So.... I purchased a new compressor.... 80 Gal... big mofo. Oh and a new dishwasher to keep the wife happy.

They go to deliver it this morning. I spent all day yesterday cleaning out the 2 914 garage... cleaning, picking up tools, etc in anticipation of my new toy.

So the big morning arrives. I move both of our daily drivers out onto the street. I park my 73 in the driveway off to the side. completely clear access all the way to the rear of the garage. Big ass lowe's truck shows up. They decide to offload the compressor first. This is where the train start coming off the tracks

This big ass box, with a pallet at the bottom. They have it on a pallet jack and the bigger of the two start spinning it around trying to get it on the lift. One hand on the pallet jack, and one hand gingerly on the big ass metal thing in the box. The other little guy was off taking care of his phone that was ringing. The little guy comes back and starts lowering the lift.... jerking it all the way. Thought the thing was going to come tumbling off right there.

They get it to the ground. Now, remember all of those cars that I moved out of the driveway? Did they even think of parking the truck in the driveway? Nope. Compressor in the street. They then remove the pallet jack and I'm kind of scratching my head. Now you have to realize that this gigantic box has the following plastered in big letters all around it..... "WARNING: TOP HEAVY". Along with a nice host of pictures that indicated that you should not use a hand truck. So what do they grab? Yup... here comes the hand truck. They throw it under, pull out the straps (gotta remember safety here kids) and strap the thing up. Now in our neighborhood, we have what I call roll-over curbs. Not the old school vertical curbs. I watch with my arms crossed as they tip this thing back and exclaim..... "Damn this thing is top heavy" Now I would have taken this as a clue to stop and eval the situation. Nope. They tip it again and struggle to heft it over the roll-over curb. So they get it over the curb and into the grass. Then they try and do a little turn to get it onto the concrete driveway (hmm...might roll a little bit better there). Struggle... turn... struggle...turn.... fall....crash. Onto the concrete it goes. Delivery person #1 laying on their back saying.... "I can't believe that just happened". Hell I saw that happening before the thing was even off the truck.

Proud of myself..... I didn't yell. Didn't curse. All I said was..... "and Back on the truck it goes."

Maybe manufactures should start putting those little recording boxes inside of the carton that just keeps saying..... Hey moron, don't use a hand truck, this thing is really top heavy.

We'll see how they do on round two.

Mike

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I am sympathetic of your pain/frustration, and empathetic since I have shopped at Lowes recently. Thank you so much for sharing your story, that may be the best laugh I will have all day.

"Damn this thing is top heavy"

Damn my car looks good out in the sun

Be happy you were home to watch it because I would guarantee they would have "delivered" it anyway...

Good on you for getting a nice big compressor. Even better for not chewing the guys head off. Sounds like you handled that about as well as you possibly could. They may not be allowed to back the truck up on to your property - I have been told that before by delivery folks when big things have come. "Curb side means we can't go past the curb." Usually if I ask them to back the truck up, they will though. It makes everyone's life easier.

Zach

Yeah Zach... it was only 3 years ago I was inquiring on where you got your compressor. I remember your comment that you wished you had gotten just that little bit bigger size to really run the hungry stuff. It just took me 3 years to pull the trigger Where does the time go?

Mike

Hopefully Rd II goes better. After that your life will never be the same again - having a Big 2-Stage compressor is GREAT.

T.C.

What no pictures of said morons laying on the ground.

Take pics during round II.

There is a reason these guys aren't in med school

I treated myself to one of these big mother compressors from Menards a year ago. We got help loading it into the back of the pickup at the store, and I had several good, strong friends around when we had to unload it.

They're not kidding, these things are heavy and definitely top-heavy. We got it unloaded and into position with all of our fingers and feet intact, but it was a struggle. If you need to get it off the pallet yourself, be sure to have some good helping hands available! Compressors can be returned, missing appendages often cannot!

I agree with George on this. my 60gal dual stage was a bitch to get off the pallet. I am not sure how I did it now, but I know I was single handed at the time. I remember thinking "this could go well or spectacularly poorly." But somehow I was able to muscle it into position and anchored into my garage floor.

I am sure the 80 gal units are a lot heavier then my 60 gal unit. be careful!

Zach

Scary part is that they both drive on the roads with us (in a BIG F***ING TRUCK) and vote!

