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Connex box for storage


Chappytactical

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Not sure where I should ask this question but for clubs just starting out, how did you find or purchase your connex box/shipping container to store your equipment? We are a new USPSA Club starting out and not sure if we should ask the range to help us with that or find "sponsors"? The range was generous enough to donate money to help us buy the supplies needed to get us started to build our walls and what not.  Any help or guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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55 minutes ago, Chappytactical said:

Not sure where I should ask this question but for clubs just starting out, how did you find or purchase your connex box/shipping container to store your equipment? We are a new USPSA Club starting out and not sure if we should ask the range to help us with that or find "sponsors"? The range was generous enough to donate money to help us buy the supplies needed to get us started to build our walls and what not.  Any help or guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Believe it or not there are sales lots with those things for sale. Probably just start googling your area. I bought a large used one for $2600 some years back. They work good but a wider option like building a small pole barn would produce more storage space.

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When our club started out we worked out of two hand me down sheds that other members had abandoned at our range.

After three years we were able to save up for a conex box and have been using that since.

Having everything in one location is a huge benefit during set up and tear down.

The key is to set it up logically, neatly, and efficiently. We were fortunate to find some used grocery store racking (like pallet racking but only 2' deep) that we use as shelves. The other key is to cut a door in the side of it so you don't have to work out of the end. Again, we are fortunate to have a volunteer who is extremely handy and helpful. He helped us cut in a 4' door that slides out of the way when opened. Having that large opening in the middle makes it easy for volunteers to hand things to the core staff who knows exactly where everything goes.

IMG_20190525_114315.jpg

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2 hours ago, davidb72 said:

When our club started out we worked out of two hand me down sheds that other members had abandoned at our range.

After three years we were able to save up for a conex box and have been using that since.

Having everything in one location is a huge benefit during set up and tear down.

The key is to set it up logically, neatly, and efficiently. We were fortunate to find some used grocery store racking (like pallet racking but only 2' deep) that we use as shelves. The other key is to cut a door in the side of it so you don't have to work out of the end. Again, we are fortunate to have a volunteer who is extremely handy and helpful. He helped us cut in a 4' door that slides out of the way when opened. Having that large opening in the middle makes it easy for volunteers to hand things to the core staff who knows exactly where everything goes.

IMG_20190525_114315.jpg

I’m highly jealous of this.  I work out of a tiny shed that is packed wall to wall and has claimed chunks of flesh many times 

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4 hours ago, davidb72 said:

When our club started out we worked out of two hand me down sheds that other members had abandoned at our range.

After three years we were able to save up for a conex box and have been using that since.

Having everything in one location is a huge benefit during set up and tear down.

The key is to set it up logically, neatly, and efficiently. We were fortunate to find some used grocery store racking (like pallet racking but only 2' deep) that we use as shelves. The other key is to cut a door in the side of it so you don't have to work out of the end. Again, we are fortunate to have a volunteer who is extremely handy and helpful. He helped us cut in a 4' door that slides out of the way when opened. Having that large opening in the middle makes it easy for volunteers to hand things to the core staff who knows exactly where everything goes.

IMG_20190525_114315.jpg

That looks awesome!  May I ask about how much did you guys pay for the connex?

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I visited a club in New Zealand a few years ago for the IPSC Australasian Championship match, they are very good at using shipping containers over there, they has a shed set up with 3 40 ft containers forming a u shape which were al storage and in the centre was a workshop area for storage, fixing and maintenance tasks, the whole area was covered. They also had a few set up around the range area as smoking areas that had pallets set up inside as vision walls as it was a non smoking range due to it being in a pine growing forest, it was an experience going in there looking for someone as it was like going into a tear gas training room, no ventilation at all.

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On 9/15/2021 at 4:49 PM, Chappytactical said:

That looks awesome!  May I ask about how much did you guys pay for the connex?


The box itself was relatively inexpensive - I think it was in the neighborhood of around $2500.00 delivered but that was in 2018.

If you don't have someone handy to help you the real cost comes in customizing it and making it useful.

We ran electric to it and now have lights and outlets as well.
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back when I was directing matches at Central Jersey ~ 15 years ago, we were lucky enough to have about 8 of the 40' containers for the various action disciplines.  We also had a half dozen trailers, with 8'x6' beds, that could be towed with the club's golf carts.  Initially we had a couple of trailers of walls, one of braces, one for target stands, one for steel, etc.  Then one of our brighter stage designers, had a chat with another who had access to a welding rig, and they fabricated two tall verticals on one side, two shorter ones on the other side, with a horizontal cross pice connecting the uprights, about 3 feet above the trailer bed.  WE then dedicated one trailer per pit, sticking walls and braces on the welded on rack, poppers, target stands, fault line, target sticks, buckets of hammers and spikes, etc. on the trailer flatbed.  

 

That turned delivery time for supplies to each pit from a 45 minute cluster**** into a 10 minute affair of delivering each trailer to a pit.  Set-up began earlier, and was easier to pull off on time.  If you're starting out that may seem farfetched - but could provide goals to work toward.... 🙂

 

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I bought a full size connex with a roll up door in the middle for $2,300 delivered. When it was time to sell it I sold it instantly for $1,800.

 

Around here and other places I've been it is popular to have stage trailers. So a club has 3 or 4 trailers with a stage or two worth of supplies on it. Taken further I've seen these trailers made to be the size they can be driven through a connex in one end and out the other.

 

I think the range your at, how much stuff you have and the weather all matter.

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Seen a lot of Connexes half-full of jumbled crap and very few well organized ones.  People get lazy and dump stuff wherever when they're hot and tired at the end of the day.  They're also narrow so you have to leave an aisle which loses a good chunk of the width for the whole length.

 

Get 20 footers or put a door in the middle unless you have tear-down staff that will ride herd on getting everything into its place every time.  At least then the piles of junk are closer to the door.

 

Wider sheds are better.  Trailers are even easier, but unless you cover them, all your stuff is out in the great outdoors.

 

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  • 1 month later...

They work just fine if you are organized. The range I had been going to only lets club staff in the connex boxes or directs volunteer crews in them. Steel, movers, tools and targets are pulled from them and staged in the bays to build. Tear down crew piles those things at the head of the bays and get collected in a truck or trailer to get put back in the connex after the match by staff. Stays fairly organized that way. Plus with mostly staff pulling and storing things, you have no one to blame for the mess but yourselves. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So there are a few different types of connex containers.  20', 40', 40' High Cargo, 53'.  They are typically priced according to condition.  The prices right now are about 30% higher than what I was paying about 18 months ago just because of the current shortage.

The common conditions are weather and water tight, (won't leak but may show very heavy use.) and what I would recommend which is 'one trip.'  Meaning they were used once to transport goods from overseas to here.  These will look like they are brand new.  The floors will be perfect and the doors will be about a million times easier to open and close.  The one trips typically cost about 30% more than the weather tights I think.  

 

I have a guy here in Ohio and I know another in California.  The guy in California sources them all over the country and can ship there.  I can get you in touch if you want, just PM me.  

 

 

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