Packing & Shipping Large/Heavy Speakers

Purchase proper foam and a roll of shrink wrap. The speakers will require 6” of foam all around and top and bottom. Heavy weight NOT the light wight garbage foam or it will crush. Purchase half inch plywood and 1” ferring stips and build a proper box exactly to the speakers size w/ the foam wrapped. You need to prevent wiggle. Find a used pallet and purchase some good straps to attach the boxes to the pallet. Your speaker size will require an extended pallet or if you want to pack them standing up you will need to also build a base for the boxes along with adding some extra support to the bottom of the pallet to bolt the boxes down and then strap and wrap them. Next you need to find a shipping co. I use FedEx freight regularly at work. If you are not shipping to a loading dock you may have issues at best they will drop off at the end of a driveway. Maybe…I usually have large items shipped to me at work where we have a forklift and loading dock to properly offload. Your best bet is to sell them local, not many folks are capable of properly packaging and shipping. Last piece of advice, if i receive something large and heavy that i just spent thousands on and it does not come packaged properly i will not accept the load and return at your cost. If it was damaged the first thing the shipper will claim is improper packaging and void any insurance. If that box can’t take a forklift jab it was bad packaging. I have had it happen multiple times. It’s cheaper in the end to have custom hard sided cases built which we also do often.  Sell local or find a company that will do the work properly. GLWS

Just to add my experience here. Oddly from what has been said here, we used FedEx to pack and ship an amp. They did not pack it at all, just took the box we gave them and shipped it. The amp flew around inside the box and of course broke. It was covered by insurance paid for until FedEx said ’we don’t offer insurance anymore’. Claim ignored and denied. Stuck with a $1500 paper weight. No recourse.

My manufacturer has a similar experience with a pair of hand made horn speakers, he explained: "The speakers were returned badly damaged from shipping the crate was stacked and compressed. One cabinet was crushed and one of the horns damaged...plus internal damage on both speakers. The stands were unscathed."

Let me show you the original crate used...

Berlin Type R speakers packing

On the other hand, I have received large horn speakers in Kubox boxes, that were safe and sound.

You can bring your speakers to a ups  shipping store,

pin somestates have FedEx stores also , they pack them with thick cardboard and foam .i had them pack my Big Spatial Audio open baffle speakers ,and other speakers.they pack them they guarantee for damages and you ask them to email you photos . For myself and others worked out great packing was much cheaper then building crates.

I urge you to take them to a UPS store and let them package and ship them. It will likely cost more but if you want to ensure an undamaged shipment or at least an insured shipment that you can "collect" on that is the route to go. I had a nightmare shipping a pair of Spendor S100 to California from Rochester NY. A friend runs a registered Fedex shipping store. He packaged the speakers exactly the same way a speaker manufacturer packages speakers for shipping. Double boxed, 3" foam cushions in each corner and along all edges. Labeled correctly as "this end up", "heavy", with the total mass of each package. A week later the buyer in California sent me pictures of the speakers upon arrival. One box was destroyed as was the top front edge of the speaker in that box. Some internal damage along with the damage to the wood cost $600 to repair. I was assured if I would refund the buyer's cost of repairs I would receive those monies back after filing a claim with Fedex. The claim has been denied twice and there is no positive outlook for me getting my $600. The only other thing the shipper could have done was strap the boxes to a pallet with metal bands from both sides. In hindsight that would have been the best shot at getting those speakers to their destination without damage. Even then, there is risk. I assumed that is why one pays for insurance. If the shipping company deems you did not properly package the item(s) then you at fault, not them. Next time I go to UPS, or some other shipper, and let them do it all. 100% responsibility on them.

Use the same people that ship PINBALL MACHINES across the USA Every single Day.  I use to use Bettman Logistics but their website no longer works. They would come to my house and blanket wrap/Clear wrap my machines and take them anywhere.  Not sure if these places have boxes to use but they definitely have pallets. I shipped 50+ machines with no incidents. The PINBALL hobby is pretty huge so shouldnt be too hard for you to see who everybody is using on the internet these days.  Just a thought.