I'm trying to understand the details around shipping / transport and excavators. When looking at more compact equipment like loaders/dozers, it seems like cost is roughly $3/mile to have them shipped. What I've looked at there though is mostly 8' and under width, and under 15 ton. Excavators are often quite a bit heavier and, seemingly more important, wider. Here's the detail I'm trying to fill in - What are the limits where oversize shipping becomes an issue? What (ballpark) does cost/mile end up being once you're into oversize loads? How much is crossing state lines an issue for larger models? Edit - To be more specific, how much more challenging is a 30-40ton machine that's 11.5' wide vs a 15 ton 8' wide.
Are you looking to buy, or wanting to get into the trucking game?
If you’re moving it fairly close to home it won’t be done by the mile. Every company has their own way of calculating local moves but it’s generally some sort of hourly calculation plus permits. Over the road and moves over say 100 miles are where the mileage rate usually kicks in. You can go anywhere in the lower 48 12’ wide and under no sweat. What determines a good bit of the cost to move the load will be permits. Some states are very reasonable and some aren’t. Even the difference from a 30 to a 40 ton machine can be quite a bit depending where you’re moving it. If I had specific into I could produce a rate. Being oversize alone doesn’t add much to the cost. Weight is where things get expensive. I’d expect to pay $4-5 a mile for a guy to deliver a 65,000# machine over the road. Around town I’d expect it to be $5-600 to move it for somebody in the business of hauling for profit.
Typically each state they have to travel in will require a permit fee. Permit cost will vary by how much oversize or overweight you are. Some states sell annual permits, in which case the right outfit may already have the permits. Cost for oversize overweight will vary by how far over you are. If you are talking about hauling a 30,000lbs excavator, its no huge expense, but a 70,000lbs excavator puts you in a little different group. Costs tend to ramp up by gross weight (truck+ trailer+ excavator). In my state- Under 80,000 is just oversize. 80-120,000 is kinda standard oversize / overweight. 120-140, is "superload" and typically just more expensive. Over 160,000 gross and then its by the trip and bridge surveys, route inspections, and escorts etc. etc. If you were planning on buying a 15-30 ton excavator from two to four states away, I'd think you'd be safe in figuring $2-5,000 to get it home.
Looking to buy a machine, not getting into trucking. I'm in West Michigan but a lot of machines sell out of Chicago, either by auction or sale, so ~200 miles and 3 states is what I'm looking at. I appreciate the info so far!
That won’t be too bad rate wise, around here that’s a $2,000-2,500 deal for a 65-70k machine. Maybe less if they’re hungry.
UShip probably still the play w/ oversize or is that more questionable with the greater need to find someone who knows what they're doing & permits?
"Oversize" will be anything wider than 8'6". "Most" machines in the 12-40 ton class will often be 8'6" unless they have wide track pads. That would be anything from a 120-160 size machine, and can be moved relatively easy but some states will still require permits just to travel through the state.The problem is, that is a popular size machine and usually sell for more due to the ability to move them easily behind a dump truck and a twenty ton trailer. It all depends on what you're looking to do with the machine, that will dictate what size will serve you best. The 40-50 ton class machines can sometimes be had a bit more reasonable than the smaller class units but will cost more to move.
Holy ****. I want to come truck down there. Around here that would be $1500 max.
Until you buy a $582 Oklahoma permit and then a $135 MO permit to move it. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns down here lol.