Moving a turn-of-the-century weatherboard, double-storeyed house weighing 132 tonnes was something King House Removals successfully achieved using its 128-wheel special house-moving trailer explains Richard Silcock.
King House Removals is one of the oldest heavy haulage house movers in the country, having been initially set up in 1938 by a Mr D. King in Southland.
Fred Willis and his wife Jenny bought the business in 1959 and the company is now owned and run by their two sons, Warren and Grant Willis who operate from both Invercargill and Christchurch respectively, along with a staff of 18.
In 1977 Fred designed and constructed his own hydraulic lifting and steering trailer specifically for house relocation work, having been told by a reputable heavy trailer manufacturer that it
could not be done.
Subsequent in-house trailer designs by the company were seen as ground-breaking and they are now considered crucial pieces of equipment by the heavy haulage house-moving industry in New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
So revolutionary were the trailers in their capacity to lift, tilt and be independently steered to overcome obstacles in their path, that Fred was awarded the prestigious Gus Breen Memorial Award for his foresight in house-moving trailer design and his outstanding contribution to the heavy haulage industry as a whole.
These days the company operates seven trailer units specifically for house relocation work. The largest is a 128-wheel (16 axles with eight wheels each) platform trailer which recently featured in a TV programme hosted by Andy Ellis (a former All Black) about a house relocation in Christchurch.
Contractor magazine caught up with Warren and Grant to learn more about this unique trailer, which was used to move an extremely large, two-storey, 132-tonne house in one piece.
“It is a very special trailer, which we converted for house moving having acquired it second-hand in 2023 from Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage,” says Warren.
“It has the capacity to lift and haul 250 tonnes (off road) and is 24 metres in length. The rear section is able to be independently steered through 35 degrees allowing it to negotiate sharp bends in the road and tight traffic roundabouts.
“It is fitted with 235/75/18 Double Coin tyres and the lifting hydraulics are operated independently. We usually couple this to either our 250-ton Mercedes Actros 365S unit or one of our 200-tonne Mack Titan tractor units.
“We only use it for the very large heavy loads where dividing a house into smaller sections is not practical or there are advantages in keeping the building together in one piece. Interestingly, since the TV programme went to air, we’ve had quite a number of enquiries from people all over the country who want us to relocate a building, but don’t want it cut in half.”
For the televised Christchurch move, King House Removals decided to relocate the old 132- tonne weatherboard house in one piece because it was only going to travel a short distance.
“While the move itself was only a short distance within the suburb of Shirley we spent the best part of two weeks preparing for the move and securing the necessary permits. We were faced with a number of obstacles along the route including overhanging power lines and tree branches, a bus shelter, a number of traffic roundabouts and traffic lights,” says Grant.
“The power lines in one street had to be completely removed as did the bus shelter and some traffic lights.
“After jacking the132-tonne house up 1.7 metres we further prepared it for the move using a number of huge steel beams which were positioned beneath it and clamped in position to ensure rigidity and structural support and then used two, four-axle house trailers in tandem to rotate it on site as the access was too tight to allow for the big trailer. Once the house was safely rotated we transferred it to the big trailer for transporting to the new site 1.4 kilometres away.
“Our client was rapt that we were able to relocate the house in one piece without any damage and they are now busy renovating an office space.”
Another recent move involving this huge trailer unit was the relocation of nine buildings that are all part of tourist lodge facility at Te Anau.
Warren says the lodge owners were expanding and upgrading the property and this included the construction of several additional buildings and the relocation of the existing ones.
“Each of the existing lodges had solid concrete and stone chimneys and featured environmental roofing with native grass plantings so it was imperative that they were moved in a manner that maintained a horizontal plane.
“Using our unified jacking plant, we were able to lift each lodge to a height of 1.7 metres while maintaining a perfect horizontal level. This was replicated on the trailer using its hydraulic levelling system during the actual move and the unified jacking was again used as each building was repositioned on to new piles at its relocated site.
“We have also relocated a massive 33.5-metre-long by11-metre-wide building for Fonterra at their Edendale milk processing plant in Southland. For this move we used our five-axle MTE command steer trailer.
“This trailer is also a specialist bit of kit and it has allowed us to move some very large structures in one piece; structures that otherwise would have required separation into smaller configurations and moving them on smaller house-trailer units. This would have required several road trips to relocate them – all at a greater cost to the client.
“Because of the ability to steer the rear section of this trailer independently of the front section we are able to negotiate some tricky tight corners and roundabouts comparatively easily which equates to a huge savings in time.”
In addition to two Mack Titans and the Mercedes unit, King’s also run a CL Mack, a Western Star 4964, a MAN 6X6, an International Transtar and an Astra 6X6.
“We are not brand bound and purchase a combination of new and good condition second- hand tractor and trailer units that meet our particular needs.”
Over a period of 66 years Kings have relocated over 7000 houses and there is very little they can’t lift or move – whether it be a small granny flat, an extra-large two or three-storey house or a multi-unit apartment block.
As Warren says: “The difficult takes time, the seemingly impossible just takes a little longer.”
Keeping the oversize wheels moving