Moving/Relocating Experiences Traveling with Bunker?

[Dannabis]

Has anyone experience with relocating / moving to a new place with their bourbon bunker?

Any tips or challenges encountered?

Best way to protect bottles from destruction minus ingestion/stomach protection?

I'm in the process of creating a wooden crate/box/shelf to serve as a crush proof bottle holder..

I'm starting to think my bunker will take up a decent chunk of the space in my moving vehicle.... :shocked::shocked:

[ramblinman]

Raid your local whiskey monger for boxes, they always have a ton. And get some butcher paper to pad around them.

If you're worried about leaking get a big thing of saran wrap from sams/costco/etc and do a couple of layers around your cork top bottles.

Alternatively, have over everyone you know and drink all but the really special stuff, rebuild bunker at new place

[PaulO]

Raid your local whiskey monger for boxes ...

Yes, move it to you new place the same way it was moved to the store.

[Vosgar]

http://www.spiritedshipper.com/index.html

great protection for your bottles

[smokinjoe]

I think it depends. How far are you moving? Professional mover/trucking? Or, your own private rental? Back of your brothers pick-up? Give us some details! We'll help ya out.

[fishnbowljoe]

Might do a little search here too. I know of one member that moved recently and posted about it. Not sure if he posted details about packaging and such though.

[Dannabis]

Travelling 2000 miles over land by personal truck/suv.

I will seek out more retailers empty boxes. Trying to conserve space among whiskeys.

So box em up well wrapped and hope for the best. Ill definitely post back on my success/results.

I'll even be driving through kentucky and will likely add to my bunker at distillery visitor ceneters..

[petrel800]

I just moved to my new home back in Oct 2013. As stated above, go to your local store and they will be happy to provide some boxes. I would suggest the ones that come with strong cardboard dividers in them. I only wrapped my really nice bottles in paper, the regular stuff, I relied on the card board dividers for most of my collection.

The one major piece of advice I can give you is to get some good packing tape and reinforce the bottoms of the boxes. Don't rely solely on the original tape or glue. Some packaging is better than others, but I'd hate to pick a box up only to have the bottom fall out. If you have the room, I'd avoid stacking the boxes on each other as well, but that may not be an option, luckily my move was local so I had that option to make 2 trips with the booze. If you are going to stack, I'd fill the tops up with news paper so there are no gaps that could get squished on your boxes.

[BigRich]

I just moved to my new home back in Oct 2013. As stated above, go to your local store and they will be happy to provide some boxes. I would suggest the ones that come with strong cardboard dividers in them. I only wrapped my really nice bottles in paper, the regular stuff, I relied on the card board dividers for most of my collection.

The one major piece of advice I can give you is to get some good packing tape and reinforce the bottoms of the boxes. Don't rely solely on the original tape or glue. Some packaging is better than others, but I'd hate to pick a box up only to have the bottom fall out. If you have the room, I'd avoid stacking the boxes on each other as well, but that may not be an option, luckily my move was local so I had that option to make 2 trips with the booze. If you are going to stack, I'd fill the tops up with news paper so there are no gaps that could get squished on your boxes.

All good advice. I did this a couple of times in the last few years. My advice? Don't move. We call it a bunker for a reason. It was a huge pain in the ass for me.

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[TunnelTiger]

Travelling 2000 miles over land by personal truck/suv..

You might also want to leave some storage room in your SUV and consider pre-mapping stores to visit along your route and without a doubt the only way to move 2000 miles from NJ requires you to drive slowly through Ky. :cool: If you're a W12 & OWA fan I would suggest that you include Tx in your plan because everything Weller grows on trees there or so I've been told. :skep:

[smokinjoe]

OK, that's a long way, couple of days, and lots of bumps-braking-cornering, etc. Error to the safety side on your packing. The heavy boxes are a good idea. Invest in a couple of rolls of bubble wrap at Office Max-Depot-Staples. Wrap tops of bottles with Glad's Press 'n Seal. Better than Saran Wrap, because it's stickier and stays in place. Pack other stuff tightly next to the boxes to keep them from tipping over, but putting some Styrofoam between your booze boxes and the other stuff would be a good idea.

