[TheForge] long distance freight

[Ries Niemi]

I would call Allways trucking, at 800-888-6230
and Long Haul trucking at 800-255-5153

these are both freight brokers, who book independent truckers. Besides 
being much cheaper than somebody like Yellow Freight, they have the 
added advantage of sending the actual truck to your location- you load 
the piece, and then that truck goes direct to your destination, and the 
piece gets unloaded. No freight terminals, no changing trucks, no 
possiblity of damage.
I usually fly to the other end and unload it myself, but then I am 
usually dealing with larger pieces and more complicated installs.

As far as a crate goes, the trick is to keep the artwork a LONG ways 
from the outside of the crate- for something like this I would scavenge 
a commercial pallet that is a foot or so bigger all around, and 
securely fasten the piece to the pallet, then build a plywood and 1x4 
crate around the piece, screwed and glued. You can run some interior 
braces that are taped or tied to the piece, with padding between. This 
way the metalwork is basically freestanding inside the crate, and 
damaging the crate doesnt affect the metal unless you have severe 
penetration with a fork.

But really, if you know that no one will touch the piece between you 
loading it, and someone you trust unloading it, then the packing doesnt 
have to be as rigorous.

ries