Question about Grizzly delivery service


Valleyslim

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I was going to order their 8inch parallelogram which is about 487 lbs. I have a sloping garage probably like everyone since thats code to make sure water goes away from the house. I called Grizzly and asked the limitations of where they can physically deliver the machine. They told me they will only drop item on the curb and will NOT go anywhere but the curb. So i asked about how am i supposed to push a crate with a 487 lb machine up a slopped driveway and they said its up to the driver to do that. My response was well thats not worth it to buy a 3000 dollar machine (jointer+tax+delivery fee) and pray to GOD the guy will infact help me push this into my garage. So has anyone ordered heavy machines from grizzly and had the same problem as me? or any advice? i was thinking about offering 50$ tip to driver to put in the garage but my fate would still be in the hands of the driver if they want to or not or if thats completely against their policy. Another thought would be rent a lift hand fork lift thingy and ask my 4'9 wife to help, have her get behind to help push and test my true love for her whether i hold or not. i dunno, any thoughts?

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On 1/23/2022 at 11:38 AM, Valleyslim said:

rent a lift hand fork lift thingy

To move it in the driveway it needs wheels. It probably is on a palate. Save the tip and rent something that picks up heavy palates and roll it. 

 

On 1/23/2022 at 11:38 AM, Valleyslim said:

order their 8inch parallelogram

Are you talking jointer?

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Pallet jacks are pretty handy tools to have around. But yeah, freight delivery is a pain most places. When I have bought large machine tools I've gone through a local store rather than the manufacturer directly. The local shop happily loaded it into the back of my pickup with their forklift, and then I was able to get up my very steep driveway and slide it into the garage.

Home Depot sells Grizzly tools, just not in-store. If you don't have another local dealer, you could see if they'll load into your truck, or have them load into one of their rental pickups for you, and then you can get it right up to the garage and either take it off the pallet or slide the pallet off the truck with a couple 2x10s.

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Google piano dolly. I have four casters at the ends of two short 2x6, that are at the end of two longer 1x6. I had to brace that with further 2x in order to move my table saw in, as a piano is typically a fixed length that is longer that the tool base. I screwed cleats to in dolly in order to keep the saw from sliding on the dolly. I screwed a tow strap to the dolly and pulled it. When the driver saw my dolly, I think he started pushing because he could not believe it was that easy. He wound up chuckling and saying he would have to remember that. My drive is minimally pitched. I did not have a huge concern with the top heavy nature of the saw. For a steep drive, winch or chain fall comes to mind. Not sure if a rental shop might have either.
 

Tailgate delivery does mean curb. I think most ornery drivers can be “bought” with a cold drink, or warm case they can take home and chill. 

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On 1/23/2022 at 9:54 AM, curlyoak said:

To move it in the driveway it needs wheels. It probably is on a palate. Save the tip and rent something that picks up heavy palates and roll it. 

 

Are you talking jointer?

palate jack is the thing i was trying to think of and yes its the jointer/parellelogram

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On 1/23/2022 at 10:32 AM, BonPacific said:

Pallet jacks are pretty handy tools to have around. But yeah, freight delivery is a pain most places. When I have bought large machine tools I've gone through a local store rather than the manufacturer directly. The local shop happily loaded it into the back of my pickup with their forklift, and then I was able to get up my very steep driveway and slide it into the garage.

Home Depot sells Grizzly tools, just not in-store. If you don't have another local dealer, you could see if they'll load into your truck, or have them load into one of their rental pickups for you, and then you can get it right up to the garage and either take it off the pallet or slide the pallet off the truck with a couple 2x10s.

yeah problem with that is getting the machine off the truck once i get home. learned that after woodcraft loaded my truck with my table saw, got home and was like now what. i mean i eventually got it off but it was sketch as hell and dont want to do that again

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On 1/23/2022 at 10:46 AM, Tpt life said:

Google piano dolly. I have four casters at the ends of two short 2x6, that are at the end of two longer 1x6. I had to brace that with further 2x in order to move my table saw in, as a piano is typically a fixed length that is longer that the tool base. I screwed cleats to in dolly in order to keep the saw from sliding on the dolly. I screwed a tow strap to the dolly and pulled it. When the driver saw my dolly, I think he started pushing because he could not believe it was that easy. He wound up chuckling and saying he would have to remember that. My drive is minimally pitched. I did not have a huge concern with the top heavy nature of the saw. For a steep drive, winch or chain fall comes to mind. Not sure if a rental shop might have either.
 

