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Moving your HEAVY Sony TV...Tell your story

55K views 68 replies 38 participants last post by  Quantumleaper 
#1 ·
We all have one unless your rich and hired some pros to do it.


To me it's the elephant in the room when it comes to buying and selling any 32" and up TV.


I sort of snicker when people complain about how heavy 50" plasma Tv's are at 75 to 100 lbs not including the box.
 
#27 ·
My buddy and I moved my 40" mitsubishi tube tv up 6 flights of stairs with a turn at each landing. Furtunatly someone else was there to help us get it back up one time because we put it down on one of the landings to rest and then realized there was not enough room to really bend over to lift it back up. Brininging it back down we were actually sliding it and almost lost the TV when we started laughing about something and it started sliding way to fast. I am not sure how much that thing ways but it is incredibly heavy. It is out in our front room now for the kids to watch there movies on and play video games.
 
#28 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by dustwvl /forum/post/15687686


My buddy and I moved my 40" mitsubishi tube tv up 6 flights of stairs with a turn at each landing. Furtunatly someone else was there to help us get it back up one time because we put it down on one of the landings to rest and then realized there was not enough room to really bend over to lift it back up. Brininging it back down we were actually sliding it and almost lost the TV when we started laughing about something and it started sliding way to fast. I am not sure how much that thing ways but it is incredibly heavy. It is out in our front room now for the kids to watch there movies on and play video games.


the Sony 40" XBR weight is 300 lbs so that must be the ballpark for that monster. does that set have a built in stand?
 
#29 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gutwrencher /forum/post/15681851


Not sure about people here but let's face it. In this day and age people have grown a bit lazy and afraid to work physically hard. No, it's true, don't lie to yerself. Look, if 2 normal guys can't lift and move a 200lb anything then oh my christ....hit the weight room, eat some energy bars....do something. Are you serious? There is a way to carry anything....just think about it instead of getting scared.


I have a feeling that some of these whiners are overweight slobs who do nothing BUT watch tv. Sorry for rant....but give me a break.

You know what, pal? I've got something to say to you. Yeah, a real snappy response, buddy. I'm uhh...I'm gonna grab a snack and catch a quick nap, but when I get up...
 
#30 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gutwrencher /forum/post/15681851


Not sure about people here but let's face it. In this day and age people have grown a bit lazy and afraid to work physically hard. No, it's true, don't lie to yerself. Look, if 2 normal guys can't lift and move a 200lb anything then oh my christ....hit the weight room, eat some energy bars....do something. Are you serious? There is a way to carry anything....just think about it instead of getting scared.


I have a feeling that some of these whiners are overweight slobs who do nothing BUT watch tv. Sorry for rant....but give me a break.





Handles? There is problem # 1 that people need to throw in the trash. Get UNDER the monitor and lift. Handles do nothing unless you are moving it 3 feet. I'd love to watch you lift it WITH handles and go up stairs. WRONG.

Might I suggest helping someone lift a 40XBR800?
 
#32 ·
My brother was up from FLA and I talked him into taking my old 32" WEGA back with him. We loaded it into the back of his PRIUS! He said if he would have had a flat, he would have left it in the ditch as there was no way he could get it back in by himself. He took it in his house without help then it got fried by a lightning strike a couple months later. Oh, BTW, I live in Wisconsin.
 
#34 ·
When I bought my 34 inch CRT 5 years ago, I picked it up with my friend in his truck and drove home. When we got there, we were going up the stairs in front of the house and the box slipped from his hand but and fell from one side hitting the ground.


The TV is ok till this day, we laugh about it when we remember.


I told him that I'm in the market for an LCD and that we need to move the CRT into parent's basement and he cracked up remembering what happened. I told him that he has another chance now to actually break it.


lol
 
#35 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by cajieboy /forum/post/15801723


Definitely...and be sure to bring along your weightlifting belt!


you know moving a bunch of those 40XBR's would make a great test in the world's strongest man competition.

just imagine they have to pick it up from the ground, move it to another area back on the ground.

the thrill of one of them dropping it and the glass and plastic case breaking would be a SCREAM!
 
#36 ·
I replaced this 42" SD CRT Sony last year and had to move this upstairs, by myself. Sucked.



