Getting the Vax

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The Vax was going free at Whanuapi Air Base, about 20 minutes north of Auckland. Campbell and I went out and got it. We needed a trailer. This trailer is a bit odd looking because it is Campbell's race car trailer and you put wheels and motors and stuff on the second level

It is a Microvax II and it is VERY heavy. Three of us had some difficulty getting it onto the trailer, and it was even harder to get it off. This was because the sides started to come off when we slid it backwards off the trailer.

After we got it off the trailer, the vax wanted to roll away, and the sides were caught by the wind and wanted to go everywhere.

We removed the sides completely, and wheeled it down the drive. This was easier said than done, as the vax is very heavy and the drive very steep. Luckily it didn't escape, and we got it safely across the patio. The castors coped remarkably well with rough patio.

The sides are VERY heavy.... they must weigh about 25kg each... The whole machine is increadibly heavy. While Campbell and I aren't the strongest guys around, together, we couldn't budge one end of the machine, without the sides. We figure it must be over 150kg

Getting it into the house was not easy. We had to negotiate a fairly high doorsill... There was no way we could lift even one end over the sill... we had to remove some weight... the top device seemed to be on rails, so we pulled it out, and tried to remove it. It wouldn't come out. However we noticed the rails were very staunch, and didn't protest about holding the entire unit beyond the body of the main assembly.

We had an idea... wheelbarrow!

We could use the top unit (which turned out to be a disk drive) as a lever and lift the machine over the doorsill using it.

Even with the help of the big lever, we were buggered when we got it inside.

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