47-55.1 Best way to ship a rear end

[hogfarm]

Looking to ship the ford 9" out of my truck to Dutchman's, need some advice on the best and cheapest way to ship.

[Rickysnickers]

Have you looked at Forward Air? I know they ship large items. Unsure of how expensive they are though.

[mr48chev]

You only need to ship the housing and the axles, that saves a lot.

Fedex freight used to be a lot less than Fedex or UPS You might snooo there. I don't know what it saves now but I used to save about 10% with both Fedex and UPS with my business account. They didn't ask for a Tax number for the business so it was easy to set up with them.

I used to use OAK Harbor freight a lot when I was working for Seneca Foods years ago. But they don't have a terminal closer to you than Portland. That is 85 miles from you. Unless you have a buddy with a business close buy that uses them regularly that would be a pain. Their teminal is a mile from Dutchmans in Meridian Id though.

Probably the best thing is to see what freight companies have terminals in the Dalles or Hood river or closer and have a terminal in Boise. If you drop it off at the terminal strapped to a pallet that is the right size that can be picked up with a fork lift that saves a bit.

[mongocanfly]

I shipped several bumpers from Alabama to Texas and back
Old dominion was cheap enough and did a great job for me
They handle large freight items

[joedoh]

go to dutchmans and just lip off to a guy bigger than you. it sounds strange but you'll have your rear end handed to you. since youre already there, problem solved.


seriously though, it seems to me if you are sending it there, you can expect they will be sending it back. so maybe call them and see if they can do a reverse ticket, the shipping company will come pick it up from you or more likely you will take it to their local hub, and the best thing is, you will get their discounted business rate.

as for the how, strap it to a pallet. I have about a hundred (i do not actually have a hundred its an exaggeration) pallets from the metal shop so you can expect to find one at an industrial manufacturer for free or cheap, and put it in the bed of your truck then strap the rear and axles to it, and drive to whatever shipper hub and they will unload it with a forklift. for straps, literally ratchet straps.

just spitballing

oh and fastenal offers this kind of large item pallet shipping if you have one close and there us one close to where its going. but its a hurry and wait thing. greyhound (the bus company) too, although greyhound does put weight limits on stuff.

[dsraven]

I was gonna ask if you are getting the housing narrowed or straightened or something or if you just need to ship the center section with axles or maybe just the center section. if shipping the whole assembly you really should drain it and plug the vent hole so it doesn't leak if it gets rolled over or some other reason. if just shipping the center section and possibly the axles I would do like joedoh says, find a free or cheap pallet and make sure it is gonna hold up-put a few more nais or screws in as required, clean your parts and wrap them in something (even a tough garbage bag) so they aren't gonna make a mess in the delivery truck (those guys can sometimes be finicky about that especially when the parts stink like gear oil and its possibly in the same space as they are sitting) and strap the parts down with ratchet straps. maybe take a few pics of the parts before you bag them if you worry about getting the same parts back, then deliver to your transport company of choice. they will forklift the pallet off like joedoh says. easy peasy. good idea to ask about the reverse shipping costs too.

[mr48chev]

All they need or want is the housing and the axle shafts preferrably minus lug bolts and bearings.

Hogfarm's problem is that the two larger towns close to him Hood River and The Dalles) don't have much in the way of shipping terminals.

Too bad Les Schwab doesn't ship items for Customers. Then it could go from Goldendale, Hood River or The Dalles to Prinville, change trucks and go to Meridian. One of the Meridian stores is one mile from Dutchmans.

[hogfarm]

I'm liking all the the nice replies. I now have a direction. I think I will contact Dutchman Monday and see what they recommend, then I will need to send them the housing and the axles. I'm going to get new Dutchman axles, but they still need to old ones. They require the housing and axles be cleaned, that will be about the hardest part.

[dsraven]

I have used castrol superclean with great success, wear rubber gloves though cause it could eat the hide off a camel. I usually spray it with a hand bottle pump sprayer, a pump up bottle sprayer or for the big jobs I have a 10L garden sprayer that I have installed a tire valve into the top side so I can simply add 10 lbs pressure and then top it up as needed without having to keep hand pumping it. then rinse the bottle out after if it has any sort of rubber in it. then I head off to the car wash and by the time I get there, like 10 mins, the dirt and crud just washes right off. i don't recommend getting it on any painted surfaces as it will streak them if not rinsed off.
with the axles out I use a wire brush on my drill that fits the axle tubes. you know the kind they sell with a 1/4" shank? I threrad the shank and then use a connector nut and some threaded rod to make a long shank so I can thread the wire brush onto the threaded rod and then use the drill on that long shank to clean thoroghly down the tubes. remove the breather as well so the whole thing gets clean. you could do this again when you get it back so you get all dirt out of the housing before you assemble it. clean any gasket surfaces off before you send it so you know it is ready to go and no extra charges etc. a styro coffee cup works well to block off the axle tubes if needed, not a long term fix but ok for short term.

[mr48chev]

On the housing, Gunk or your favorite engine cleaner/degreaser. and the local hand wand car wash in Lyle or the one close that works. Or a buddy's pressure washer.

Other than knowing for sure what splines they need I am not sure why they need the axles if you are buying new though. I'd clarify that as shipping a pair of axle shaft is almost as much weight as the empty housing.

