Best way to ship/pack large speakers?

[Jed]

I have a few ideas on how I'd like to ship some 48" tall, 9" wide, by 15" deep speakers, but I thought I would hear from you all to see if there are some really affordable ways to get the job done efficiently. Suggestions?

Would you ship them separately?
Would you use UPS?
How much foam material needs to surround the speakers? Is bubble wrap the way to go... its so expensive.

Thanks,

Jed

[impala454]

I'd find a good freight company that regularly ships furniture or antiques or something. Maybe talk to a local mom & pop furniture store and see what they do.

[Eton]

Jed, The least expensive way to ship large items is crate service from UPS, or others. this way you can pack the speakers in separate boxes but ship as one or both in the same box if you can find a box that large. The danger in crate service is the forklift drivers, will they fork lift the goods or will they be careful during loading and unloading?
I can tell you I haven’t been very lucky with crate service and 3 out of 4 large shipments have been victim of drivers. :E

[Rbrockman]

Hi Jed,

I've had good success shipping items by using a packing company that pumps expanding foam directly into your shipping boxes.

Typically, your goods are wrapped in plastic and then placed into boxes with spacers between them and the sides of the boxes. Then expanding foam is pumped is to fill the remaining voids in the box. A separator is used so that the foam easily comes apart to allow the goods to be extracted easily.

Good luck!

[ThomasW]

IMO bubble-wrap and or peanuts are a joke when shipping a large expensive item.

When I shipping something big and heavy I buy the 1.5" white styrofoam insulation board from a home center store. Using a table saw, I custom cut the foam several layers thick creating an exact fit between the item and the sides of the shipping box.

If you want kid-gloves service insure each box for $1000-$1500 and UPS will hand walk the box thorough their system, so no worries about it dropping off the automated belts....

[Dennis H]

Wood Artistry uses a sonotube screwed to round/square 2-layer plywood endcaps to make the 'box' for the Orion. I think they use foam sheets taped to the cabinet to protect the drivers. Then a layer of bubble wrap to protect the box finish. Fill it with foam peanuts and screw on the top cap. Of course the irregular shape of the Orion makes things harder. Thomas's method sounds good for rectangular box speakers.

[exojam]

If you go UPS (or anyone really)I would suggest packing it in front of them. I just had to go through allot of trouble them after they damaged my custom made speakers. I had even more insurance on them than Thomas mentions and if was a PAIN trying to deal with them (over 13 calls just to have someone come and look at them). Also, pictures before packing after packing and after arrival.

[brent_s]

Call around to various long distance moving companies. If you're not on a schedule, you can usually get on someone's waiting list and they'll call you when they have a little space left on a truck going in the direction you need. Larger than your speakers, but we shipped a family heirloom dresser, mirror, and chest of drawers from Wilmington, NC up to Long Island this way. Only thing we actually pack ourselves was the mirror...the driving team loaded and blanketed the furniture pieces for us. Can't remember the exact cost, but it was considerably cheaper than FedEx freight, which also would have required we crate everything ourselves.

Note: not all van lines offer this. I think we may have ended up finding someone via internet search as none of the local branches of national providers wanted to play. Some outfits that we called actually thought it made a lot of sense to use their empty space this way, but they didn't have procedures in place to do it.

-Brent

[Johnloudb]

We once had some speakers shipped to us by freight and when they arrived we saw where a fork lift had plowed through the side of the wood container. Fortunately, the forks missed the speaker by less than an inch. 8O

I have no idea the best way to ship speakers, but I just thought I'd share that.

[tktran]

Hi Jed,

When there's a will, there's a way.

Packing speakers, without grills, for shipping by an unknown courier, all the way to the other side of the continent?

No problems. You can do it D-I-Y style, just like my very clever Aussie buddy Jon Stewart.

I'm told that the mantra he chanted was this:

Thrown through the door
From 2m above a concrete floor
Will it survive?
If not, pack some more!

