Anyone have experience receiving solar equipment in a city due to delivery?

[carpetdiemme]

Im trying to buy some gear from signature.I'll probably miss the sale. Ive been trying to figure out for a week+ my dilemma. Maybe someone has dealt with this. Maybe Im over thinking it.

I live in North Portland where an 18 wheeler cannot go. Im wanting to order one of the Lifepro LL racks of 6 batteries, a couple 6500EX inverters and ideally 10 of of the solarever 435w panels. Everyone that sells the panels says 18 wheelr and I get it, theyre 80+ inches long. Ive seen an 18 wheeler stuck here once and Im at least a couple blocks where one could call and I could meet them and try and grease them with $100 to pallet jack it to my house 2 blocks away.

I was told the batteries will be palleted so may end up on a semi, no guarantees and I understand why. I hate being a pain and in my business I wouldnt guaruntee something I cant either.

I had a pickup truck that sat around and gave it away to someone in need last summer, regrettably a couple time now. Its still even better for me to haul 10ft lumber in my uber low mile 10 year old volt and pay someone with a pickup truck or dump periodically to bring big things and amendments. I have no reliable truck access.

So I have no truck to pickup at the depot, Im at least 2 blocks from where a semi could sit. I realize no one can give an absolute, just curious about experiences. I wouldnt have even considered this if I had no read a post here about this issue.

I tried having companies install roof systems here for 4 years and no one wants to deal with 125 year old 3 full story house with a super steep pitch. I got a wood stove installed and the first 2 wouldnt even do the job on the chimney and when I got someone with scaffolding set up, the guys did a crap job that the boss came back and agreed and fixed and said they were all scared of my steep roof. They did look stiff and I dont go up there. Plus portland structural requirements are very stupid. Old growth beams & 1 layer new roof is stronger than a new 2x6 stick frame with 2-3 layers of shingles. If I wouldnt have blasted the underside with a ton of sprayfoam after new roof install, I would consider the structural.

So now Im trying to step up the solar gens with some yard mounted panels and more batteriy backup/transfer switch stuff but having a hard time dropping 16k with I hope it comes and they dont make me come get it with no truck.

My first issue was whether I can even get a battery backup/no pv only permitted installed in Portland to at least have grid maintained 60kwh battery bank for outages. I figured I could probably hook up yard mounted panels to charge the batteries and have the grid finish them later. I dont know even know if this is legal but was gonna bu, learn, modify plans until I ran into shipping possible issue.

Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks

 

[timselectric]

You can rent a truck from a rental company.
Or better yet, from home depot. (They have hourly rates)

 

[Shimmy]

I would say it is worth it to pay a premium for small load delivery. Let it get to your home before it is your responsibility. My area is also inaccessible by semi-trailer, and I had luck previously coordinating delivery to ensure it was on a small truck. They actually delivered in a Sprinter or Transit which made it that much easier. The last thing I would want to do is cross-load 1,200 pounds of freight to my own truck, while trying to inspect for damage mid-stream.

 

[Redflyer]

I had three total deliveries.

The first was outsourced to a smaller local company. They came with the 'shorty' trailer. Worked well. The second was a full size...still worked for where I live.

The third, was no communication at all. Had no idea they had picked up or when they were going to deliver. Showed up with a pallet just sitting out front. Thanks guys!

I agree with Tims above, rent a pickup truck and make it work that way. A little more cost, but I think worth it in the end.

 

[timselectric]

These days.
The less times a "forklift operator" touches it, the better.

 

[carpetdiemme]

You can rent a truck from a rental company.

You can rent a truck from a rental company.
Or better yet, from home depot. (They have hourly rates)

I thought about that initially but the last time i rented a truc from Uhaul, I wanted to put a a knife in my own eye. I didnt think about HD but when i looked I have to drive a ways to get it so I dont know if feasible util I would know where it was at. I may just have to take a chance and see how close they can get and go from there.

 

[carpetdiemme]

I had three total deliveries.

The first was outsourced to a smaller local company. They came with the 'shorty' trailer. Worked well. The second was a full size...still worked for where I live.

The third, was no communication at all. Had no idea they had picked up or when they were going to deliver. Showed up with a pallet just sitting out front. Thanks guys!

I agree with Tims above, rent a pickup truck and make it work that way. A little more cost, but I think worth it in the end.

That last one is my worry. That might be the best because they may just drive it up to my house and I could help him back out. Or even call me a couple blocks away and I could run up there and give him a hundy to let meuse the pallet jack. I get a lot of deliveries of heavy big things but they come in a box truck. I could also pay the company to transfer if need be rather than drop a $100 on a pickup, try and load it all safely, drive it home, unload it take the truck back, worry about whether a trucks available or whether I have to sit in traffic for 30 minutes to even get the truck.

I looked up trucks at HD and lowes, lowes said call(good luck getting through) and HD says trucks in Beaverton which can be 30 minutes to get there.

Then there is the possibility the company may look at the address and just arrange smaller trucks or communicate but with shortages of drivers, gas, everything fun right now. Its a crapshoot that will probably come at least one problem.

I tend to overthink and try and head off problems too much but then ends in per-living worst case.

 

[schmism]

You should be able to arrange with sending company to ship to a local (less than load) LTL dock. aka YRC. Once the pallet hits the local dock the dock people call you say, hey your pallet is here, it will be available after xzy. Ask them what they have to load with. Mine had a forklift that could get off the dock to load a trailer/truck. The second delivery I got there a year later they had gotten rid of the ground forklift and instead had a boom they could put on the dock lift and could "crane" the load out the side to the back of a truck. They also said they'd help hand load it to the truck if needed. (so break down the pallet and hand move it)

Lift gate service to my property basically doubled the cost of shipping (from 300 to like $600)

You can also do some footwork on a small business that has a local dock. I've known guys that receive stuff at a neighborhood commercial address with a dock.