I never took mine off the pallet. I bolted the pallet (which was bolted to the compressor) to the concrete slab. This gives me a couple of inches more under the tank, so I can get my fingers to the drain spigot. And you need to drain these as you do not them rusting from the inside out.

T.C.

I never took my 80 gallon off the pallet. Didnt bolt it down either. Mine was delivered outside of the garage. I had to move it in by sliding it in, wasnt fun.

I was tempted to do that (just leave it on the pallet) but the instructions with my unit had in big bold letters something to the effect of leaving it on the pallet would cause the universe to end, dramatically.

Something about vibrations not being properly dampened by the pallet eventually causing failure to the compressor. I have to admit, I questioned that it would actually cause the universe to end, but I just assumed they had some engineers to run the numbers and anchored it directly to the floor - just to be safe. I'd hate to be responsible for killing all life, known and unknown, while doing something like filling my tires with air one day.

Zach

Forget pictures. Take video and add circus music!

The Universe didn't come to an end, but the compressor motor did. It always had a funny noise from day 1. The rings were bad. I'm glad I bought the extended warranty - the repair was more than the compressor

T.C.

Like Benny Hill...2damn funny

Before you take delivery on #2, check Harbor Freight. Theirs goes for $799 and IIRC flows more than the Lowes/Home Depot/Tractor Supply/Campbell Hausfeld compressor. It's made in Canada, not China.

Also, grab a 20% off coupon out of the back of a recent Car and Driver for an additional $160 savings.

I just picked up the 60 gallon version from Harbor Freight and couldn't be happier. I have yet to run out of air both sandblasting and grinding at 90 psi. I brought it home with my '58 VW Single Cab and offloaded it by hand sliding it down over a couple of moving blankets. Then bear hugged it and walked it into it's final location. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of me unloading it.

So round two went better than round one. I still had to suggest to them to back the truck into the driveway. I took the added precaution of moving my 914 to the neighbor's driveway before they took to it. Even still they about took out my mailbox. Once they backed it up they opened the back of the truck and there is a compressor shrink wrapped and strapped to the wall. I very calmly and cooly informed them that if that was the same compressor (that hit my driveway) just wrapped up in plastic, I was not going to be a nice person. They assured me that it wasn't. Several "we're really sorry about that other compressor"s later, it was in my garage. They asked if I wanted them to take it off the pallet for my.... which I promptly declined.

So now I've got to get this sucker wired up to the 240 line that I ran in the garage many moons back.

As far as the leave it on the pallet or take it off thing... The same instructions and box that said "WARNING- TOP HEAVY" and "DON'T USE A HAND TRUCK ON THIS" also said that it will blow up if you don't take it off the pallet. Hard for me to argue when they have been right on 2 counts thus far

I thought about pulling out the video camera when they pulled up to the front of the house.... but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to them..... they were already bewildered enough looking and I can't imagine the raft of shit they must have caught from their boss when they drug that thing back in. While unloading the 2nd one, the one that ended up on the ground was holding their back and moving a little bit slow. Wonder why when 500+lbs comes toppling over at you.

Mike

I bet there are a lot of compressors for sale at the scratch and dent dept.

All's well that ends well? or should we wait until you fire it up? With that much air power can you literally blow your skin off?

Your 4" thick driveway is not meant for heavy trucks. The roads they drive on are over 8" thick with three times the rebar thats in your drive. Your driveway will crack and shatter from that much weight. Maybe not today, but it will crack.

Good move putting the Porsche in another driveway, I was thinking that a block away might have been needed. Next up, do you have an air drier for it? I've found that water in the air line is my biggest problem. You need a pretty serious drier for a compressor like that.

Also, they're probably paid by the hour anyway, so why make it easy & pull up the driveway & drop-n-roll it into the garage - far too easy for "Billy & Bubba"!

You might want to suggest that to the next crew, unless you just enjoy the free entertainment & don't need that compressor right away!

Freeze-thaw will crack it back there anyway eventually, & since concrete is pretty good in compression over a good base - 4" concrete is okay for occasional truck use in most cases, so long as they used the proper curing time, mix & slump, rebar/WWM, base, etc. - which with many contractors is a BIG "so long as". IMHO as someone in the business for 40+ years - a midsized Lowe's truck for a delivery shouldn't be a problem because their typical 16,000# GVW is spread over 6 tires & not too far off the per tire load of a large SUV.

BTW - I'd move the 914's & everything the block away davep suggests, with those clowns!