The base had wheels, so I rolled the whole thing over to the stairs, then lifted the TV off the stand and laid it on the stairs, which are carpeted. Put my shoulder into it and pushed it up the stairs (screen face down). Carried the stand up and was able to lift the darn thing back onto the stand and then wheeled it into the game room.
 
#38 ·
Wow, I was expecting more heavy lifting stories than I'm seeing. For those complaining about 200lb televisions those are not bad at all. So, I'll bite and tell my tale.


About 5 years ago, my wife and I bought our first house. Only having apartment size furniture and no appliances to move, we did it ourselves with the help of family and friends. The one items we were most worried about was our 300+ pound 40XBR700. It had taken me, plus 3 large delivery guys to get it into our second floor apartment, and now we were wondering how to get it back down. Furthermore, it was going in the upstairs game room of our newly finished house.


It took 5 strong 20 somethings (me being one of them), to get the TV down the narrow outdoor apartment stairs. The TV got a couple of small scratches on the front edge from being bumped against the stucco on the tight turn, but it made it down okay. We lowered it into its original box and carted it to the moving trailer.


Once at the new house, we carted it to the front door and unpacked. The same 5 of us then lifted it out of the box and carried it to the bottom of the stair in preparation for the part we were all dreading. From their, we lifted it and started up the stairs (thankfully a straight shot this time) with three on the bottom side and two on the top. The goal was to simply set the TV down at the top of the stairs. We made it up after about 5 minutes of grunt and sweating and were in the process of lowering to rest on the upstairs carpet. One of my friends managed to catch his elbow on the stair rail during the lowering, and proceeded to rip the entire railing out of the wall (16 feet long) leaving large holes in the sheet rock of my brand new house.


After a few minutes of laughter and full removal of the railing hardware, we brought up the matching stand for the TV, lifted it to its stand, then slid the TV and stand along the carpeting (taking 3 of us to slide it). We slid it the length of the upstairs hallway into it's new home in the game room.


For the last 6 years, it has only left that spot twice. On to occasions, the builder had to come in and repair the floor in that room to remedy some noisey floor boards. Each time, the set had to be slid out of the room and down the hall. Which took my wife and I considerable effort.


All turned out well with the stair well too. The builder installed rail was painted white and never going to stay clean. I replaced it with a beautiful stained oak rail and easily patched and painted over the sheet rock damage. The new rail is also significantly stronger than the old one.
 
#39 ·
LMAO, ok my turn.


Having moved several times in my younger years (Both parents were in the military) and working summer breaks in HS for a music store (grand and Baby grand pianos) I have all the confidence in my abilities but also know my limits. Any TV 32" and smaller weighing no more than 150lbs. I've been able to carry/move by myself. Heck I even moved our sleeper sofa all by myself, leverage is key. That's until you get older, in your mind you know you can move it but you body doesn't want to cooperate.


In 2007 I bought one of the last Sony tube TV's, the KD-34XBR970 which is 197lbs of 34" widescreen. What a beast! The store I bought it from moved it for free along w/ the washer and dryer. Well the two young men almost dropped my new TV twice bringing it from the truck and down one set of stairs. I had them put it on the floor as soon as they came around the corner which seem to make them both very happy. My son and I moved it onto the new stand I had just assembled (bought from WalMart for $59.95 along w/ the matching A/V stand)



Wife and I are looking to purchase a new home this year so I'll have to up-date after the big move.


At least I've been able to sleep and leave the house knowing Mr. Robber will most likely pass up my awesome TV for my neighbors shinny LCD or Plasma
.


hyghwayman
 
#40 ·
Bought on Ebay about 50 miles from home...had help loading it into my Cherokee.


At home, backed Cherokee into garage to bring the tailgate up to the inside door. Used hydraulic car jack with 3/4 inch plywood about 1x2 feet and a large flange with bolt to hold the board into the jack. Put the jack on scrap carpet (upside down on the wood floor) in the house. Worked the TV onto the jack plate, one end at at time. Drug the whole assembly about 50 feet to the stand location. Jacked up the TV to the same level as the top of my stand and transferred one end at a time.


