moving a metal carport

Has anyone had any success with moving one of these?

http://www.eaglecarports.com/carports.html

I'm thinking about getting one to park under this winter. Then, by next summer I hope to have my new pole barn/garage done and was thinking I could move this carport about 200 feet and park implements under it. I was planning to just slide the carport on skids made of wood. It would have to be turned about 90 degrees, but that could be done gradually. It would also have to come down off a rise, so at some point the front and back would be on the ground and the center would be in the air. Will these hold up to being moved like that?

If it is just an open carport with pad footings under each column, what they do here is just cut the columns off at ground level and use a crane to carry the thing.

The you'd need to weld some column extensions on for the new footings.

Use spreader bars when lifting etc. to distrubuate the load. I'd say that the cost of the crane hire would outweigh the hassles involved in trying to drag it and risk busting it.

I doubt you could get the colums out of the footings without a serious amount of excavation and jackhammering.

Cheers

I would build it in the area that you want to move it to later and walk the 200ft.

njrqs - I wish I had a crane, but I don't, so it will have to be dragged.

Spencer - I really don't want to have to walk through 200 feet of wet grass (we have a very heavy dew here) every morning to get in my truck and go to work. Plus, it doesn't snow much here, but when it does my 2WD pickup would never make it up the hill.

What I'm trying to accomplish is this. I'm tired of having to squeegee my windows off and don't want to have to scrape the ice off this winter when I go to work in the morning. I have realized I'm not going to get my new garage built this fall after all, due to lack of time, so I want something to park under until I can get the garage built. I'm also tired of messing with tarps on all of my 3pt attachments, so I've been wanting something to park them under anyway. I figure the metal carport would take care of my immediate problem of needing something to park my pickup under, and then solve the long term problem of needing something to park my attachments under starting next year. But, if one of these things can't be moved by dragging it without damaging it, then I'll have to abort the whole idea.

Danny,
You can set these things up in a matter of a couple of hours. When you are done with it at the house, just take it apart and reassemble it at the other location. It will really only cost you another 6 to 10 hours at the most.

Spence - That is a good suggestion. I wouldn't have to take it completely apart either, I could just break it down into manageable sized pieces and move it that way.

Mosey,
I don't know the size of your intended carport, but have you considered one of those Cover - It type shelters.
Theres is a company called FarmTek, they have a
26' x 24' x 12' two car garage with 2 8' x 8' doors with a twist of the wrist roll up mechanism, a 6' wide clear ridge, on sale for $1395.00. It cost me a total of $1560.11 with freight to my yard. I won't actually get it until late October.
Here is a link to a website showing the shelters. you can see the actual one I ordered.
FarmTek / Clear Span

Mark -

It's 18' wide x 26' long x 8' tall for $800, or 9' tall for $850 and the price includes installation. The sides only come down about a foot from the top and the ends are open.

I did look into Cover It garages. The thing that discouraged me was that they are made of a fabric instead of metal. The standard fabric is only warranted for 10 years (for extra money they have a 20 year fabric), where the metal should last the rest of my life and beyond. When I checked the price of the Cover It this spring, it was about $600 for a 10' x 20' x 8' one.

It is a tough choice though, since the Cover It has sides and closed ends with doors. I see they are having a good sale going right now and the one car one is about half price! Now you've got me re-thinking this! I'll take a look at the FarmTek ones. Thanks.

The fabric type shelter would probably be easier to move, since I wouldn't have to worry about the fabric buckling, which is one of my concerns about moving the metal panels type shelter.

Mark - By the way, what do you mean by "6' wide clear ridge"?

Mosey,
The cover has a 6' wide strip of clear vinyl along the length of the ridge to let light in. The interior is also White to make it [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] brighter. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]