Hauling a Treadmill and Heavy Gym Equipment

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A folding treadmill and a rack of cast iron plates look like equally awkward gym gear, but one is a bulky load and the other is a dense one. Junk pickup crews in Redding handle them in different ways, as the notes at redding junk pickup myphr describe. A treadmill runs from one hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds spread over a long frame, while a single forty five pound plate is a hand-sized hazard that hurts a back when it is lifted wrong.

What does a treadmill weigh and how is it moved?

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The motor housing at the front is the heavy end, and the deck folds up against it. A treadmill is unplugged, folded, locked and tilted onto its rear wheels, then walked to the door with two people and a lifting strap. Upstairs rooms mean a descent one step at a time with the heavy end downhill and a spotter below.

Is a treadmill e waste?

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Partly. The console, the motor control board and the cables count as e waste and go to electronics recycling. The steel frame is scrap metal. Many facilities in Shasta County will not take the whole machine, so the crew separates the pieces on a tarp in the garage before loading.

How are weight plates and benches handled?

Plates are carried one or two at a time in a bucket or a hand truck rather than a stack on a dolly. A loaded barbell is unloaded at the rack. Cast iron is pure scrap, and a few hundred pounds of it in a box truck changes the axle load, so it goes in over the wheels instead of at the tail. Benches and racks unbolt into flat pieces.

What about the floor and the stairs?

A garage slab handles weight, but a wooden floor in an older Redding house near Enterprise does not. Plywood sheets under the dolly path spread the point load, and a stair runner protects the nosing of each tread. Heavy equipment is never rolled down a stairwell, even on a dolly.

What is the best time to do this?

Garages in a Redding July hold heat well past one hundred and ten degrees, and a hot cast iron plate left in sun can burn a hand. Plates and frames are carried out in the morning, and the last light loads wait for the evening when the driveway has cooled. At the transfer station, a weight ticket for scrap iron is separate from the ticket for mixed trash.