Moving a polar bear is always tricky - especially when they are full grown. Just where to you hook them up to lift them?
The answer is that it has to be planned from the very start. We built this particular nine foot long polar bear a few years ago. A lifting attachment point was built into his back. Of the many, many pieces we built through the years we had to drop one and this was it. In my haste to get it on our trailer the first time I didn't properly hook up the lifting chain. He fell from about three feet. All four of his legs were broken. The good news is he was easily repaired and I delivered the sign a few days late looking like nothing had ever happened.
This time around the owner wanted to make sure everything went off without a hitch. So did I. The bear was moving about three blocks. He hired a crane truck with a low bed as he was very tall. I got the call to hook him up and see it went smoothly. I brought a shiny new eyebolt to thread into the attachment. I was taking no chances this time for I had learned my lesson. Thee threads on the attachment pint were pretty rusty and corroded but with a little coaxing I managed to screw in a chaser die to clean things out. Then came the fresh new eyebolt.
The crane operator was smooth and experienced. There was no showing off. He inched it over to the truck, keeping it low to the ground - just in case. Then he lifted it onto the lowbed and we cinched it down for the short ride.
Anytime we move one of our creations it is an instant parade. The bear stopped traffic and brought everyone to the store windows as we passed.
The move went off without a hitch. At the new site I climbed back up on the bear, unhooked the chain and then unscrewed the eye bolt once more. The bear was in his new home without a scratch!
The address on the ice burg is now incorrect so I'll be building a new small ice burg that has 'calved' off the front. It will bear the new street number. The owner has promised some fancy landscaping around the base.
He looks happy in his new home.
-grampa dan