Hauling a Grandfather Clock

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J

Jim and Ren

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Mar 7, 2018
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Okay, don?t laugh. We are new to the RV world, recently purchased a 40? fifth wheel. House just sold two days ago so we?re now working with an estate sale company to rid ourselves of all our ?stuff?. This brings me to our next issue and the reason for the post. Number 1 son wants the Grandfather Clock, and always has since we first bought it in 1988.....problem is he lives on the other side of the Rockies in Grand Junction and the cost to ship it is over $1800. I didn?t know you had to ship clocks upright...did you?  Anyway the question is has anyone ever moved something like this in a fifth wheel? We have plenty of ceiling height in our unit, and an island to strap the clock to. We also should have enough extra capacity, weight wise to haul it.
 
With the pendulum and all the weights removed and strapped upright you should be fine. Also, my grandfather made several grandfather clocks for family about 30 years ago and made a box to transport them horizontally with no problems. We used LOTS of padding in the box.
 
If you want to lay it down, I think you have to find a way to secure the weight chains such that they don't slip off the gear wheels.  I found that out the hard way.
 
I just did that, successfully moving my mom's Grandfather clock 400 miles.  It was in my cargo trailer, not my RV but the principles are the same. 

Like Joezeppy said, once you remove the pendulum, weights and chains, it becomes just another piece of fragile furniture. Wrap it well.  I put a wad of bubble wrap inside to fill the void behind the clock mechanism, removing the rear access panel to get to it.  I'm not sure that was necessary, but the clock survived the move, including being bounced over about a mile and a half of twisting and rough dirt roads at the far end.

We wrapped the clock in stretch wrap plastic to protect the glass, then covered it in a pair of moving blankets and taped the blankets in place.  Just like you'd do for any piece of fine furniture.  Then transported it upright lashed into the front corner of the trailer, which bounces less than the rear.
 
I think the chains are the most "Delicate" (Coming off the wheels)

YOu might wish to tie them down with twine in addition to putting everythign detachable in a pillow lined box.

 
Most important is to secure the chime rods.  The rods are tapered on the ends  where they are screwed into the chime rod block.  These rods are cut and tuned by length.  If one rod breaks you cannot just replace the single rod as the pitch will not be correct.  You can move clock in upright position or on its back.  Is the clock movement chain driven or cable?  Remove the weights and pendulum by using a hand towel or glove.  Don?t touch them with your bare hand or nice black fingerprints will appear in a few months. 
 
I would not remove the chains, just tie them together with bread ties, close up to the cogs so they do not slip off
 
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