It's all about shock absorption.

Bubblewrap is very good, and very easy, though expensive.
Foam is cheaper. But make sure you get soft stuff. The hard stiff foam just transmits all impact forces so it's no good.

Hope you have broadband Jed:

Images not available

regards,
Thanh.

[TacoD]

Nice instructions Thanh. Mounting the woofers with some bolds is a clever idea.

[Jed]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Much appreciated.

[shame302]

worth looking into, particularly if they are well packaged would be greyhound bus. i know people that have shipped large car parts this way, though speakers might be a bit too much on the heavy side....

[Rick Craig]

Sorry that you didn't stop to talk at the show Jed. I would build some crates and line them with plank foam from Uline or one of the online foam suppliers. You probably will exceed the maximum dimensions for standard shipping but there's LTL service available from UPS and Fed Ex.

[Jed]

Hi Rick,

I go to Denver once or twice a year to visit my sister and her husband, so I'm sure there will be more opportunities. I did stop in your room and wanted to talk but you had a few conversations going on and figured I'd get back to your room the next day, only to get stuck in my sister's attic putting in new insulation. If you know what I mean.

[kingpin]

Jed what did you do.
I have to ship my speakers(200lbs each) to across canada.

I plan on getting a skid.
Screwing a piece of ply to make a floor.
Layering plastic for a vapour barrier.
Putting down a layer of 2" styrofoam insulation and placing speakers on top.
Wrapping speakers with a cotton blanket to prevent scratches.
then bagging them.
Taping them sealed
Bubblewrap each one
and build walls of the same 2" styrofoam all around and inbetween each speaker. as well as on top.
then build a ply box tight around that.
then a second box around the whole skid like a cover and bracing it well.

Any comments.
Mike

[Jed]

Hi Mike,

I haven't done it yet, just getting ready if anyone buys cabinets from me. Pretty much all the kits I've sold so far have been drivers and crossovers only. I'm not really looking forward to shipping massive speaker cabinets to be honest, but we'll see what can be done.

[---k---]

Mike,
My experience from driving a forklift for four summers makes me think that if you secure the speakers to the skids tight, they'll be pretty good. Biggest risk is from getting impaled by the forks. You're going way beyond the packing we used to do, but we were only dealing with electrical supplies. We would just stack the boxes on the skids and wrap with plastic wrap to hold everything tight. Cargo holds up on skids pretty well, because they aren't getting tossed around like boxes, and you can only drop the skids so fast.

However, some suggestions:

I would suggest putting blocking under the speakers to raise them up off the skid at least 4 to 6 inches. The most common error with forklifts is not getting the forks all the way down and impaling the box just above the top of the skid.

I think the foam is a good idea, but I think you want the speakers strapped as tightly to the skid as possible. You want one solid block that moves as a solid block. Not something that can sway on top of foam. This really is probably the most important thing.

I would take the crossovers out and put them in boxes on top or something. You don't want things that can beak loose when they slam your skid into the skid in front. Just make sure those boxes aren't moving and you'll be good.

Look at what Dennis showed that they do for the Orions. If this was going UPS, where the boxes get thrown and dropped, I would agree that packing peanuts and bubble wrap is a joke. But, on a skid I bet it would be okay. I like the sonotube idea. Build a couple of endcaps and it would have some real rigidity. If you wanted, you could build square endcaps and then crate that.

Also look at Brett suggestion to use a moving company. I thought this too. It might be much easier.

[JRT]

Hi Mike,

I haven't done it yet, just getting ready if anyone buys cabinets from me. Pretty much all the kits I've sold so far have been drivers and crossovers only. I'm not really looking forward to shipping massive speaker cabinets to be honest, but we'll see what can be done.

I like the sonotube idea mentioned above.

Regardless how you package the, 3M sells low tack removable film that would help protect the finish from packing materials that might rub on the finish during shipping.



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