wileecoyote

Contact John Harris of the TFA (Tennessee Firearms Association), he's an expert lawyer on gun rights issue. If he can't help you personally or by a qualified referral, nobody can, and I'd recommend joining TFA or donating in return for his initial advice.

Grew up in the 70s, loved Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, etc. but never heard of Reading Rainbow. Can someone explain what the heck it was?

Good price, good quality lower, I've used their blems before and been pleased. But I already have plenty of spare lowers, and I don't really need any more, and I don't have the extra cash right now. Plus I've got more than a few things on the list ahead of these. So I only ordered 4... :) Thanks for sharing!

Nice of you to offer, and thanks for all the others who have chimed in to help as well. The truck has arrived at the Estes terminal in Smyrna. They are going to unload it tonight and re-load pallets for delivery. The terminal rep said I can call them around 5am to find out more about what size truck they plan to deliver with, and ETA for delivery. My friend and I visited the storage lot earlier today and we both felt that it should be easy for a full tractor trailer to backup beside the unit, and if they send anything smaller than a full tractor trailer there is a good chance they could drop the lift gate right into the entrance of the unit, which would be awesome! So we still don't have a confirmed solution but we should know more early in the morning, at which point I will either be running to Lowes to get some OSB subfloor boards or I will be calling the local commercial place to schedule their skid loader service. Sure will be glad when this is over with. So if you have any further guesses re: the contents to win the prize, you have about 15 hours left to submit them here otherwise I will post pics when I report the outcome. Hopefully this doesn't end with the usual Acme explosion... :)

Great tips on using subflooring instead of the more expensive plywood to save money, thanks! Even with 3 sheets and a pallet jack rental we should be around $80 total, and I am hoping that 3 sheets would be enough to reach from the rear of the truck to the entrance of the unit. This is pretty critical, though, as I don't think the truck driver would be pleased if he had to wait for us to leap-frog the sheets and move each pallet. I was told that a lot of the LTL drivers will look for any chance they get to tack on extra charges, including wait time or driver assistance if they have to step out of the truck. So what worries me now is that we won't be able to move the pallets fast enough (especially if the driver is not able to back in close enough to the unit), so I am still uncertain about this approach. I recruited a friend to help me with the delivery and we are going to look at it together later today. I am also going to call the LTL terminal later today to see if they can tell me for sure what kind of truck is dropping the load. If it is smaller than a full tractor trailer then it should be able to pull right in front of the storage unit and we could move the pallets in easily, perhaps not even needing any plywood or a jack. If it is a full tractor trailer then I am going to ask if they can have the driver call me a few hours before he arrives, which will allow me to gauge what he is willing/able to do and possibly offer him a tip to assist us. If any info makes it look risky then I will just pay the extra money to have the commercial place come do it with their skid loader, and chalk the extra cost up to friendship / goodwill. Wile E can always use a little extra good karma...

Ok, I think we are getting closer to a solution, but I have a few more questions: Current plan is to buy some plywood and rent a pallet jack, and see if I can move the pallets myself. If I can get the truck to drop them in the main gravel driveway area next to my unit, I should only need about 3-4 sheets of plywood to move them sideways from the rear of the truck to the entrance of the unit. For the lip I am thinking we can set the first part of the pallet on the slab and then set some 4x4 blocks under the outside end of the pallet, so I can drop the jack a bit and back it out about 6-12 inches, then lift up again and push the pallet in some more. If this works then with only 1-2 pushes the pallet should have enough inside the unit to take the jack inside and pull it the rest of the way in. But now the cost issue: I did some checking on Lowes.com and it seems that 3/4" plywood runs anywhere from $30-$50 per sheet, so the total cost of the wood plus the pallet jack rental fee would nearly equal the cost of hiring a commercial place to move the pallets with their skid loader (they quoted $200). So unless I can find a cheaper source of plywood that is strong enough to do the job, it seems I may have no choice but to hire the skid loader, which is looking more tempting by the minute. I would assume that $200 is a pretty reasonable fee for this service, and it would remove a lot of stress, but our group didn't budget for this expense so the extra money is basically coming out of my pocket. I don't feel right about asking them to pay extra, but I was hoping to avoid dropping so much for what seems like a pretty simple job that should take less than 30 minutes. As far as rain, that would suck. I would expect it to make the moving more difficult if we go the plywood route. The contents are shrink wrapped pretty well but I don't think they wrapped the entire top of the pallets, so the contents would likely get wet unless we had 7 tarps to cover them all, which would also add to the expense. The contents could survive a few light sprinkles but would not fair well with a good soaking. So I am hoping God will give the ole' coyote a break on this one. :)

