Unloading a pallet WITHOUT a forklift 

standing by your convictions doing this in sandals! haha!

Can’t beat a pair of safety sandals when shifting 400lbs towards your feet 😂 love your videos btw 👍🏻

You didn't need it, but the cardboard box on the ground reminded me that cardboard makes a pretty good skid plate for moving heavy objects. It's omnidirectional, slides well on wood and carpet and can work on another layer of cardboard on concrete or rough surface. The heavy object will embed in the top layer but leave the bottom layer smooth. You can also bend the cardboard that extends out to keep the object from slipping and navigate small seams. Just something that I found helpful as an older, single guy when you can't get something heavy onto a dolly, you can usually rock or tilt the piece enough to slip some cardboard under the leading edge. This worked well enough for me to unload a heavy bandsaw and move it around my garage. The base would not fit onto a furniture dolly so my other option was to try to 'walk' it to its' space, but I didn't want to bounce it around. I had some thick cardboard, the normal box cardboard would not have been sufficient

awesome! exactly what i was looking for to figure out how to unload a pallet from my truck

0:24 Cat: "DON'T STOP PETTING ME! ALSO, USE BOTH HANDS!"

Nice job! When we started our makerspace, I had a lot of practice working with tools but almost none with moving them, especially the really heavy ones. I've really come to appreciate the skills, strategy, and forethought needed to move really heavy things. Loved the strap puller mechanism!

Thank you Amy - you have just helped me solve a problem. I am buying some steel plate for a work bench top. It weighs 500Kg (1102 lbs) and my drive is too narrow for a truck to deliver it. The only option is the car and this solves how to get it out of the car safely! I will make one modification.... the bottom of the ramp will lock on to a dolly, which is a low platform with wheels on it. It will keep the steel off the ground and allow me to roll it into the garage. The ramps will lock onto the dolly by gravity, stopping it from rolling away while the metal is being slid onto it. But once the weight is off the ramps, the ramps will be able to be lifted away and allow the dolly to roll. Really helpful - thank you!!!

This is going straight into one of my playlists. This will DEFINITELY be a useful procedure to have in my back pocket

Hi Amy, great video. I do this type of thing all the time and one of the best tools I use is a gravity conveyor, basically a small ladder with wheels instead of rungs, put it horizontally and your box moves effortlessly. You can find them used almost everywhere, even if you got a longer section you could leave it at home and fetch things out of the car easily.

Thanks for your video Amy. I was in the same predicament, when I found your video. I just unloaded mine using basically the same process. I loved the 2x4 bracing idea for the bottom of the ramp planks to make those much more rigid - that is what my setup was missing. I did not have a gate to attach the strap to, so I just drove two stakes in the ground to pull from. I had the strap adjuster on one side, and a come-a-long on the other side, which let me pull each side independently to keep everything lined up. The only thing I did different was to take it off the pallet, and just slide the box down. I also removed as much as I could from the box before I did it. Once it was on the ramp, it was pretty easy to slide and manuver down the ramp onto the ground without the come-a-longs.

engineers are so bad ass. Thanks for the share!

Unbelievable, lady drops 400lb+ pallet BY HERSELF! You’ve earned my sub!! Be safe! Looking forward to more camper van ideas!

Impressive! just to build those ramps is already a project of its own for me. What a beast!

I’m planing to buy a Element and watched many videos about them this week. Yours are very inspiring to me, thank you!

You are the grand marshal of the simple machines parade. Three cheers for the incline plane and pulley.

It's amazing, very simple but a very smart idea. Thank you for sharing.

Whilst not quite my problem you have given me inspiration to load an IBC onto my trailer. Thank you

Inspirational stuff, Amy. I like engineers, such a practical lot. Some people who leave hardware stores with questionably loaded vehicles could certainly do with your advice.

The wonderful game of “will this fit in my element”?!?!?!?! Usually it does 😂 Have to say though, I’ve never tested like this if the tailgate could handle this type of weight. Glad to know it can!

