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Moving Vandersteens (across the country)


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Next Friday movers are coming the start packing our house. We are moving to the other coast.
 

I will pack all of my hifi equipment myself, but once it’s beyond my line of sight, who knows what happens to it. As a judo move, I put down some money at one of my favorite places, McMaster Carr. See pics.
 

I went with the 5G drop indicators, which was the lowest limit they sell of this type. 
 

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Jon, as you are probably aware, when Vandersteen speakers leave the factory, the boxes are set on a specifically sized pallet and are strapped securely to the pallet.  I bought my Quatros used.  Johnny Rutan shipped them, following factory protocol, via UPS, to me in So Cal.  When the truck backed into my driveway, the two boxes were sitting on the floor of the trailer, no pallets. 

I don't know where the packing alteration occurred, but it resulted in damage to two drivers in one of the speakers.  Fortunately,  I live close enough to Hanford & I was able to transport them myself up to the factory for repair.  The moral of the story, do your best to ensure that they are packed properly (and remain that way) for the entire journey.

Best of luck in your move.

Steve

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Mine have moved continents and seem fine.
Local moves have been upside down with the spiked feet sticking out of the top of the box.

They were designed in the home of earthquakes, so they are used to being shaken, and not stirred.

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Hi Jon - Looks like i will just miss helping you…argh… i am somewhat fluent in shipping and receiving Vandersteen toys ! i suspect the Quattro bolt up thru the bottom of the pallet like my 5a and 7 ?. snug those up, but don’t go crazy. i got a banding tool to strap the top cap on and made top hats like you bought. I know there are lower shock sticker indicators, my SOTA table shipped from factory with two ! a quick call to Donna at SOTA should allow you to source that. i dont think extra blankets or bubble wrap would hurt on speaker sides…

I will reach out later this eve.

Jim 

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I still have my 5A pallets and all the packing material from when I  moved to Arizona from New Jersey.   Luckily, I haven't had the need to ship the whole speaker again, however I did have to return an individual driver.   ..Not a hard job but scary

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My Quatros did not come with pallets of any kind. Just boxes like Jim’s Treos, as shown below. If the dealer removed them before I got them, that is news to me but also believe-able in the long list of disappointments from them.
 

Should I try to build pallets in my copious free time??
 

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16 hours ago, GdnrBob said:

Were you able to secure compensation via insurance?

Interestingly Bob, the damage (however it occurred) didn't manifest itself for a long time; a few years.  As I recall, it was with the magnets.  Ray Etchegoin (Vandersteen service guru) explained that it had to have been a pretty significant trauma, dropped or strongly bumped, and that type of damage can take a while to rear its ugly head.  In my case, it was the vocals moving from 12 o'clock high to about 10:00.  It was the mid-bass and the mid-range drivers that took the hit; fortunately, only in one speaker.  Ray also told me that in addition to diminished output, the level of distortion would have continued to increase. 

A side note to this story; it occurred to me that since I was taking the time to pack up the speaker and drive it to Hanford (I'm only about 3.5 hours away), I should probably take the other one too, have it checked out.  Another nod to the top shelf customer service that Vandersteen provides.  After the repair, Ray took the sock down and examined the other Quatro.  After determining that there were no issues there, they were both put in the chamber and retuned.  Another reason while I'll never own another brand of loudspeakers.  

So, to answer your question, too much time had passed for any compensation.  I should have immediately inquired why the boxes were not still secured to the pallet, but when I hooked them up, they sounded fine to me; lesson learned.

Play on  

Edited by Steve Edwards
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17 hours ago, JonM said:

My Quatros did not come with pallets of any kind. Just boxes like Jim’s Treos, as shown below. If the dealer removed them before I got them, that is news to me but also believe-able in the long list of disappointments from them.
 

Should I try to build pallets in my copious free time??
 

1F625231-60E6-4256-93AC-256DCB7D0322.thumb.jpeg.31ec5767eea8736569dea9437eb27396.jpeg

All Treo's, Quatro's, Kento's and SEVENS are shipped on a master pallet to the dealer warehouse.  Dealers do break them down in order to get then into the delivery vehicle to bring them to the customer's home.  Not many dealers have a forklift and truck large enough to deliver in residential areas.  Hell, with the logistics problems we have now we can't get our carriers to deliver in residential areas at all!  RV

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8 hours ago, Steve Edwards said:

Ray Etchegoin (Vandersteen service guru) explained that it had to have been a pretty significant trauma, dropped or strongly bumped, and that type of damage can take a while to rear its ugly head. 

Wow, I never thought something like that could happen after such a long time after shipping, but what do I know.

Considering how shipping companies like to push the limits, would it make sense for Vandersteen to add some of those motion sensors to their boxes?

B

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15 hours ago, ctsooner said:

 keep us posted with pics if you can.  Hope this all works out.  

I did build pallets yesterday, will get some pics posted soon.  Seattle is a real pain about finding free stuff and I would spend more time locating free pallets and wrangling them away from the PNW Save The Pallets Group than it's worth.  And, most pallets will not fit in my car.

I made a drawing, bought wood at Home Depot and had it cut there so it fit into my tiny car, and had them built in very little time.  I sized them to be 2" wider on all sides than the footprint of Quatro box.  And I bought nice Stanley ratcheting straps along with shrink wrap.  Will post pics.  I'm not going to actually box them until movers arrive... they are declared as "high value" so I am not sure if they want a function check first or if they want to witness me boxing them (same with the M5s, the Core Audio rack, my Aesthetix, etc.) 

I assume the pallet for Vandersteens is for (1) reminding people not to put the speakers on their sides while shipping; (2) not letting the speaker fall out of the bottom of the carboard box while lifting; and (3) giving the movers a place to grab to lift the boxes.  Lots of grab points on the pallet.

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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NDdWkh6tMVs?start=1232, end=1226" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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10 minutes ago, GdnrBob said:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NDdWkh6tMVs?start=1232, end=1226" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't know how this got posted. But, I can't delete it.

B

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15 hours ago, JonM said:

Pics of homemade pallets for views. They are quite stout. 
 

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Sorry for miss communicating but what I mean by "Master Pallet" is one pallet big enough for both speakers with shrink wrap around the whole shipment.  The Treo and Quatro do not have individual pallets that are part of the packaging like on the Model 5, Kento and Seven.  I recommend that even they get shipped on a master pallet.  Small pallets tend to get pushed around instead of grabbed and lifted. Jon, you could attach them together.    RV

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Copy that on master pallet. I’m not even sure this company would accept a pallet, let alone how I would get one home. My judo move for sliding was to enable it as much as I can… installed furniture felt pads under the skids. I suppose this might still encourage someone to push on sides of boxes, which I don’t really want. But I still think it’s best way forward. 
 

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