Helicopter Lifts: The Truck Side of a Rooftop AC Unit Change-Out
By Igor Chudov, owner, Chicago Machinery Movers, Berkeley, Illinois. Moving and removing industrial machinery since 1998. Published September 2026.
This September we took a semi truck to the headquarters of a large electronics company in Dupage County, IL where a heavy lift helicopter pulled three condensing units off the roof and set them, one at a time, on our stepdeck trailer. The three units weighed 15,000 pounds together. The whole lift took 15 minutes. (then they proceeded to haul new condensers on the roof). I have moved a lot of machinery during my career, and this is still one of the more interesting mornings we get, so I want to explain how it works and what our part of it actually is, based on our experience with helicopter lifts.
Why a helicopter and not a crane
For typical small office buildings, it is cheaper to call in a rental crane, reach for the units, pick them off the roof and load on our truck (we regularly pick up air conditioning condensers removed by crane). However, the physics of the job changes dramatically with the size of the building: a crane is a counterweighted, cantilevered arm, and the farther the reach, the bigger the crane must be. At some point, instead of a regular 35 ton rental crane, which are a dime a dozen, owners of large sprawling buildings need giant hundred-ton cranes, which are expensive to mobilize in many truckloads.
To the contrary, a helicopter arrives by itself (no truck needed), does not care about how wide or tall the building is, and can pick up and swap A/C units in well under an hour. The helicopter costs $5,500 an hour, but is a lot easier to mobilize than a giant crane.
The aircraft on our job was a Sikorsky heavy lift helicopter owned by Midwest Helicopter.
The long line, and why the pictures look the way they do
Operation of the helicopter requires almost superhuman precision on the part of the pilot. He has the ground crew who depend on him for their safety, and must avoid excessive swinging or hitting unintended objects (for example, the cab of our truck) and the video below illustrated the difficulty. The helicopter line is long for many reasons, one is to limit downwash's effect on the ground crew, and another is to limit swinging of the load.
The long line also means that any photograph with both the truck and the helicopter in it has a small truck at the bottom and a small helicopter at the top. It makes videos harder to view.
Who does what, and where we fit
Helicopter HVAC swapouts typically involve the following:
- The "Lift Director" who runs the operation by radio from the ground and coordinates everyone, and positions equipment such as our truck to make the operation smooth and exact.
- The helicopter and the pilot
- "Ground Crew", people trained in rapidly hooking and unhooking loads to the helicopter cable, and in guiding the loads near the ground
- Trucks delivering new equipment
- Specialized HVAC salvage companies like us, picking up old units for safe and legal disposal
- Customer management and safety representatives
- The "Roof Crew", people skilled in quick but precise positioning of new equipment lifted onto the roof
While, upon the first sight, the truck picking up old units seems to be the least important, its absence can cost the operation thousands. Similarly, an inadequate transport unable to fit all the pieces, would similarly derail the operation, as the contractor is required to "leave nothing behind". Therefore, it is crucial to select a reliable company such as Chicago Machinery Movers. If your machinery mover is not asking about dimensions, possible permits, weights, and does not appear to carefully walk through the bill of materials, think twice about hiring them.
Our job is to bring the truck on time; pick adequate semi trailer; upon arrival to the job site, to precisely take the loading position. After this, we remove the dunnage from the truck's deck to keep the ground crew safe from flying wood debris due to downwash acting like a hurricane. It is not our job to help with hooking or unhooking, or in guiding loads coming down: this is what the "Ground Crew" does. We stay out of the wash zone, wear out hard hats with chin straps like everyone, and wait until we are cleared to move the truck. It all feels like a choreographed concert.
Why these lifts happen at seven in the morning
When setting up the appointment, I went through a painstaking conversation about dimensions and weights: 96x96x180 inches and 6,500 lbs - two pieces, 60x96x96 and 2,000 lbs - one piece, to be sure that I bring the correct equipment. After doing some simple calculations in my mind, I chose to bring our step deck trailer due to low deck and space available on it. As you can see in the truck picture, everything fit perfectly, but only because I took my time to pick the right transport.
Statistically, mornings after sunrise are less likely to have high winds, which might ground the whole operation. Other times or day involve a throw of the weather dice. In addition, starting early time allows for correcting problems. As they say, there are no good surprises in the helicopter business, so usually everyone gets lined up at or around 7am. All trucks (new equipment supply and salvage equipment removal) are lines up and positioned by the director. The director conducts safety briefing with papers to sign. They verify absence of drones in the area and give the operation a go. Then the choreographed procedure starts. Old equipment it brought down on our trucks, new equipment put up on the roof. The ground crew and the roof crew work hard, while the truck drivers wait nearby, safe from downwind and snapping pictures.
What happens to the units after the lift
Commercial HVAC equipment has a finite life. The units that were removed on this particular day, were 14 years old. While they possibly were still operational (how can I know?), keeping them in operation presents a risk of them failing on a hot summer day, with offices full of very important people would become uninhabitable in hours due to 90+ degree weather. As a result, in the HVAC world, there is little interest in "used roof units" and they must be salvaged for components, such as copper pipes, radiators, compressor motors, and shred steel. This is where we do well, as we have a machine shop and plenty of tools, such as impact screwdrivers for those 3/8" screws ubiquitous in HVAC equipment, sawzalls, torches, and more. We have experience in quick disassembly.
Our ability to extract top value from roof condensers allows us to take those with aluminum-copper radiators `at no cost to the customers. (unless there are very unusual exigent circumstances, all subject to scrap prices of course.).
On being prepared
There is always a chance of something going wrong: whatever it is, it should not affect the time of our arrival. For this specific operation, this means: all four trucks were in working condition. If a driver called off, another one would be called. All such unscheduled favors to the company are generously compensated, which is my intentional incentive strategy - my people know that "coming to a rescue" is good for their pockets. An hour before arrival, I texted the mechanical contractor to reassure them, and arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule.When to call us
Are you a mechanical contractor, large commercial property owner, a crane company, or a helicopter lift company? Call us to provide ground truck coverage for HVAC removal. Have available: the number of units, their weights and dimensions. This is essential to make sure the final loads will be completely picked up and legal for trucking. Ask for our certificate of insurance, which we obviously have.
I hope that you benefit from our trucking experience, our superior cost structure dealing with scrap HVAC equipment, and our reliability. Call Igor Chicago Machinery Movers at least a week before (630-235-6603), so we can fit you in our busy schedule.
We have several of these jobs forming our experience. Call before you book the aircraft, not after, because the truck and the crew have to be there first. And, we have a history of actually showing up.
Call or text Igor: (630) 235-6603.