TRAILER FOR MOVING PIANOS

[Jim Kinnear]

I had a trailer custom built about seven years ago for moving pianos, way back
when I was feeling young and energetic. It has tandem axles, low slung , axles
mounted ABOVE the leaf springs, giving a floor height of about 10 inches,
sufficient to allow me by tipping the  piano dolly, to load all but the largest
uprights by myself.
Another advantage of the tandem axles, is that one can disconnect the trailer
from the towing vehicle, in my case a magic wagon, with a tonge weight of about
60 lbs, and move the trailer around with the piano still on it.... try that with
a single axle unit!!
Another advantage is the safty factor of TWO wheels on a side, should you get a
flat at speed, or god forbid, lose a wheel. The latter instance happenned to me
one day on a freeway when I saw in my mirror, a wheel of no fixed address
overtaking my rig.  Visions of lawsuits, flipping trailers and irate customers (
it was loaded at the time) danced thru my head. As I pulled over there was No
difference in the way it handled, and after retreiving the errant wheel, I
continued the rest of the 75 mile trip on three wheels, with no problems other
than a few helpful drivers making frantic pointing motions.
Since then, I have the trailer checked every six months.
The walls of my trailer are 44" high, and I have always used tarps to coverthe
pianos, but recently had a fiberglass cover made, with a lip as mentioned in
other posts, and it is light enough to lift off, and on with relative ease.

It took me a few years of practice to master backing the damn thing up, to a
chorus of catcalls from my crew, but now I can put the end of it ( it's 32"
wide) right IN a doorway!!!, after backing down a winding drive, between two
rosebushes and a birdbath!!

I still wonder why I say yes, though, when a customer wants that old player out
of the basement, and up the NEW winding staircase, built after the piano
arrived.  Must be a form of musical masochism.......

While we're on the topic, what do you guys and gals charge for moving pianos???

regards from rainy Collingwood    :)

		         Jim Kinnear, I.P.T.
		       KINNEAR PIANO SERVICES
		      Collingwood, Ont, Canada