If you don't already have a nine inch I have one out of an F150 with axles, housing and third member with bad gears but no brakes that I would trade for a pickup load of firewood. Not even a big pickup. I bought it years ago but have Bought two more since and have a car rear with all the coil spring hardware from a 60 something on it with bad gears.

We Probably won't go to Wendell to visit our son and daughter inlaw and grandson until spring or I could meet you in Goldendale and haul it over on my way.

[dsraven]

I was wondering the same thing, why do they want your axles if you get new ones. All they would need to know is the spline count. You would have 28 or 31 splines depending on what the donor vehicle was. Maybe clarify that. One reason would be the 31 spliners could possibly be shortened and used again in a narrowed housing. I think the 28 spline axles dont have that option as they have a tapered axle shaft, but dont take my word for it. Giving them a call to ask could save you some cash in shipping charges.

[hogfarm]

Mr48chevy and Dsraven
I do have a ford 9" already in the truck just need to shorten it a few inches, then replace the 2" wider fiberglass with stock width fenders. Dutchman told me they want the housing and axles hot tanked, that is not going to happen, no one around here can do that. But if I use the degreaser and the car wash, that would be good, just need to do it before the freeze comes. Also told me they needed both axles unless they were the same length, I don't know why but I will need to ship them,
Mr48chevy thanks for the offer on the rear end, I don't need one, but I have plenty of firewood if you need some. If I ever head that way I will bring you a dump truck load

[dsraven]

If you degrease to get the first layer off you can try oven cleaner after the housing is dry. Spray in on a dry housing thick then come back in an hour and hose it off. Hot water works best. Obviously it's only good for ferrous metals.

[mr48chev]

Last time I checked they wanted the bearings and lug studs removed from the axles or they charged you more if they were going to cut down your axles.

A jug of Krud Kutter from Tractor supply and a trough just big enough to stick the axle housing in plus enough added water to cover it and a few days soak will work like a hot tank. That stuff will also eat paint faster than paint remover if you soak a panted part in it. I had it in my HF solvent tank and it ate the paint from the inside of the tank and the paint off a bellhousing I had in it.

I've got a truck box wide auxillary gas tank out here that I need to measure, I paid 10 bucks for it in East Wenachee years ago and it might be just big enough to hold and axle housing. I bought it for my 71 but put a 30 gallon stainless one in instead. I was thinking about converting it into a tool box/winch holder for the front of my trailer but it's a bit big for that.

[leegreen]

the fireball tool guy on youtube says Zep Commercial Heavy-Duty Floor Stripper
is the best degreaser he has ever used

at only $14C a gallon I'll be trying it after I use up the junk wd40 stuff I have now

[mr48chev]

When I was working for Seneca foods I bought a 5 gallon pail of Zep big orange degreaser. One of the boiler operators raved about how great it worked. Come to find out he had used about two gallons of it straight to clean the floor with. That 5 gallons was supposed to make about 100 gallons mixed right. I'm not sure if it was that or another Zep product but I used one in a spray bottle to clean the front of parts cabinets in that plant and if you let it set without rinsing it off it would eat into the paint. Those things probably had 15 layers of paint on them.

The Krud Kutter is a great degreaser and paint remover for what you can stick in the vessel it is in and is about 15 bucks a gallon. It mixes about four or five gallons of water to a gallon for best results.

I've used Oil Eater a lot just to spray on a part, let it soak and rinse it off when cleaning engine parts and it works good and it works good on garage floors or driveways.

A buddy of mine who's family owned an independent parts house for probably 50 years before they sold the building and he became a full time care taker for his brother said that he had been selling Oil Eater to use in hot tanks instead of caustic powder. When we had the hot tank in the school shop I'd let it boil down pretty dry and shovel it out and put it in the dumpster when it needed changing.

[hogfarm]

Called Dutchman's asked about shipping, He told me they put the housing in a box and use USP

[mr48chev]

It's easy enough to set up a UPS shipping account, Hogfarm Custom Machine is a legit reason to have one. You just have to link it to a card or bank account to pay the tab.

That lets you print your own shipping label and be able to drop it off at a store that ships UPS if you don't have and actual UPS shipping spot. The cost might be higher but what you save on gas to get to a freight depot might make a lot of difference there.

[hogfarm]

Ended up using UPS to ship my rear end, it was $130.00 plus $18.00 to box it up.For the size of box I needed I could have put up to 85lbs in the box. Housing and axles were 78lbs. Dutchman called today with the prices to shorten my rear end, needed to buy new axles,they could not respline the old ones. but it is another $200.00 to ship it back

[mr48chev]

did your axles have the skinny shaft inboard of the splines? then get bigger a few inches inboard? they can't respline those. I have a batch of big bearing 35 spline axles around here that can be cut down.

This should show the differences between the shafts.

[hogfarm]

Thanks Mr48chevy. but it is a done deal. paid them the $850.00 this morning. But I am getting just what I wanted. It will be back to me on 6 February. I'm running out of time

[mr48chev]

It would have probably cost too much to ship them a pair of axles anyhow.

I sent an email to the shop out in Harrah and they never did get back to me as far as I know. I drove out there a year and a half ago and hit there in the middle of the day and the shop was wide open and no one was around.