Gidday Amy, I stumbled onto your site with fortuitous serendipity searching for 1 man (i should say person) lift techniques then, watched more of ya vids. What a pleasure to observe such a highly capable operator. Your -seemingly extensive- skill set is very well acquired & whomever you trained up with has to be appropriately satisfied. Tis rewarding to sit back and Admire the capabilities, ingenuity, precision & industrious of someone better at it than me. There seems to be no single word for it in English but there's the Hindi(?) Hindu term of “Mudata” that fits here - i.e. taking pleasure from watching the success of another. You’re utube site has the 'Inspirational' factor for us blokes - AND (especially importantly) birds. To witness a petite, pretty woman displaying engineering capabilities beyond her years is rare and delightful. In my time on the tools female apprentices were rare. Those that could survive the (often cruel) sexism in construction also battled against a near ubiquitous mindset that they were impossibly too weak to be in industry. It was a small achievement to (satisfyingly) teach a couple of girls how to utilise brains, balance, leverage & tenacity to produce the same work output as the ‘tough boys’. This was learned from working with a jockey sized mate of mine who constantly embarrassed us (apparently) stronger blokes by ‘thinking it through’ Vs instinctive mucho ‘gorilla’ grunting at the task@hand. I still pleasantly recall seeing a 20 year old apprentice electrician nonchalantly walk past a group of ‘tradie’ blokes with a 10’ wooden ladder correctly balanced and held upon her shoulder minutes after they’d been laughing & deriding her efforts to carry it. BUT!!!! - SANDLES & SOCKS! ? Around an industrial workshop! Yeah? I’V seen guys with an amputated foot from such thoughtless ‘OHnS’ laziness. And, having inadvertently conducted a personal longitudinal ” pain + injury” experiment by having -on separate occasions - a cement double 'bessa block' drop from circa chest high onto my toes - both with & without protective toe caps in place --- for ‘superior being’s’ sake woman, bloody-well get some appropriate protective foot wear for the workshop! Ya REALLY good at what you do so please don’t abruptly curtail all that via a thoughtless preventable,,, ‘WOOPS’. Such serious calamities stay with one for ‘restoflife’ - Does ya get that? There,,, pent-up exasperation now fully expelled - and the action was most cathartic for me personally plus, hopefully- wisely thought provoking for ‘U’. Thanks Vmuch for the excellent tips and enlightening techniques and please, by all means continue. Cheers, ;) M.

Love your voice and intelligence. 🤗

what clever girl. welding, building, woodwork. thinking thru a problem.

Super! Thanks for posting.... from another diy-minded element owner

There are times when the delivery charge is worth every penny. That said I admire your ingenuity

Great idea! I put a 13hp ride on mower in the back of my Element once, sure could have used those fancy ramps!

I had a 300 pound generator to unload alone. I just made a wide pad of patio cushions about 18 inches thick and pulled it out. It dropped about 12 inches. Total soft landing. Cushions compress and now you can tilt it onto a dolly. Zero damage to the foam cushions or genny and no drama. Have a 200 pound pallet coming next week will do the same. If you have a heavy load to put into a low bed like a pickup or SUV you can use leverage to get it up there but it has to at least reach the lower edge of the bed- then tilt and lift the lower edge. the more you can tilt it the easier it is. I put that genny in by myself like that but probably not something a smaller person could do.

Yes helpful. Very clever!! I have to hoist up a heavy load to my suv and then take out at the other end. This helped to watch.

Thanks for sharing your video! Your video will help me. Thank you from Portugal - Europe

Got this task ahead of me in a few days. I imagined it would work. Glad to see it in action!

I loved my 2011 Element as well... Both loading and unloading the pallet, one concern I may have had is the thin cable holding up the tailgate on either side... I subscribed to your channel, you're cool.

Fantastic. Congratulations. Brilliant.

Awesome job. You'll love the saw!

Nice job. 2 individuals with those forearm straps work great too.

Genius. I once bought a 800lbs table at auction and four loked dudes chucked it in my truck bed like it was a stuffed animal. When i got it home I realized I was screwed. I tied straps to my carport beims and put a strap in the front and drove out with the table hanging in the air. It stayed swinging in place for months till My neighbors had a party with enough people to help me get it down lol. I’m not AS dumb these days (i think?)

Nice work! Thanks for sharing it.

So smart and with such adorable dimples

LOL!!! I just bought a new table saw too and I am in the exact, exact same predicament. Thanks for the video. One last thing I would have felt better if you had steel toe boots on.

nice welds. I bet you would really enjoy having a trailer, I use mine often for large items and unload with a chain hoist or engine hoist, depending on the situation. I enjoy your videos

Nicely done, but steel capped boots next time!

Curious if you could credit anything in your childhood to how resourceful you are today. It's one consistent thing I see in your uploads. Great job getting this thing unloaded, and congrats on a nice new tool for the shop!

The ancient Egyptians would like to have a word regarding your ingenious unloading techniques, of large and square heavy things. Furniture factory I held a summer job at used a SawStop for smaller parts. They were very surprised to find that things such as black melamine and other dark colours of laminate would trigger the break cartridge. They had issues with black acrylic as well. It became best practice to touch the blade, with the blade powered down, with what you intended to cut and watch the sensor light by the power paddle to see if it was triggering the sensor. Still glad this system is a thing.

Love your ramp ends design. Will have to make a pair. TFP!

This was *so helpful*. Thank you!

Great technique using the fence posts! I'll wear boots though just in case 😂 Thanks for posting!

This video got you my subscription. And emails of this video to many of my friends who *aren't* engineers.

Great job!

I was a little disappointed you didn't floor it with the pallet strapped to the posts and try to pull the van out from under it like the tablecloth trick, but this was much smarter than that would have been. Yay engineering! 🤓

Archimedes is a pretty great guy, coming all the way from Syracuse to help you unload a box.

Well done! Impressive feat of material handling. The T-ramps are a well known design and the ramp-ends that you fabricated are a very good idea especially adding a long lip for the bumper. I normally carry a 45 year old Come-along and a couple of 4 inch straps for doing exactly what you did to get the load out of the Honda.