This is EXTREMELY KIND of you to offer to help. Thanks for that! These particular pallets have somewhat fragile cargo such that pushing on them from the side via a plow or other machine might damage the contents, so I would be reluctant to try that. Also, I think the real challenge is going to be getting a solution to roll the pallets on a pallet jack at all, due to the gravel and uncertain nature of how the plywood will behave. Right now I am leaning towards taking a few sheets of plywood and renting a pallet jack, and if that works then it should actually be pretty easy to pull the pallets along since the ground is level, and I might be able to have the truck drop them within 30 feet of the unit if I am lucky. If this plan falls apart for any reason, either because the truck won't drop them close enough to the unit or because I have trouble rolling them across the plywood, then my only backup plan would be to have them dropped in the parking lot and simply use manual labor to unload the contents and make many trips back and forth in my truck. Or I might be able to call a local commercial place to come move the pallets with their skid loader, although this would be costly so am trying to avoid that.

Thanks Dane. The lip height varies a little based on the gravel which is not evenly disbursed, and I was only guessing as I didn't have a tape with me. Here are a few pics but they are poor, it was dark and my cell cam is not so great. Entrance from the paved parking lot is all the way at the end behind my truck, only the first 50-100 feet of this is paved: The bend into my storage aisle is pretty wide, and my unit is on the very end right by the yellow pole: The lip into the unit is uneven, perhaps ranging from 5-7" but not sure:

Hmm... plywood is certainly cheaper than paying for heavy equipment, maybe... But since the lip is nearly 6-7 inches high, when I set the edge of the pallet up on the lip, I may not be able to remove the jack without the outside majority of the pallet dropping so far down on an angle that it would probably put a ton of weight on the jack locking it in place, or maybe push the tip of the forks out through the bottom of the pallet. Similar problem even if I could get the jack loose and take it inside, as trying to pump it up from inside the unit would probably push the forks up into the bottom of the freight. These are 1400 lbs. each and I don't know how well the pallets will be built. Wish I had a pallet jack and plenty of time to experiment... How high do pallet jacks elevate anyway?

Yep, I know the forum will downsize, and I have image editing software, but the captions are not fully readable in such a small image. Perhaps I will update my avatar with a pic of Wile E being squashed by an anvil, or maybe a pallet full of anvils in this case... :)

LOL... I like these too but they were too big to show up in the small avatar window... Reloading carrots with dynamite while a train approaches...

I have been laughing ever since last night. This is Murphy's Law, which is the story of my life, thus my forum name of "Wile E Coyote"... :-)

Well crap, now we have a new problem...   I went to the storage facility last night just to inspect our empty unit and make sure it was ready for the delivery of our pallets next week. Well it turns out that only part of the storage facility has paved roads, and the unit they allocated for us is in the gravel road section. I had planned to rent a pallet jack to move the pallets from the drop point (paved parking lot) back to the unit but a standard pallet jack doesn't work on a gravel road and it is very expensive to rent a larger piece of equipment to do the job. Unfortunately this storage location doesn't have any other units open, and the freight has already been shipped so we only have a few days to sort this out.   I briefly thought about trying to use some sheets of plywood under the pallet jack, but we might have to cover up to 200 feet of gravel so this would be too cumbersome and time consuming, plus the concrete slab floor of the storage unit sits up about 5-6 inches above the gravel surface so a ramp would have to be built.   So it seems that we need to get something like a skid loader, all-terrain pallet jack, or tractor with forks to move these pallets from the parking lot into the storage unit. Should be an easy job and take less than an hour, but renting that kind of equipment is expensive. So now I am in search of someone local that already has this equipment and would be willing to do the job for fast cash. Unless any of you can come up with some other idea...

I am having the same issue as above. For some of my classified threads or forum topics, I am able to see the "Topic Moderation" button but when I try to edit the title or lock the threads I get an error message saying:   "Oops! Something went wrong! [#103119.5] You do not have permission to carry out that function."   Yet for some of my other threads I have been able to edit them, at least a while ago I could, can't remember exactly when this quit working.   And for a few of my older threads the Topic Moderation button is missing entirely, even though I am the owner of those threads.   I tried doing this from Tapatalk on my cell phone, Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 from my PC, and Google Chrome from both my cell phone and PC. Does not work on any of the devices.   Hope it is an easy fix. Help?

