I don't mean to be a contrarian Paul, but I have never seen a good mover unload a piano, even a 9 footer in the manner you describe. Virtually every mover I have used, including a couple of full time outfits that do 2,000 moves a year would have likely done it this way: When loading the piano at first, the piano would have been covered with multiple moving blankets as well as the cover on the Bosey shown in the picture. Big rubber bands at the treble end would hold the pads in place as the piano was tilted over onto the skid board. Once vertical on the board, 2 or three cinching moving straps would have been inserted through slots in the skid board and tightened very tight. Another strap would have been run through those straps and tightened to the front of the keyboard. If things are tight enough, they will rock the piano and the skidboard will follow that movement. Then they lift the tail end and a dolly inserted at roughly 1/3 the length of the skidboard. They then run another strap under the skidboard and over the piano and cinch that mucho tight. They load it onto the truck and attach it to the wall with 2 straps cinched tight, and the piano is still on the dolly. This way, particularly with a large piano, they do not have to put it onto the dolly a second time. Then when unloading, they roll the piano out onto the gate, one end first to one side, then swing it around and get the other side out, ending up sideways on the gate instead of straight out the back as these dim bulbs have done it. They have a very large lift gate, so there is plenty of room for all three movers to be on the gate, and it would have been far safer had they been. Once the piano is sideways, they simply serve to keep the piano from rolling and keep it vertical by holding the piano near the top at the front and back of the piano, as the lift gate is lowered. Once the gate is on the ground, it is rolled off the gate onto the sidewalk. Usually my movers would be lifting the tail end up as the dolly wheels are approaching the edge of the ramp, so as to keep the piano level as they pull it out and then set the wheels down level on the pavement. The best place to resist any tipping of the piano is holding it near the top. Notice that these guys are holding it near the bottom because they are on the ground. In that position they have virtually no meaningful capacity to resist tipping. Their position is a great place to be also if you want a 1400 pound piano to fall on top of you. If you are at the sides of a piano on the ramp, you can jump off and away quickly if you need to. Once it starts to go, it's gonna go. All you can do is wave goodbye, preferably from a safe distance. J You will notice that there are only a couple of flimsy ropes holding the piano to the skidboard. They will do little to restrain the piano if it wants to shift sideways on the skidboard (my guess is that is where the problem started or got worse) I just noticed something that is likely what got them into the big trouble. If you look at the wheels on the dolly, it looks like they are non steering. A piano dolly has the wheels set up so that they will pivot 360 degrees. They can only do so if they sit fully below the sides of the dolly. The dolly shown in the picture has the wheels extending up the sides of the dolly frame, and sitting close to those sides. It would seem that there is little pivoting capacity to those wheels, if any at all. If that's the case, then that would explain the foolish gymnastics shown in the second picture that resulted in the debacle - it would have been impossible for them to pivot the piano on the gate on a dolly with fixed wheels. Perhaps I am wrong, so someone please correct me if I am. And they were probably dead lifting the tail end of the piano out the gate to swing it around to set it down, since the dolly couldn't steer. It is a strange looking skidboard, if that is what it is. Why is the padding nested inside the edge of the board? Likely, this means that they are already crushing the bass edge of the lid, since the lip of the lid extends beyond the rim a bit. They don't have enough padding to resist that, plus the rim would not be sitting level and flat on the skidboard because the lid is holding it up a bit on one side. My movers have the lid nested just outside the edge of the skidboard. If it is a proper skidboard, it would still be centered on it anyway. I think these guys are not piano movers, but rather movers who say they move pianos. There is a difference between the two, and we all have seen the results. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of pgmilkie at juno.com Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 10:15 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] How not to move a grand piano This piano should have never been put on a four wheeler untill it was at gound level. One can use steel pipes to role a shid board into position. The gand piano needed to be on the lift, nose pointing to one side and keyboard to the other,not straight out the back as shown in the picture. After the lift was lowered to the ground then and only then should the four wheeler been used. Just my two cents worth :>) Paul Milkie ____________________________________________________________ <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3142/4bc0882c6a79c1bd6fcst04duc> $1/Day Auto Insurance? 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