely floors or stairways need extra supporting. Also since it is not huge, it could be flipped on it side inside a mini van to move it. So if I was doing the job, I would strap it on to a 2 wheel refridgerator dolly capable of handling it’s weight. It looks like it may be pushing the capability of that type of dolly, but hard to tell without more info. Yes the doors will generally lift right off but some will be a little fight. So taking the door off will lighten the load. I would probably throw a 4×4 across the floor in front of the front seats of my mini van and use a come along to winch it up into the van. I have done jobs like this numerous times as I did move safes for many years often by myself. For a noobie, I would recommend 2 people to do the job that just described and note that I was assuming NO steps. Unfortunately NO steps almost never happens. Those safes on wheels will tip over pretty easily. The wheels are cast iron and will break if the impact is great enough. Just based on what I see, a minimum of 2 men, each capable of lifting 250 lbs apiece. That should give a little food for thought.

Doug MacQueen

So I am not recommending you do the job, only giving you a bit of first hand knowledge in safe moving. Also tipping safes over is very tricky when the safe is on wheels like that Victor. And the trick is to get the weight off wheels on the side that is going down. That allows the safe to pivot on the bottom edge of the body.