Lifting Switchgear

S

Silveria1974

Member
Location
Sonoma County CA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I am looking for any ideas of how to lift a main switch board in place that is indoors. I have seen the idea of a gantry crane which would work in most cases however this gear is 22' wide and weighs around 5500lbs.
 
How much overhead clearance you got?

Forklift comes to mind, either lifted from the bottom, or slung from above. I’d use a tele-handler if doing the latter.

If no overhead clearance you’ll probably be stuck with jacks or airbags and dollies.
 
I only need to lift it a few inches over the conduits in the slab then slide it back maybe 3', the problem is the room is built and can't get a forklift inside of it
 
Silveria1974 said:
I only need to lift it a few inches over the conduits in the slab then slide it back maybe 3', the problem is the room is built and can't get a forklift inside of it
Click to expand...
You can lift it with either pallet jacks or toe jacks and get it up on some dunnage. Then drop it on to a few skates and roll it onto the pad. Once on the pad you can short lengths 3/4 RMC to roll it into place then jack it up and remove the rollers. This is how we would move 6500 pounds. Skates and toe jack are visible in the photo as well as the pipe rollers for the pad.

Skates.jpg
 
With the right tools and knowledge this shouldn't be too difficult. Lacking either of those two things and you might get into trouble. Like Jim said can this be broken down into smaller sections?
 
Except for prefab skids I have never seen gear sections more than 4' wide
 
Silveria1974 said:
I only need to lift it a few inches over the conduits in the slab then slide it back maybe 3', the problem is the room is built and can't get a forklift inside of it
Click to expand...
open trusses above? I've never moved a 22' section, but pretty routinely moved 8' sections onto pads using chain hoists. But nowhere near 5500 lbs. If you were to consider lifting with the trusses as support, I'd reach out to the truss engineer for their opinion.
 
I agree with @Strathead the rolalift is the best. But 22' makes it more difficult. You can do it with pallet jacks, jacks and rollars but the rolalifts are made for that job. Trouble is you would need at least 6 of them.

Was it shipped in 22' length? Seems doubtful. I would break it down if possible.
 
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