That was two years ago and have not moved it since.


I have gone through surgery for a torn rotator cuff from lifting too much some ten years ago and the 3 months of physical therapy was a b...


FYI.
 
#41 ·
While visiting family 600 miles away I decided to look at what was on craigslist. There it was for $150. The old man I bought it from just wanted somebody to get it out of his house. He could not move it himself. I did not see the grab handles since it was in his entertainment center.


He grabbed one side and I got the other. I did not get a good grip on it and almost dropped it. That is when I set it down fast and I caught the tip of my finger. It just tore the skin back. That took a couple weeks to heal.


Once I got it home I called my buddy who has two teenage sons. They got it out of the back of my truck like it was nothing and carried it into the house.


If this thing ever needs service I am paying extra for the housecall.
 
#42 ·
Some funny stories here.
These Sony tube TV's are heavy but worth their weight for sure. We just replaced our 27" Trinitron with a 52" Sony LCD for the living room so I decided to bring the Trinitron up to the bedroom. I hauled it up to the bedroom by myself but needed my wife's assistance to get it to it's final resting place. It's not all that heavy at 94lbs but when you're having to lift it over your head....

 
#43 ·
I'll add the story of carting a Sony 30" widescreen HDTV to my new-to-me first house back in 2005... in my Acura Integra hatchback.


I had just moved into my first house, and I didn't know anyone local to my area. My parents lived an hour away, and my brother at least 30 minutes away. I decided to pick up a Sony 30" widescreen from the local Circuit City for the then-excellent price of around $850. Since I didn't know anyone around to get the thing home, I posted on a local car-enthusiast forum, saying I needed help getting this TV home that night, and I would buy them dinner or beer or something.



So a guy in my area on the forum offered help, and we got it to my house. The fun part was getting it into and out of my small car. We had to take it out of the box on the ground outside Circuit City, and then try to wrestle the thing into the back of my car. Trying to get a 165-lb. awkwardly-shaped object in a small car is NOT fun. I was so afraid of dropping it or busting the CRT on something.


Anyway we got it into the living room, and then later on the D* installer helped me get it up onto the stand. The only time the TV has moved since then was when we had our carpets replaced with hardwood flooring last Spring.
 
#44 ·
We just moved our 36" Toshiba (200LBS) up the stairs to our bedroom.


For us, the best way was to place the TV on a big slick piece of cardboard and slide the thing around. We slid the TV up the stairs on the piece of cardboard. The only time we had to lift the entire weight was when we took it off the stand downstairs and when we put it on the chest of drawers of upstairs.


The day before we made the move, I reinforced the chest of drawers upstairs with a couple more pieces of plywood and some 2"X2" support posts to make it stronger.
 
#45 ·
Guys how wopuld I move a heavy Sony KV-40XBR800 up stairs five of them to be exact and into my house . The television weights 300 lbs. I want to move it in without anyone getting hurt . What's the easiest way to do it . Im unsure what a company would charge me . Its only in the garage of my house .


Oh sorry if its a older post .
 
#46 ·
With only 5 steps it would seem like it would be easiest to just have the people carrying it load it to the top step like putting it in the back of a pickup truck (vs. carrying it up the steps). Beyond that read the older posts above - lots of good suggestions based on experience.
 
#47 ·

Holy Hell, I cannot believe there is a forum thread dedicated to relocating these dinosaurs. 

I have a KV-36XBR400 (In the Blue Corner, weighing in at a lean 254lbs) that was purchased new in 2000 by my brother. $2,200 for a 36" TV, back then. I think they priced,,, and sold them by the pound after moving it out of his place, 7 years ago. I'll bet you can't guess who was the proud but, muscularly challenged, recipient of his 7 year old hand-me-down. Bingo!

Well the fun part started when 3 other guys and myself made our way to my 2nd story loft apartment. Complete with a switch-back, 8 stairs per floor, 16 total, narrow stair-case, with even tighter turning radius on the switch-back.

