Transporting an arcade cabinet. Advice?

[AppleQueso]

I'm about to go pick up a Mortal Kombat II machine in a couple of days, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any advice with regards to transporting it?

My friend will be helping move it, and we'll be using his pickup truck to transport the game. It's about 80 miles away in the next town over, so we'll be on the highway.

His truck has a camper, which we'll most likely remove, but it also has a wooden storage box thing that covers the entire bottom of the truck bed. It looks similar to this:


It's apparently completely bolted in there and won't be easy to remove, so we'd probably have to leave it on. How should I take the presence of this thing into consideration?

I understand that you can move them standing up or lying down, but if I choose to lay the cabinet down, I need to make absolutely sure that everything inside is secure. Can someone offer a quick breakdown of specifically what all I need to be looking for inside there?

We'll probably be able get a furniture dolly to use. I'm willing to buy things like ratchet straps if I need to.

Yeah I guess I'm just asking for some general advice here. I don't really have much experience in the 'moving heavy things in a pickup' area, so I'm not even really sure exactly what the best ways of strapping the thing down are.

[BoringSupreez]

Hopefully not like this.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I don't own any arcade cabs myself, but when I was 14 or so I remember my father transporting a Gauntlet cabinet back to the house. It was laid down on its side and secured with ratchet straps. Be careful laying it down as you don't want to scrape/scratch one side of the cabinet. Depending on the consistency of that wood, you may want to lay a blanket or something soft on top of it.

[MrPopo]

So I've had my arcade cabinets purchased from far away and moved via freight, so I can't help you much with the vehicle part, but I can tell you about the cabs. The cabinet likely has two wheels in the back, so you can just tip and move. In terms of the innards, the monitor will already be secure, so the main thing to look for is that the board is secured to the cabinet and not just lying down on the floor of the cab.

[OldSchool_Boy]

I remember that the7k said that he was trying to build an arcade and had bought some machines. You should ask him for advice.

[the King]

I have always transported them on their back with the bottom facing the rear of the truck. Makes it easy to load and unload. Of course you want to strap it down. When strapping down be careful to not put the straps over the glass that covers the screen. Any pressure here could make it shatter. You may even want to consider removing the glass. Also be careful when loading that you don't push the top of the cab through into the glass on the rear of the truck cab. You may want to bring a blanket or a heavy piece of cardboard to put between these. Just be careful and take your time. Other than that, not much to it.

[AppleQueso]

I have always transported them on their back with the bottom facing the rear of the truck. Makes it easy to load and unload. Of course you want to strap it down. When strapping down be careful to not put the straps over the glass that covers the screen. Any pressure here could make it shatter. You may even want to consider removing the glass. Also be careful when loading that you don't push the top of the cab through into the glass on the rear of the truck cab. You may want to bring a blanket or a heavy piece of cardboard to put between these. Just be careful and take your time. Other than that, not much to it.

So I've had my arcade cabinets purchased from far away and moved via freight, so I can't help you much with the vehicle part, but I can tell you about the cabs. The cabinet likely has two wheels in the back, so you can just tip and move. In terms of the innards, the monitor will already be secure, so the main thing to look for is that the board is secured to the cabinet and not just lying down on the floor of the cab.

So I'm not likely to need the dolly at all?

I guess we'll just tilt it and slide it right onto the back of the truck then. I'll pad the top with an old blanket or something and lay down some old towels where the straps will touch the machine.

[the King]

Bring the dolly. The old Bally Midway cabs are the ones with wheels. Highly unlikely one of these was converted to a Kombat machine. Mortal Kombat's are typically in larger cabs and wouldn't have any wheels.

Yeah, tilt and slide. At least that's what I've done. Unloaded one by myself that way too.

[Blu]

I'd bring a dolly in the case that the cab doesn't have caster wheels. Heck, it might even have casters that don't particularly roll well. Plus those suckers can be top heavy and the dolly will give you a little more control to the move.

[AppleQueso]

Bring the dolly. The old Bally Midway cabs are the ones with wheels. Highly unlikely one of these was converted to a Kombat machine. Mortal Kombat's are typically in larger cabs and wouldn't have any wheels.

Yeah, tilt and slide. At least that's what I've done. Unloaded one by myself that way too.

It's an original cabinet, not a converted one.

I was thinking it might have wheels based on some of the pics in this thread.

But yeah, I'll probably bring the dolly. Would be better to have it and not need it than otherwise. Good points.

If I do need to use the furniture dolly, should I just slide the whole thing , dolly and all onto the truck?