a man, a woman, and Dean's Rent All

MKH and I wanted to deliver a piano from grandma's house in Illinois to our son and daughter in law, (A and B) who live on the east side of Ohio. I read testimonies online on how to move a piano and found almost nothing but warnings of death, destruction, and dismemberment for anyone except professional piano movers who would attempt to put a piano in the back of a pickup truck. The internet told of musclebound men whose muscles were torn and bones were crushed in failed attempts to move a piano. So I concluded that since neither my wife nor I are musclebound, we could surely succeed with the help of the local equipment rental.

We rented a piano dolly for $25 and 8 foot long ramps for $8. We also packed my straps and some straps we borrowed from our children's minister at church and set out for Illinois.

I had to cut down half a bush to get the truck in the right position, but once that was completed the ramps fit nicely from the tailgate to the threshold of grandma's house. The piano loaded easily onto the dolly and with the four handles, and excellent wheels of the dolly we were ready to roll.

Putting the piano in the back of the pickup was the easiest part of the whole move. The piano dolly was the star of the show, well, except for my wife who is always the star of my show.

We strapped the piano down using a two strap system I read about online from a man who said he had moved 600 pianos in the back of a Toyota pickup truck. I assume he meant one at a time. His system was great, but I added five more straps just because I have a tendency to over prepare. After all, if a little is good, a lot is better.

In Ohio our son had some extra muscle to help so I used my home made ramps and we had no problem wheeling the little, but heavy, Wurlitzer into a beautiful spot in their dining room. Mission accomplished. If we can do it, you can do it, with the help of your local rental place.

One bit of advice. My wife and I agreed that if at any point the piano started to tip and fall, we would just step back let it go. There was no way we were going to try to catch it. After all, we may be crazy to try to move a piano across three states by ourselves, but we're not stupid