❤ Great Job. Thank you 😊

I am impressed the tailgate took the weight

Very Helpful Amy. ❤thank you

Really clever👍😊

That was a nifty thought with the ratchet straps to the fence posts. I need to move a heavy VMC in my garage once I get it fixed up, that's a nifty method to do it. Might need to use chains though, not sure the ratchet straps I have would have a load rating high enough to move a 6 ton machine. But I guess it doesn't take anywhere near 6 tons to move it laterally when it's sitting on machine skates!

Love your creativity 👍

I love watching your vids! Odie

Love it, your a badass girl…. Subscribed!

You are smarter than the average bear! 🐻 👍🏼 AWESOME video!

Smart & pretty. TY Amy.

LOL! I'm looking for videos on how to unload a heavy pallet at home off my truck, I find your video and come to find out we're trying to unload the same thing haha

WOW . . . Beauty. Brains. Handy as a button on a shirt. What more could a guy ask for?

Two reasonably strong guys could lift it. Three people could lift it easily but the ramp is way cooler. Good job and thanks for sharing.

Great idea!! Thanks for sharing!

That's what I call inGENIOUSity ;)

really cool, but id avoid putting myself between a heavy object and the ground if theres nothing but friction to keep yourself safe. ive seen a few near misses along similar lines

Doing nearly the same move today and came here for inspiration. Consider anchoring your ramps to the car, ideally with a ratchet strap. Dropping a ramp midway would be scary

" I could call friends and muscle it out but i've a better idea " Let's engineer the F out of this. Nice trick, good vid. Thanks.

Very clever 😊👍

Now I know how they build the Pyramids. They used cats. Millions of them!

The whole time I’m thinking “god, she’s cute…please don’t let her become footless” 😂 to ballsy for me 🙌🏿

You have some skills young lady along with a can do attitude.

Reminds me of getting the large Harbor Freight toolbox out of my Element. I ran a strap from the toolbox to a fixed object, and drove the Element out from under it. I was trying to do the "whip a tablecloth out from under a table setup" trick - but bigger. The toolbox was in the vehicle upside down, wheels in the air. It was supposed to land straight down on a platform I set up under the tailgate, a piece of plywood on jack stands. Instead of coming to rest on the platform it bounced off the springy plywood like a trampoline, flipped 180 degrees in the air, and landed upright in the yard on its wheels. Task failed successfully?

As a guy I would have just tied the strap around the box and pallet. Put a couch cushion on the ground and hit the gas. But that's just me a man. I also like to work on electronics while they are still plugged in and climb ladders in flip flops.

Way to go! Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

Great job, thanks for sharing!!!

I applaud the ingenuity - but the practical solution would be to get a couple strong guys to help and lift it out the old-fashioned way (guy on each side) - that's what neighbors are for.

Hi Amy, I admire your clever solutions to whatever problem comes up, but be careful anyway, as your surely very comfortable sandals won't give your feet any protection in the unlikely (as you studied the job before you started) but still possible case it doesn't go the way you wanted it to go. Atb, Peter.

Another way of doing this is with a floor jack and a inner tube and you can use the jack to change your oil or a Tire and the inner tube to float down the River

Nice. I was a little concerned that your ramps might slide off with the load. You might figure out some way that ratchet straps or some other waycould be used to secure them from the bottom to your car. After seeing this video, I am sure you will find a way.

Excellent!

You're not kidding anybody. You trained that cat to jump up at the right moment. I'm sure it's expecting treats. Not even mad.

We single women have it so hard BUT we are innovative as hell!

i am a simple man. i see your video. i give it a like!

Couldn't get my eyes off the cat XD

Like your can do resourceful spirit!

Thanks for sharing :)

I would worry about the weight capacity of the lower trunk door in this setup when you are moving sth heavier next time, especially in the leverage position that most of the weight is handing on its edge. Either you are very confident in your car or your ability to fix it if the door drop. Anyway, I enjoy your videos and subscribed! Good work!!!!

Btw- I wear sandals or am bare feet doing stuff like this. Nice to know I’m not the only one. Lol

Impressive!! :)

think i'd have done the same despite some misgivings about the strength of any one rib of the pallet; looks like an above avg. quality pallet, straps hugging the strongest part (full 2x4), at least 18 nails plus the downward force of the box over the length of the nailed slats, and 400lbs is a reasonable load. also, those ramps, those gorgeous gorgeous ramps! 125%!!!!! 8D

Hi Amy! You nearly 15k subscribers! I like your cat. If you are ever in Ireland I could get you a job, the pay is light but the craics good! Take care and stay safe from the corona

If I was the Pharaoh, you were hired to build the pyramid. :) Excellent example of brain vs. muscle.

When unloading heavy stuff, its probably a good idea to not wear sandals.

well done

Thank your for asking our time

Nice work! Great thinking using the fence posts as a mount for the strap

You are a inspiring legend

Wow smart!

WOW. 400lbs. I am concerned with 155lb box coming today.

Triumph of the will 👏