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How to ship heavy equipment
Shipping a machine is straightforward when the right questions get answered before the truck rolls. Here's the checklist we walk every equipment shipper through — have this ready and your quote takes one phone call.
1. Know your transport dimensions
Not the spec-sheet dimensions — the transport ones: height with the cab or ROPS as it will ride, width across the widest point (tracks, blade, or tires), length with attachments mounted or dismounted, and actual weight. The machine's serial plate and your manual list most of it; when in doubt, measure. An inch past legal height changes the trailer and the price.
2. Decide what happens to attachments
Buckets, blades, and forks can ride mounted, ride loose on the same deck, or ship as a second piece. Dismounting a blade sometimes brings a machine under legal width and saves the whole permit conversation — your broker will do that math with you.
3. Know your loading plan
- Drive-on: the machine runs and someone on-site can operate it — fastest and cheapest.
- Ramps: for machines that run but sit low; the trailer type matters.
- Crane or forklift: for dead machines or awkward pieces — tell your broker in advance so the right trailer and rigging show up.
4. Have the pickup and delivery details ready
- Site access: can a 70-foot truck-and-trailer actually get in and turn around?
- Contact on each end who knows the machine and the site.
- Timing constraints — auction yard release windows, jobsite crane schedules.
5. Call with all of it
With dimensions, weight, loading plan, and both addresses, a broker can quote you accurately in one conversation — and the number holds, because nothing surprising is left to discover on pickup day.
Common questions
Should I drain fluids or disconnect batteries before shipping?
For ordinary road transport of working equipment, usually no — machines ship with fluids in and batteries connected. Your broker will flag the exceptions when they apply to your machine and route.
What does it cost to ship an excavator?
Size and distance decide it — a mini-excavator on a hotshot is a different job than a 30-ton machine on a lowboy with permits. See our cost guide for what drives the number, then call with your machine's specifics.
One call books your freight.
No portals, no accounts, no nine-field forms. Tell a real broker what you're shipping and we'll have pre-screened carriers competing for your load.