{"id":15701,"date":"2023-03-06T06:05:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/?p=15701"},"modified":"2023-03-14T10:02:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T17:02:07","slug":"how-to-use-a-viking-arm-to-wrangle-crates-when-a-pallet-jack-wont-do-the-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/how-to-use-a-viking-arm-to-wrangle-crates-when-a-pallet-jack-wont-do-the-trick\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use a Viking Arm to Wrangle Crates When a Pallet Jack Won’t Do the Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’ve been meaning to drop a note your way about a specialty tool I’ve been using, it’s called Viking Arm (videos at bottom).<\/p>\n

I initially bought two ($200 an arm) for home use, where I transfered heavy furniture onto dollies and added felt feet to the bottom of furniture legs, both by myself. I also added felt feet to the Viking Arms base to protect our wood floors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For museum use, again solo, I’ve transitioned crates from pallet jacks to dollies by elevating and blocking skids, as shown below. They have been a good substitute\u00a0for a J-bar, especially in cramped areas. Since often I am a crew of one, these have allowed me to do work I couldn’t have by myself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

They are very robust and feel substantial, rated for 330 lb per arm. The raising action is very smooth,\u00a0with low effort to elevate. The best parts\u00a0are the 2 release buttons. One is a full release, best done without a load on the tool as it is fast. The other is an incremental\u00a0release, about an 1\/8 move per release. It allows for very controlled height\u00a0changes under full load.<\/div>\n
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I’ve shown them to multiple\u00a0people, who went on to buy them. My museum boss bought them about\u00a0a\u00a0week after I brought\u00a0mine in to demonstrate. One art transit driver got two within 20 minutes of seeing me use them. I wish I was getting a commission!Like many specialty tools, they have a limited range\u00a0of uses, but I found them extremely\u00a0good for certain problems.<\/p>\n

And that’s my story about Viking Arms.<\/p>\n

Rob Kimberly<\/p>\n

Installations Manager
\nBlaffer Art Museum
\nUniversity of Houston<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I reached out to see if I could start selling them to museum peeps like you. The good news is that you can now pick yours up HERE<\/a> in the MuseumTrade GEAR<\/a> shop and support the MT mission. They are as good as they seem, a beautiful tool. Enjoy and happy lifting.<\/p>\n

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NOTES from Matt:<\/em><\/p>\n

There are some tools that you don’t use every day or even every month, but they are a crucial tool in the shop. Thin sliders with a foam top come to mind for me, they get those tall crates under the threshold when a dolly or pallet jack can’t manage the task. This Viking Arm is one of those tools. You won’t use them every day, but you’ll wonder how you managed without them.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much Rob. I 1,000% need a pair of these. We’ve definitely struggled with a few crates in the past. We all know the crates where the builder overlooked, you know, a gap under the crate ample enough for a pallet jack. I’m not talking about narrow versus standard-width pallet jacks. No, I’ve definitely come across crates where a pallet jack can’t sneak under. And yes a J bar can do the trick in most cases, but with a busy day, in tight quarters, it can be hard to get that “J” in there sometimes. Oh man, this would have easily solved the issue and elegantly!<\/p>\n

I love the “easy down” button option next to the “full down” button and how substantial they look. I fell in love the moment Rob sent this article in. Thanks Rob! Here is a couple of sexy Viking Arm Videos for you. It may give you a better sense of the tool:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been meaning to drop a note your way about a specialty tool I’ve been using, it’s called Viking Arm (videos at bottom). I initially bought two ($200 an arm) for home use, where I transfered heavy furniture onto dollies and added felt feet to the bottom of furniture legs, both by myself. I also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4529,"featured_media":15730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[284,287],"tags":[1094,1090,1095,1092,1093,1091],"gp_videos":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VikingArmonMuseumTrade3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4529"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15701"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15791,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15701\/revisions\/15791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15701"},{"taxonomy":"gp_videos","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumtrade.org\/customcat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gp_videos?post=15701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}