40 ft High Cube

A buddy of mine (Mike Meza) has a side hustle, hauling containers from the coast and selling them locally. He recently had a customer order three containers, but after two were delivered, they decided they didn’t need the third one, so he called me. I didn’t steal it, but it was a couple hundred dollars less delivered than the cost for a standard height from the yard up the street that sells ex border wall containers. I’ve got a lot of stuff in my shop that I use very, very rarely and this will be great for reclaiming a lot of space, at least until I get more stuff. Seriously. I’ve got a Bridgeport CNC mill still sitting on the trailer because I don’t have a place to put it. Of course, the trailer is parked inside the shop where I would much prefer to park my boat which has been sitting outside ever since.

It was quite the chore. I’ve got a concrete apron on the back of the shop where I really wanted to put that container, but the apron was full of steel plate, steel bar, scrap, trash and even some machinery. I had my buddy drop the container next to the slab on some old pressure treated guardrai

l posts leftover from lining my driveway to prevent washout ruts. My thought was resting on those posts. It would be higher than the slab and relatively easy to push on to the slab. I was wrong.

I spent the better part of Saturday and most of Sunday morning moving stuff before I even thought about moving the container.

I thought maybe I might be able to push one end of the container with my little tractor and then push the other end of the container. I was wrong.

When I pushed one end towards the building. The other end pivoted away from the building.

When I put up the shop I put up safety bollards next to all of the overhead doors. Basically, six inch well casing filled with concrete set 4 feet in the ground in a large concrete slug. With a couple 3/8 load chains and a come-a-long (cable puller) I was able to anchor one end of the container. Now I thought it should be easy to push the other end up on the slab with the tractor. I was wrong.

Slowly working up my courage and my distance and speed I was able to bump the container a few inches at a time with the tractor.

Once I had one end of the container a few feet up onto the slab I figured I could just use the tractor up against it as an anchor so I could winch in the other end with the come along. I was wrong.

I made some progress with the come-a-long, but I also pushed the tractor back a little bit, which rather surprised me. On the next attempt I bumped the tractor up against the container, wiggled the bucket down into the dirt as far as I could put, the tractor in four wheel drive, spun all the tires to dig holes, and set the parking brake. I figured the tractor would still move a little bit, but I’d be able to make more progress with the come along. I was wrong.

By taking that extra effort, the tractor didn’t move a bit. If it did it wasn’t enough that I noticed.

I started with a maybe three-foot cheater bar on the cable puller. As the weight of the container shifted from the timbers to the concrete slab, it got a little bit easier. Or rather, I should say as my arms started to give out. I was still able to move it with about the same amount of effort indicating it was probably easier. At that point I thought I had it licked. Just smooth sailing until it was in place. I was wrong.

For a little while it was relatively easy. Just hard work and walking back-and-forth between using the tractor as a low speed, battering ram and the cable puller. Then I hit a wall. No, I didn’t put a dent in my building. With the tractor end on the slab, I was using a 100% of my strength with good shoes gripping on the concrete and struggling to move the handle on the puller.

I was debating clearing a path for my truck of the remaining farm implements, tool stands, metal, junk etc but I’m ashamed to admit it probably would have taken another full day. With a condensing unit and a greenhouse in the way there was only one place where I could put the truck that it would be effective. What I really wanted was to get that container up on the slab where it would blend in with a building a little more and be half hidden by a willow tree in the direction of my nearest neighbor. They won’t complain but I don’t want to give them any reason to either. Instead, I found an 8-foot piece of chain link fence post I jerked out from back by the canal sometime back and busted the concrete off the end of it.

Then it really was easy. I had to walk back and forth about 10-12 feet for every 3 clicks, but it was only just a little more work than walking. I made a few adjustments with the tractor to square it up on the edge of the slab. I thought to myself, “now that’s finished.” I was wrong.

Okay, that last one was a little bit gratuitous. Now I need to put shelves down at least one side on the inside and start hauling stuff out there.

I think I’ve settled on the ninety by twenty-four by ninety heavy duty shelves from Home Depot. With a height of ninety inches, that leaves me a little less than two feet on the top shelf to the ceiling. They aren’t cheap. I was thinking five sets of shelves down each side. That’s a fair amount of money. I was wrong.

The shelves are capable of linking together, and they come with five shelves per set. I don’t really need a bottom shelf, and I was thinking for the first 2 sets by the door I would leave out half the shelving so I could roll in a table saw, bandsaw, miter saw on a stand, et cetera. That’s all stuff I don’t use all that often, and when I do I prefer to use it outdoors. That means with 3 shelving sets I can easily have 5 spans. I’m not even worried about stability loss from not using a bottom shelf. Linking them together adds some of that back, and if I still feel it needs more they come with tabs welded on the uprights for anchoring to a floor. I’m not crazy about drilling holes in the floor of the container, but if I have to make that compromise to get other things to come together, I will. It will leave a little 3 feet at 1 end or the other of wall space, with shelves, but I can always get a small yellow shelving unit or build one if I need more shelves.

I also found where my buddy is buying containers. I’m not going to start a container business to compete with him, but I certainly could. On the other hand it was worth the difference in price to have it dropped in my backyard, and I don’t have to buy an expensive 40 foot, tilt bed goose neck trailer to haul them.