My new 400 lb. anvil is due in tomorrow. A bit of a surprise, and as there is illness in my family, I have not had time to think about it.
My question-- how do I get this sucker off the truck and into my backyard? How do you move something of this size?
Any replies appreciated. ......
Robert

Actually due today!

Rig it to something overhead, or build a ramp up to your truck, or both. Assuming you don't more specialized tools.

If you've got a couple of rachet straps and a come-a-long, you should have more than enough. Just take it real slow. Personally I'd just ratchet it to an overhead beam if you've got one, pull out from under it, and lower it. Then you can shuffle it around, or use digging/pry bars to scoot it.


GL, that's a big one.!

Furniture dolly/handtruck once it's on the ground. If it's being drop shipped, hopefully the truck has a liftgate. I can easily lift my 300# Fisher with help, but 400# is asking for an injury. My work truck has a ramp and I just slid my 300#er down the ramp. As far as the overhead lift to get it out of the truck goes, I'd highly recommend using a chainfall to raise and lower it.
Pictures when you get it!

FInd a friend that has an engine hoist - I pick things up with it, put them on four wheel dollies, and roll where I need and pick it back up to set it down. I've got one and that's how I move the heavy stuff around

Assuming you mean a pick-up truck and not the UPS truck...

Pulley (or block 'n tackle), stout rope, stout tree limb, come-along.

Lift, move truck, let 'er down easy. Then use the dolly.

I have used the tractor for lack of a come-along.

Be careful and don't have anything under the anvil that can be damaged if it falls (except maybe a road-runner).

Call Harry Potter, or a wrecker truck.

If you have no equiptment or help just back up into a grassy area and let it fall to the ground then you can use a hand truck and move wherever you want.
If it is crated or on a pallet you have the added advantage of it uncrating itself when it hits the ground.
Anvils are tougher than dirt and wood ( wouldnt try this on cement or asphalt or you will mess up the anvil and the cement or asphalt )
Thats an option that I have used several times when I didnt feel like getting the tractor with the front end loader.

I have done the same as Mike Tanner (yeasteryearforge) with my large anvils. Placing some old spare tires on the ground can act as an additional cusion as it falls off the truck. Once it is on the ground, if you don't have a hand truck you can usually 'walk' it where it needs to go until you need it hoisted onto a stand.

We used an engine hoist to move my 515# Fisher into my truck. Then at the house I slid it to the back of the bed and "kicked it" off the tailgate. Once on the ground I used a couple of 2x6"'s and pipe rollers to move it into the shop.

Once in the shop I put a couple of lolly columns up to brace the bottom of the roof truss and then used a come-along to lift it in place.

Having had a pair of college students drop one of my anvils on it's nose on an "industrial" concrete floor I can say that my anvil suffered no damage and the floor has a nice chunk missing where it hit. Smart people can be really dumb sometimes!

To move my large screwpress I put skids on the bottom and lifted it off my truck under a large stout tree with a chain-hoist and then chained it to the back bumper of my truck and *SLOWLY* drug it over the gravel to in front of the shop doors and then used rollers to get it inside.

Triphammers I used a come-along to help slide it off the back of the truck and upright *SLOWLY* and then used rollers and a pru bar to move it in and out of the shop.

If you have no equiptment or help just back up into a grassy area and let it fall to the ground then you can use a hand truck and move wherever you want.
If it is crated or on a pallet you have the added advantage of it uncrating itself when it hits the ground.
Anvils are tougher than dirt and wood ( wouldnt try this on cement or asphalt or you will mess up the anvil and the cement or asphalt )
Thats an option that I have used several times when I didnt feel like getting the tractor with the front end loader.

Best answer yet!

I moved a 500 like this ........Four pipes ( whatever) and two rings..........weld #2 pipe to form a U across the handles, and the two rings to accept the pass through pipe #1, capturing the anvil throat..........four guys can easily manage 100 lbs apiece to carry or lift onto the base .......

OTOH 4 guys "complained" (B&M) quite a bit when we moved my 515# anvil for a meeting using pipes through the two hardy holes---1 at either end. Perhaps it was because they picked it up *before* the shop doors were open and so had to hold it while someone went in the side door, threaded themselves through the shop and opened the end doors...