Tailgate delivery does mean curb. I think most ornery drivers can be “bought” with a cold drink, or warm case they can take home and chill. 

yeah i have some ideas of what i migth able to do. but on grizzly's website under their delivery policy it says they drop it on the curb of residences

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It’s delivery service, not setup/install service. 

Make sure the truck will have a liftgate, otherwise you’ll be real upset when the driver moves the jointer to the edge of the tailgate and says, “Ok, your turn.”

Call a couple friends and offer them pizza/beer/whatever, rent a pallet jack or dolly and don’t worry about what the driver will want to do. 

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I have had good luck with drivers being helpful, but it's not guaranteed.  

Here's what I did when I bought the P-Flux DC which had a shipping weight of 400 something pounds (IIRC).  First I had it delivered to the retail store (if you can get delivery to HD that's a big advantage).  This meant that I could pick the day and weather for the deliver to my house.  Then I rented a lift gate truck and two pallet jacks.  The palleted item was too large to fit on the lift gate with the pallet jack, so one jack in the truck to move the package between the truck and lift gate and a second pallet jack on the ground to take the package off the lift gate into the garage.  With this set up I was able to manage the entire operation on my own, without having to off the wife $50 to help me :).  The big cost was the lift gate truck, the pallet jacks were cheap.  I didn't have to pay for shipping since I had "in store" pickup.  Beware of curbs and small step offs in your pavement, although I was surprised what impediments a loaded pallet jack could overcome if the load was rolling with, shall we say, some enthusiasm.  

After I got the pallet into the garage where it was safely out of the weather, I took several days to un-box and disassemble so I could move the parts into the basement workshop.  

If you want to have your own pickup loaded at the retailer, an hydraulic table (Harbor Freight; Norther Tool) waiting in your garage could be the unloading answer.  But I gotta warn you those tables are heavy enough to be a problem to lift on their own.  

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I obsessed over this when I bought a Grizzly planer, too much.  Came on a pallet via UPS Freight, the driver said where's it going, I pointed to my shop about 125' away and he used a pallet jack, he pulled, I pushed, he got a $50 as a tip.  UPS even called me a day before to give me the same speech about curb only.  You'll be fine, just have some cash on you.  Those guys probably make more in tips than their regular pay.

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I ordered a cabinet saw, DC, and 6” jointer from grizzly.  Found all 3 truck drivers were great.  As “Steve in NH” said have cash on hand.  
I cant remember if grizzly is one of them but some vendors/ truckers offer “white glove” service… that means they take it off the truck and if no stairs will roll it to your location.  Expensive but in the ballpark of renting a pallet hack and all the hassle.

 

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All the drivers I've had not just helped, but wanted to help.  It's been more a question of whether they'll let ME help THEM.  I have a steep driveway and the guy that delivered my Jet jointer a long time ago was off pulling the thing up by himself before I even knew what was going on and barely caught up to him before he got to the top.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chiming in: I've had a half dozen or so freight deliveries (including 2 from Grizzly), and despite it always saying curbside delivery only on the website, in practice the drivers have always been happy to put it in the garage. Sometimes they even refuse a tip. So I think this is only a theoretical problem.

Edited by bglenden
Add Grizzly clarification
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On 2/5/2022 at 10:55 AM, bglenden said:

Chiming in: I've had a half dozen or so freight deliveries (including 2 from Grizzly), and despite it always saying curbside delivery only on the website, in practice the drivers have always been happy to put it in the garage. Sometimes they even refuse a tip. So I think this is only a theoretical problem.

While not a tool (a treadmill), my experience was the same.  The trucking co. that Amazon used to deliver it had lift-gate service and they offered to pallet jack it to the garage.   

The trucking co. should make contact with you to obtain info from you and schedule the delivery.  Just ask them if they will pallet jack it to your garage before you rent one.  I feel terrible now because I didn't even offer my driver a tip. :unsure:

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UPS drivers in my experience are good people. Probably stems from the fact that UPS pays well and seems to take care of their employees. I received an order of wheels + tires and the driver dropped them right in my garage and wouldn't do anything less despite my comments that it was unnecessary.

This was back when my garage was detached and behind the house.

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My 490lb gross weight bandsaw was delivered today with no notice (said it was my fault for not contacting them before and asking for notice before delivery to a residential address. Also note that their tracking site had been down for the past day or two and I didn’t even know it was on this side of the country yet) and the guy could hardly be bothered to turn the truck around (which he’d have to do before leaving anyway) so that I could pick it off the truck with my tractor. No way he would have taken it further than required to get the pallet jack back out, even if my driveway was asphalt/concrete. Never know what you’ll get.

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