Sweet! A major award! Those would be awesome, but we would never get rid of them once acquired. :)

LOL at the 1911 debate. I truly didn't intend to stir that pot. In fact I probably own and have built / shot / worked on more 1911s than most folks. I do like them (I like all guns, more is always better), but I dislike the idea of adding extra manual steps to the draw-and-fire scenario when fractions of a second will count and adrenaline / Murphy's Law will show up to impede your normally smooth range drills. Of course you can minimize the risk by training, but you need to do that a lot and often. In my experience most shooters never get anywhere close to practicing enough to stay as fast, sharp, and smooth under stress as they will need to be with single actions or other multi-step guns. So I think for most folks, fewer steps and the simplest process is the best way. Plus those extra gadgets leave more room for mechanical failure or defects. And then there is consistency: if you carry a 1911 I believe you should only carry and shoot similar guns during the vast majority of your training, as it becomes risky to have to learn multiple styles and switch accordingly depending on your flavor of the day, which is less likely to go smooth under stress. But I really do love my 1911s, and my many other single actions, and I have plenty of guns with extra gadgets and controls. I just don't carry them or shoot them very often, and all my defensive practice is shot with the same style of gun. Just my personal method, but I am an oddball for sure. :-)

Get the NRA license plate instead. It conveys a similar message for those in the know but is more subtle and often mistaken for a government or military plate by folks that can't read the smaller print. In fact I was recently pulled over by the local LEO and the guy asked me what I was doing, I admitted passing in a no-passing zone (doing 60 in 35 to get it over with quickly), and then when he inquired about my plate he just smiled and let me go with "have a good day sir". Plus the money from the NRA plate goes to a good cause, instead of the state getting it all.

I consider my Dan Wesson CBOB to be about the best 1911 I've ever held.

Yum, that sounds delicious! But at 9800 lbs for 30 people, that would be 327 lbs. per person, which we would have to use up in 2-3 years. I do love pancakes, but I don't own an IHOP... :P

I totally understand Prag. It is entirely possible that these guys overreacted, let race play a factor, or treated you in a less-than-stellar manner. When that happens to me I share the news as well, to help advise others of what might happen to them. Just wanted to comment that there could have been a different thought process behind their actions which had nothing to do with you or your friend. At least I hope so, as this world really doesn't have room for racism in modern society.

Lol, I already gave a lot of hints, and the import thing was a slip, so not playing 20 questions... :p

More good guesses, all wrong. :p In all prior years this was fairly simple, we always had at least one guy in the group that had a small business or warehouse with a dock, and they let us deliver there and hold the pallets for a few days until everyone picked up. So we only had to pay the LTL freight charge and pitch in a few extra bucks to tip the warehouse guys. But our group has grown over the years from 1 to 7 pallets, and by simple bad luck nobody involved this year was able to provide a business or warehouse location to store 7 pallets for 2-3 weeks. The manufacturer which imports this stuff for us is able to get very low LTL freight quotes because of their volume, and because we are becoming a bigger account, so we had to use their lowest bidder for the trucking portion, but that freight company didn't offer storage to meet our needs and they were going to charge a small fortune in extra fees if we had to deliver to a non-commercial location or somewhere without a loading dock. We did look at other freight quotes, moving companies, large warehouses, etc. but they all would have cost at least $500 more and they still weren't setup to allow ad-hoc pickup by 30 guys at different times over 3 weeks. Charging more was not practical because we had already collected the funds based on the original plan, and some folks may have wanted to reduce their orders if the cost went up, and I just knew there had to be a solution out there within our original budget. Just took a lot of calls and research to find it. So we ended up getting 7 tall pallets (9800 lbs) trucked from Maine to Lebanon, TN and stored for up to a month in self service storage for a little less than $1000 total. That's pretty hard to beat, but we will always look for ways to save the group money. I'll let people keep guessing until the truck arrives, then I'll post a photo of the load as it comes off the truck, at which time the guessing game endeth. :rolleyes:

Thanks, this is the kind of lead I was hoping to find earlier. Too bad we couldn't connect this time, maybe next.

They do promote the use of Line-X for coating armor plates (learn something new every day!) but it is clearly marketed for military and government applications: http://www.linex.com/pages/2010/military/applications.php Also, the average Line-X dealer probably never does any work on armor plates since the government contracts are likely handled by commercial account teams or a few locations near major military bases. So even if the Knoxville location was familiar with this application for military customers, which is doubtful, I can still see why they might be curious or concerned when unknown civilians come in with a large request. Not defending Line-X since I wasn't involved, and perhaps this specific location had an employee which let race factor into their judgment which would be a shame, but I wouldn't tarnish the whole company or even the entire location because of the actions of one employee, especially when there are reasonable circumstances for them to be careful.

Nope.