One item of the first day's class when I teach at the local college is to "Not pick up an anvil until there is a place to set it down!" (unloading, set up, tear down and loading are part of the class "fee" to get me to haul 4 anvils and two forges up to the fine arts building)

Stewart can I have any anvil you get that you *can't* lift? I don't need a hernia/back issues to prove I am a man. I can use my brain to figure out how to move heavy objects without damaging myself!

I have lifted every anvil in my shop. Don't use it unless you can lift it! 400 pounds is a FEATHER! LOL

An anvil is not a barbell........One day you'll pay the piper..........

back up fast and PRAY!!!

I have lifted every anvil in my shop. Don't use it unless you can lift it! 400 pounds is a FEATHER! LOL

I can't even lift my 150# anvil anymore because I tried (and at times, succeeded) in lifting stuff way too heavy when I was younger I second (third?) the engine hoist idea. Plan to use it myself next shop re-org. Doubt it would work with much success on grass though LOL

Move the truck as close to the shop as possible.

Off the truck and onto the ground is easy, Use gravity. Dropping it on tires cushions the landing as well as keeps the anvil out of the ground and easy to work with later.

Once the anvil is on the ground:
Use some of that steel plate you been saving, or plywood laid down on the grass as a roadway to move the hoist upon.

I moved a 2000 pound acorn by hand (yes it was a LARGE oak tree) by laying down two 20 foot sections of pipe as rails and 3-4 foot sections of pipe as rollers between the rails and the acorn.

Attach the anvil to a long pipe near one end of the pipe. Lay the long end down on the ground and crib up under the short end. Lift the long end and walk 180 degrees arc which will move the anvil the distance between the fulcrum and the weight forward. Repeat as needed. Simple tools are just that, simple to use. You do not over complicate things.

Nobody has mentioned what I did with my first anvil in the back of a truck... instead of a ramp, simply build a platform consisting of a lot of scrap lumber. Slide anvil onto platform. You can then "walk" the anvil down to ground level by removing alternating pieces of the platform. The key is that the platform isn't single pieces of wood, but multiple. In other words, the anvil at all times is sitting on two pieces of wood. You can't lift a big anvil, but you can easily tilt it enough to slide out a piece of wood from underneath one side or the other. Once on the ground, the dolly works great. Then you reverse the process to get it back up high, so you can slide it onto your stand. Of course Thomas is right -- an Engine hoist made that technique a fond memory! :-)

-Tod

I don't know how they did it, but someone stole my acorn plate one night, in the middle of the night. How can someone steal something that heavy without attracting attention!

Someone?? A bruiser like that could take on Bigfoot with a switch!! Catch em' in the act and you might need a gun, or smack em upside the head with a 400# anvil...... ........

I handballed a 560lb anvil onto my truck the other day with a sack truck and a ratchet strap! Gravity has worked for the dismount in the past but fork truck is the prefered method now!!

400lb'ers 'walk' pretty easy 'horn down, tail round, tail down horn round' - above 500lb they are pretty well a dead weight!

im looking forward to struggling with a 600lber or 700lb'er one day! :D

I'm guessing the OP has already succeeded or failed. But here's a pic of me moving in my compressor, which was much harder than my hammer and bandsaw due to the really bouncy plywood skid it's on.

I'm with stuart, at 59 years old I asked a friends help to help lift my 500 pounder, it was no problem,......Master smith jimmy Curtin bet every one in the shop he could pick it up himself, 5' 9" 180 pounds, we all put our money on the anvil , he squatted down hooked his arms under it and stood up ! ! he put it down and scooped up a hundred bucks.... now he's 93 and still sharp as a tack

At 73 years old. 5' 7". 160 pounds I'm happy that I can move my 280 pounder from stand to tailgate. If it's on the ground, I call for help.

I'm pleased to meet you Jack ,...also a retired shoer, Jimmy Was shoeing still into his 70's, you're on my list of people I'd like to meet ,....Stuart is another,....I've stopped carrying my 280 across the driveway,...the wife has a fit