Long Lengths and transportation

Hi All, I'm just starting a major renovation of my house - 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms + 2 "powder rooms" - all the doors, arcs & skirts, etc will be replaced with new throughout the entire house. At the moment I have a 10 year old commodore sedan and while it's a great car, it's no good for hauling stuff like doors or lengths longer than around 2.7m.

I'm thinking of selling the sedan and buying a 4-5yo ute.. but I'm just wondering if that solves my problem of carrying 5.4m lengths.. can you realistically carry something this long in a ute? What if the ute has the aluminium bars just behind the cab? Would this help?

How does everyone else get long lengths to your renovation? (assume you are working normal business hours and can't hang around all day in the hope a delivery driver turns up).

I wouldn't recomend this, but a friend of mine when recently transporting an eight metre length of steel actually drove some twenty kilometers with it slung underneath the car - he couldn't understand why I was shocked

Vicroads have regulations about overhangs and securing loads, worth a look so you know what you need in a vehicle

I have brought home an incredibly large amount of timber, tin etc from various demolition yards ect. on my hubbys ute. He made up a bracket that fits on the bullbar out of gal pipe, using the gal connectors you can buy (I think they use them for fencing). With this I have carried timber up to 7.2m long. With just the rail behind the cab, and also the rear rail at the back of the tray I can carry timber about 4m long. I see tradesman around with properly constructed racks on the front so perhaps this is something you may be able to buy off the shelf.

An alternative of course is to put a towbar on your car and buy a trailer, or hire one for the long jobs.

Donna

You could always have it delivered - might be a lot cheaper than changing vehicles.

If you have both front & back bars, like a ladder rack, you can generally get away with it in metropolitan Melbourne, provided the overhangs past the front and back of the vehicle are only around 3 - 4 feet or so, the load is correctly fastened down (Hint: occy straps or baling twine are not good choices. :no:) and you secure a highly visible object (red or white rag, or a reflector triangle) at the ends. Well... the tail end, at least. Another rack to the front (eg. off a bull-bar) is desirable to prevent the load bending, but I'm pretty sure it's not legally necessary. (I could be wrong!)

There are regulations covering this, as Echnidna said, from memory you can get a copy for $5- from Vic Roads. But the above's how I've always done it and, in general, the police turn a blind eye to minor infringements. There's always the odd plod who got out of the wrong side of bed and is looking for a fight though. I'm sure you know the ones... they'll find something to ticket you for even if 't takes 'em all day to find it. :rolleyes:

If you only have the front bar, be careful of the height of the front of the load! It's better to lower the tailgate and have a metre hanging out the back (flagged, of course) than to try and have a 3m jib hanging over the front that will take out power lines, tram cables and low-hanging branches... DAMHIKT. :-

Okay! to get down to brss tacks, I would be surprised if you couldn't carry 5.4 mtrs on a ute - wether it is on a full set of three racks or just a single rack behind the cab. The thing that you must be aware of however is the amount that you put up there. if you put a couple of hundred kilos of timber on the racks you will be surprised at just how unstable your vehicle will become - cornering will become a hair raising exersise, after all you have just raised the centre of gravity of your ute by a couple of feet.

Denn

I regularly carry 6 metre lengths on my ute, it has a bar behind the cab and one at the rear. This is no good for real flexible timbers like skirtings as there is no front support. Fine for 90 x 45 and the like. I use tape to tape lengths together at the front so they help support each other.

Commercial bars are expensive and you are much better making up your rear and front bar using 2 inch pipe and fencing clamps if you don't have the ability to weld up your own.

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Originally Posted by Burnsy

I regularly carry 6 metre lengths on my ute, it has a bar behind the cab and one at the rear. This is no good for real flexible timbers like skirtings as there is no front support. Fine for 90 x 45 and the like. I use tape to tape lengths together at the front so they help support each other.

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If I'm carrying long skirtings or arc's, I'll throw a couple of studs on as well and, as you say, duct tape it all together. For the really thin stuff, quad and the like, I strap them on top of the good ol' extension ladder. :) It's still better to have the appropriate carry setup, especially if there'll be a few loads, however, you can get away with just the typical pair of bars in the tray in a pinch.

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Originally Posted by dennford

The thing that you must be aware of however is the amount that you put up there. if you put a couple of hundred kilos of timber on the racks you will be surprised at just how unstable your vehicle will become

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Definitely. If you're wanting to carry a truck-load worth of materials, buy a truck, not a ute. Better still, get it delivered. :wink:

Are trailers so very rare down yonder? Around here, it sometimes seems about half the cars and trucks are pulling trailers. Generally ~US$1000 or less for a bare-bones utility trailer with a ramp. Parking space can be questionable; when I need to use one, I borrow from a friend who has a larger block. Backing up takes practise. Use your mirrors instead of turning your head to look through the rear window. Turn the top of the steering wheel toward the image in the mirror to straighten out. Becomes second nature fairly soon.

Joe

I bought an old beat up toyota ute rather than changing cars ... it didn't cost much in the scheme of things even with a RWC. Then I made some racks by bolting shs steel together. It has been great to just be able to duck off and collect a length of whatever if you didn't get enough the first time etc. It's also good not to be too concerned about damaging it etc.

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Originally Posted by joe greiner

Are trailers so very rare down yonder? Around here, it sometimes seems about half the cars and trucks are pulling trailers. Generally ~US$1000 or less for a bare-bones utility trailer with a ramp. Parking space can be questionable; when I need to use one, I borrow from a friend who has a larger block. Backing up takes practise. Use your mirrors instead of turning your head to look through the rear window. Turn the top of the steering wheel toward the image in the mirror to straighten out. Becomes second nature fairly soon.

Joe

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Most trailers are not capable of carrying a six metre length, let's say the trailer is eight feet long and we have the legal limit of a four feet overhang plus four feet at the front of the trailer, that is still only16 feet compared to most utes being able to carry a good six metres ( sorry if I am confusing by mixing metres and feet).

Denn

car trailers are an option. But for the amount of work your proposing Id suggest a 2-4 tonne truck go diesel. When finished the project AND you have no further use you can sell the truck for almost what you paid ($3-5G)
But once you have it you'll never let it go.

Push the boat off the boat trailer and use the trailer for up to 6m lengths.:U

ps : You can get 6m boat trailers on EBay for a few hundred $

OK, trying to be sensible - roof racks on lid of commie will handle emergencies - ie 3 to 4 metre lengths.

For the whole job, spend a day doing a full quantity listing, and get quotes. Once you are into the ten thousand dollar mark for materials, you start to see how much fat there is in timber building supply prices. Then get it delivered and setup an area for storage and tarp it - delivery for truck one man is $10 or $20 depending on supplier, and $50 for 2 man deliveries (eg plasterboard).

Get afternoon deliveries on fridays if you can, and in large lots- thieves might nick one piece of eve sheet, but they wont snaffle a 6 tonne delievery of timber, plastic wrapped and tied! Bigger is safer.