Good luck and have a good trip.

[benpearson]

I work at a liquor store, so I can give you some advise on which boxes are best and how to get them. I also used to trade a lot of beer before I got into the business.

*It would always be preferable to use the original box for the product, if you have time to look for them and enough product of one type to fill a box. l would suggest it.

*Crown Royal makes the best box, these things are nearly indestructible. I wish the whiskey was a good as the box. The bad thing is that they don't fit much other than that particular product. Ask your booze slinger for some wine box dividers to use as extra packaging. Sailor Jerry also comes in a pretty nice box. I would in general recommend the 1.75 boxes, as they will be large enough to fit obscurely shaped items. Belvedere 1.75 boxes are nice for extremely tall bottles. Belvedere and Chopin are the tallest/heaviest bottles in the store. In general if it comes in a big heavy bottle that is relatively expensive, it's going to come in a nice box.

*Don't be greedy - you'll get a lot further in asking for specific boxes if you just ask the person working in a kind manor. We get people every day wanting boxes to move. I'll always give them to the people if we have them, but some people go as far as wanting us to unpack product that we have in boxes because they are trying to save 50 cents on a box. It's not that we want to hoard all the boxes, sometimes we just don't have any extra.

*Find out what day the store gets its delivery, and ask if they can set aside some boxes for you to pick up and when it's convenient for them.

*Buy some beer or whiskey as a sign that you aren't just a cheap a** trying to build a cardboard palace.

*I would use some electrical tape on the top of each bottle. The stuff is basically waterproof, stretches to fit nicely around the cap of a bottle, and doesn't leave a residue. A trick I've learned from beer traders.

*don't park your car and leave it with 50 liquor boxes inside of it. It doesn't matter how nice the neighborhood is, the temptation is too great for people. Cover everything with a blanket. Put some junk in exposed areas to make people think your car is full of junk. An empty McDonalds bag or two is a sure sign that you are white trash, and your stuff isn't worth stealing.

For your irreplaceable extremely expensive bottles-

1. Get a large, heavy duty box like a crown royal 1.75 box.

2. Fill bottom of box with 1" of great stuff- the expanding foam used to seal around windows and doors. (spread evenly with a spare piece of cardboard) This stuff is nearly impossible to remove from skin, clothing, and just about everything else.

3. Cover this layer of great stuff with saran wrap after it is dry. Will come in handy when you unpack.

4. Electrical Tape the top of the bottles.

5. Wrap bottles in saran wrap.

6. Put bottles in box and leave some spacing between bottles.

7. Fill box with Great Stuff.

8. Cut foam that has expanded beyond capacity of box with a hand saw or box knife when it's dry.

9. Seal box and move or ship.

10 Unpack - a lot of effort that will be rewarded with great whiskey in a new place.

11. Repack one of these bottles with method mentioned above, and send to the guy that told you about it. He will be your hero, and you will be his.

[smknjoe]

An empty McDonalds bag or two is a sure sign that you are white trash, and your stuff isn't worth stealing.

That's just too much! I've actually done this before.

[benpearson]

I thought I was the only one, I guess SB members think alike.

[dcbt]

Interesting... There's a car in my neighborhood I pass when I run and I've noticed more than just 1-2 McD's bags. They've got the whole gamut, Arby's, KenTacoHuts, LJS, you name it. Where's the line between crafty and appalling?

[benpearson]

There might be good bourbon in there.

[mosugoji64]

Excellent advice all around. I recently moved across the country and implemented several of these tips. The bunker survived the move intact. I would add to mark the boxes "This side up" if others will be helping with the move. You won't regret over packing!

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