I had full intentions of strapping it to a hand-truck with large diameter and wide rubber wheels for the trip up the stairs. While myself and one other guy were positioning my (existing) cabinet for placement, I heard a loud grunt, echoing from the stairwell. My friend and I both looked at one another and said, "Oh ____, I think those two poor dudes downstairs are trying to manhandle this Monster by themselves. We both broke for the staircase and found these two poor B_______'s about 2 stairs into the fist 8 before the switch-back, and fading fast. The poor dude on the downward end must have been supporting about 252.5lbs and gravity working against him. Now we had 3 guys on the up-hill-side of the Boulder, and 1 poor SOB downstream, and he was like a Bull-Dog and would not let go, and insisted we grabbed onto anything we could and pull like Hell. Once we got to the switch-back, we could at least find room to get one other guy downwind to keep Goliath company, but no-way in Hell was there room to set it down, due to the narrow staircase. Somehow we survived the next 8 steps and the XBR found (permanent) placement on my existing cabinet. 

 

Every-time I turn that XBR on, I am absolutely amazed at the picture quality of this now, 14 year old plus SONY television. Life has been good, up til now. Two weeks ago, I had a Electrician come over to bid a job of adding a couple appliance outlets in the garage.

The Circuit Breaker labeling in this AC panel has always had me guessing at best, and this time was no exception. Even the licensed Electrician was challenged. After a few paths up and own the panel he got frustrated, and said, Is everything off in your loft. And I said yes, but still plugged in, let m e go unplug my TV before you hit the Master Breaker.  He said, Oh, you should be fine, so long as they're not on. I cringed and said, well OK..... But when he switched the power back on, and I tried my XBR, I had audio, but unfortunately no video. I have spent two weeks in a salvage mode, calling SONY and everybody this side of Tokyo, and economically it's a $700.00 repair... minimum, and I still just have a 14 year old TV.

 

So, now I get the wonderful experience of moving this T-Rex back down that dreaded stairway and to it's final resting spot.

But, this time I have a plan. I am going to turn this baby 90 degrees on it's side, put a moving blanket on the screen, strap the screen side of the TV to my hand truck with a couple 2in belt straps. So, when the hand-truck is tilted back, all that dead weight of the thick glass and CRT will be directly over the two (large diameter) wheels of the cart. I think this will be a 2 man job. One guy on the handles of the cart, and one down-wind to just steady the behemoth as we take one step at a time down the 16 steps.

 

On paper this sounds like a piece of cake.  I am trying to be optimistic, at best. We'll see how reality comes into play.


 

PS My one question is, Should this Electrician bear any responsibility here of this mess, as I did ask him if I should unplug anything first, and his famous last words were, you'll be fine....
 
#48 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by caseypons  /t/1112422/moving-your-heavy-sony-tv-tell-your-story/30#post_24496766


Should this Electrician bear any responsibility here of this mess, as I did ask him if I should unplug anything first, and his famous last words were, you'll be fine....
Nope! You should have taken a few minutes and unplugged the stuff anyway instead of saying , "well, okay". The cringe was your first clue.
 
#49 ·

This thread brings back nightmares!   I too had the Sony 40XBR800.... I got it for a steal but when it came to moving it into the house, it was a real back breaker... Too small for 4 people to lift, but 2 heavy for 2... And then one day, I needed to move it back up the stairs.... Needless to say, when I sold the house, I sold the TV to a friend (Who i never seem to hear from anymore after he almost killed himself trying to get it into his basement...)  I will never go back to that form of TV, but man, the image was crisp, clean and very sharp... Even my LED TV has a hard time competing against it!
 
#50 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by caseypons  /t/1112422/moving-your-heavy-sony-tv-tell-your-story/30#post_24496766


He said, Oh, you should be fine, so long as they're not on.

And that would probably be his defense. Either the TV was in standby (i.e. you used the remote to turn it on) or by design it never fully turns off. Fully open-circuited he was correct but note he also left himself an out by saying "should be." Cringe



Hey at least we get some humorous story-telling here.
 
#51 ·

Thanks for the input. I wanted to be honest about the whole situation. In hindsight, as much as I would have liked for the Licensed Electrician to suggest (or better yet demand) the vulnerable electronics be unplugged to be safe, he did use the (should) word, so I can't hold him responsible, for the unfortunate incident. An expensive lesson to learn the hard way, I suppose. Live & Learn...
 
 
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