HELP - Building transport for York AS.

Hi All,

This may be a very long shot, but if we don't ask . . . . . . . :-).

The York AS needs to move a portacabin and a 40" steel shipping container
(empty), over about 100m of soft grass to what will become our new YAS
observatory site.

We can hire a hi-hab equipped wagon easily enough, but the problem is the
grassy ground is too soft to simply drive over.

We have looked into hiring "bog mats", also called "turf mats", but they
cost upwards of £800 to £1000 to hire, which we simply can't afford..

We were wondering if anyone out there in UK Astronomy land can either lend
us some for a few days, or knows a man who can?

We would obviously take care of the costs and arrangements of collecting and
returning them, and distance is not too much of an issue, and we would be
eternally grateful if anyone can help in any way.


Any ideas or offers gratefully received.


Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

--

Paul B, York, UK. - Vice Chairman York AS.

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds

"Paul Buglass" wrote in
message ...
Hi All,

This may be a very long shot, but if we don't ask . . . . . . . :-).

The York AS needs to move a portacabin and a 40" steel shipping
container (empty), over about 100m of soft grass to what will become our
new YAS observatory site.

We can hire a hi-hab equipped wagon easily enough, but the problem is
the grassy ground is too soft to simply drive over.
We have looked into hiring "bog mats", also called "turf mats", but
they cost upwards of £800 to £1000 to hire, which we simply can't
afford..
Shop around the hiab suppliers. There are a _lot_ of different varieties
of these machines. I needed one to move a container and portacabin at a
local airfield. They had been delivered some time ago, in mid summer with
the ground hard, by a normal hiab. However the ground now was a quagmire.
Talked to the company, and they pointed me to another nearby contractor.
They had a hiab, which had double wheels on both axles on the tractor
unit, and drive to both axles here, and to three more axles on the trailer
assembly, each with double wheels as well!. A total of 20 wheel drive!.
The wheels are so wide, that they reckon they can drive across a farm
field wthout problems. Happily did the move. Cost me about 50% more than
the standard hiab, but apparently these are well known machines used to
get the cabins into some building sites.
Mine was in the very SE of the country, so the costs would be prohibitive
to get it up to York, but one of the local suppliers may be able to help.
Some smaller units are apparently done on the 1650T UniMog chassis.

We were wondering if anyone out there in UK Astronomy land can either
lend us some for a few days, or knows a man who can?

We would obviously take care of the costs and arrangements of collecting
and returning them, and distance is not too much of an issue, and we
would be eternally grateful if anyone can help in any way.

Any ideas or offers gratefully received.

Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

Best Wishes

"Paul Buglass" wrote in
message ...
Hi All,

This may be a very long shot, but if we don't ask . . . . . . . :-).

The York AS needs to move a portacabin and a 40" steel shipping container
(empty), over about 100m of soft grass to what will become our new YAS
observatory site.

We can hire a hi-hab equipped wagon easily enough, but the problem is the
grassy ground is too soft to simply drive over.

We have looked into hiring "bog mats", also called "turf mats", but they
cost upwards of £800 to £1000 to hire, which we simply can't afford..

We were wondering if anyone out there in UK Astronomy land can either lend
us some for a few days, or knows a man who can?

We would obviously take care of the costs and arrangements of collecting
and
returning them, and distance is not too much of an issue, and we would be
eternally grateful if anyone can help in any way.


Any ideas or offers gratefully received.


Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

--

Paul B, York, UK. - Vice Chairman York AS.

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds.

A long shot, but contact the Army's Royal Engineers, who are always on the
lookout for realistic training exercises. They may do the whole job for
nothing simply for the practice, especially if it could give them some good
publicity.

I'm not sure if there is an RE base near you.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove "pants" spamblock to send e-mail)

Thanks Roger and Mike,

Both good area of exploration. I will try and talk to local hauliers about
"soft ground" suitable vehicles, and we have already started approaching our
local Army and TA organisations to see if they could help. Something along
the lines of a tank recovery vehicle to help tow an ordinary hi-ab wagon
over the grass would be very useful.

Many thanks for your ideas and information.


Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

--

Paul B, York, UK - Vice Chairman York AS.

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds


"Paul Buglass" wrote in
message ...
Hi All,

This may be a very long shot, but if we don't ask . . . . . . . :-).

The York AS needs to move a portacabin and a 40" steel shipping container
(empty), over about 100m of soft grass to what will become our new YAS
observatory site.

We can hire a hi-hab equipped wagon easily enough, but the problem is the
grassy ground is too soft to simply drive over.

We have looked into hiring "bog mats", also called "turf mats", but they
cost upwards of £800 to £1000 to hire, which we simply can't afford..

We were wondering if anyone out there in UK Astronomy land can either lend
us some for a few days, or knows a man who can?

We would obviously take care of the costs and arrangements of collecting
and returning them, and distance is not too much of an issue, and we would
be eternally grateful if anyone can help in any way.


Any ideas or offers gratefully received.


Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

--

Paul B, York, UK. - Vice Chairman York AS.

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds

"Paul Buglass" wrote in
message ...
Thanks Roger and Mike,

Both good area of exploration. I will try and talk to local hauliers
about "soft ground" suitable vehicles, and we have already started
approaching our local Army and TA organisations to see if they could
help. Something along the lines of a tank recovery vehicle to help tow
an ordinary hi-ab wagon over the grass would be very useful.

Many thanks for your ideas and information.
Mike's idea is very good. I should have 'thought' of this myself, since it
used to be a way of getting re-inforcing mesh laid on grass airfields.
Unfortunately, that last I heard, they had gone rather more 'commercial',
and were charging significantly for it... :-(

Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.
Good luck on getting the stuff moved. Presumaby if it gets any wetter, you
could instead start thinking about a hiab, on a raft!... :-(
Have you tried an appeal in a local paper?. If this is done 'right', and
you get a reporter to give you a good 'plug', you might find a haulage
company will be prepared to help a lot more, in exchange for it getting
reported how they have helped.

Paul B, York, UK - Vice Chairman York AS.
Best Wishes

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds


"Paul Buglass" wrote
in message ...
Hi All,

This may be a very long shot, but if we don't ask . . . . . . . :-).

The York AS needs to move a portacabin and a 40" steel shipping
container (empty), over about 100m of soft grass to what will become
our new YAS observatory site.

We can hire a hi-hab equipped wagon easily enough, but the problem is
the grassy ground is too soft to simply drive over.

We have looked into hiring "bog mats", also called "turf mats", but
they cost upwards of £800 to £1000 to hire, which we simply can't
afford..

We were wondering if anyone out there in UK Astronomy land can either
lend us some for a few days, or knows a man who can?

We would obviously take care of the costs and arrangements of
collecting and returning them, and distance is not too much of an
issue, and we would be eternally grateful if anyone can help in any
way.


Any ideas or offers gratefully received.


Very best wishes and clear, dark skies.

--

Paul B, York, UK. - Vice Chairman York AS.

York Astronomical Society
www.yorkastro.co.uk
Please buy from the YAS web shop and help YAS raise funds

- And on Thu, 9 Mar 2006 08:56:47 +0000 (UTC), it was spake thus said in message "Mike Dworetsky" :

A long shot, but contact the Army's Royal Engineers, who are always on the
lookout for realistic training exercises. They may do the whole job for
nothing simply for the practice, especially if it could give them some good
publicity.

I'm not sure if there is an RE base near you.

Or how about the TA ?
--
Nick in Northallerton
Also @ www.whelan.me.uk
And nickw7coc on
Yahoo & MSN
but I use http://www.trillian.cc as I like it better
also on Skype and Google talk