Shipping pinball and arcade machines

[Serious]

I need to move a pinball machine and some arcade cabinets from my old home in Texas to my new home in Utah.

 

If anyone has experience with moving machines like these a long distance, I'd like you recommendations on how to best do it.

 

I am hesitant to use regular movers, because I worry about these machines getting damaged if handled by people not experienced with handling these things.

 

 

[Turbo-Torch]

For the arcade games, remove the coin buckets and make sure every board and transformer has all its fasteners in place. Monitors are heavy and can break free; I'd remove each one and pack it separately with extra care around the neck...it'll also make the games lighter, much less top heavy and far easier to handle. If you have a game like PacMan with a glass bezel, remove that too.

[Tanooki]

I wish I could tell you the company, but I sold a year ago a Bally Gold Ball system and the buyer who picked it up off of pinside paid for a moving/shipping company. It cost him around between $200-300 for it, but they came and did everything. Took the legs off, secured the back box, tucked the cord and taped it down, padded the area between the glass and the back box, threw a bit more pad around it in general, then used that movers heavy duty saran wrap like shippers roll around it a lot and carted it out to the van and it was gone. Took about 7-10 days on the truck from here to the upper MI peninsula but it arrived perfectly. He was happy, sent a nice pic of it powered up next to his other machines.

 

The company he used was actually experienced in moving tables so it wasn't your usual bumblers from Allied, United, Mayflower, etc but a dedicated shipper who actually took care and a kid gloves approach to transporting it.

 

If you rather do this yourself. Same rules generally apply. Tuck your cords, secure any loose stuff perhaps in the coin box in the lower compartment/compartment of your arcade or pinball machine. Use some padded shippers blankets around anything more fragile than other parts (marquee/screen area) and then saran wrap that sucker into a comfy pillow. Get that into your moving van or whatever you used on a dolly, ratchet it down with some of those flat heavy duty fiber/cloth cables with the ratchet clamps, and be on your way with it.

 

It's free to setup on pinside, you could just make an account there and ask them about a dedicated shipper if you don't wish to do it. The place is ultra helpful even if you're not a site runner of machines as it's just lots of fun posts, tech help, tech assistance, sales, trades, whatever going on there, even fans to specific makers or tables. I haven't logged in for awhile as I kind of come and go only having a Pin-Bot table and a 2slot Neo Geo cabinet so it just is what it is in my case.

[Austin]

Consider renting a truck and doing it yourself. Depending on where you live and where you are going, there may be companies that will let you take a truck one-way (U-Haul, Budget, etc). Despite moving multiple states, I'm betting it may be cheaper than shipping.

 

Tanooki is right about shipping companies that move appliance sized equipment (including arcade cabs and pins), but you are looking at $300+ for a single game (I'm not sure if they offer bundle deals). NAVL (North American Van Lines) is what pinball people typically use and I shipped a game with them a couple of years ago. They came and did all the work, although I had it shipped on the legs (if you fold them down and put them on pallets, you run the risk of someone slicing right through your machine with a forklift when it's time to move it. It happens more frequently than it probably should).

[Tanooki]

Come to think of it I think NAVL was it, and also more that I think into it I'm not certain the legs did come off. It was so well bundled up by them I was surprised the amount of materials they used. If you don't mimic what they did and use that company route with it, that's the way to go, one which aren't house movers but special equipment movers so they aren't stupid enough to destroy it in moving it in some step of the way.

[keepdreamin]

rent a uhaul. cling wrap cabinets, then cover each one with a moving blanket. Secure inside box truck using ratchet straps to tie down points. Drive.

[Atari_Bill]

I wouldn't recommend NAVL. I bought a custom cabinet from Curt Vendel several years ago and they delivered. They couldn't find my address first and it delayed delivery by days. It then arrived completely broken in half. They returned and curt got a new one developed and they delivered again. Again they broke it along the bottom of the machine. This time cosmetic damage and I was tired of waiting so I accepted it. I'll never use them again though.