Volume, not mass
The hood carton is 9,360 cubic inches. The movement carton is 1,920. Nearly five times the space for six pounds less on the scale, and the price followed the space rather than the weight.
Clocks
What it costs to ship a grandfather clock
Nothing priced the case. A crated longcase clock went into the calculator on 2026-07-29 at 84 × 30 × 24 inches and 190 lb, and the answer came back empty: no parcel carrier offered a rate. The pieces that come out of the clock are a different job entirely, and the three of them quoted between $25.68 and $53.10 on that same morning.
Empty result printed, not hiddenThree real part boxes pricedFreight handled by a person
One clock, two shipments
The movement, hood and pendulum ride the parcel network. The case rides a truck.
The case came back with no price at all
A tall case clock crated for transit is bigger than most washing machines and heavier than most people expect, because the case is solid hardwood and the crate adds its own frame. The request we sent described exactly that, and the parcel networks declined to quote it. That empty answer is the most useful fact on this page, so here is the arithmetic behind it.
| Network | Heaviest package | Size ceiling | The 84 × 30 × 24 in crate at 190 lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | 70 lbs | 130 in of length plus girth, dropping to 108 in on Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express | over on weight by 120 lbs, over on length plus girth by 62 in |
| UPS | 150 lbs | 108 in on the longest side, 165 in of length plus girth | inside the 108 in length limit, over on length plus girth by 27 in, over on weight by 40 lbs |
| FedEx | 150 lbs | 108 in in length, 165 in of length plus girth | past both thresholds FedEx names for handling a shipment as freight instead of a package |
Three ceilings, three failures, and the last column explains why the quote screen had nothing to show. A crate that misses on weight alone can sometimes be split; a crate that misses on girth cannot be talked down, because the case is one rigid object and the tape measure is not negotiable.
The three boxes that do travel as parcels
Any clock going any distance gets stripped first. The movement, the weights, the pendulum and usually the hood all come off the case, and each of those becomes a parcel that can be quoted normally. We sized three boxes the way a clock repairer packs them and ran all three on one lane.
| Box | Packed size | On the scale | Cheapest rate returned | The rest of that answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movement, cast iron weights and chains | 16 × 12 × 10 in | 22 lb | $25.68 UPS Ground Saver | FedEx Ground Economy $26.43, UPS Ground $27.36, USPS Ground Advantage $33.44, FedEx Ground $34.22 |
| Hood with its glazed door | 26 × 20 × 18 in | 16 lb | $53.10 UPS Ground, 4-5 business days | FedEx Ground Economy $70.40, FedEx Ground $73.20, UPS Ground Saver $74.85, UPS 3 Day Select $82.68 |
| Pendulum rod and bob | 52 × 8 × 6 in | 5 lb | $27.61 FedEx Ground Economy, 5-6 business days | USPS Ground Advantage $33.16, UPS Ground $54.41, UPS Ground Saver $55.55, USPS Priority Mail $65.38 |
Two of those rows behave in ways that catch people out, and both are worth understanding before the tape comes off the roll.
The lighter box cost twice as much
The hood weighed 16 lb. The movement box weighed 22 lb. The hood cost roughly double. Nothing is wrong with either quote, because the scale is only one of the two inputs a carrier uses.
Economy tiers can invert
On the hood, the slower economy service quoted $74.85 while standard UPS Ground quoted $53.10. Cheap tiers stop being cheap once a box gets bulky, so read every row rather than assuming the slow one wins.
Long boxes have their own penalty
The pendulum box weighed 5 lb and ranged from $27.61 to $65.38 across the five services returned. A 52 inch carton is awkward to sort at any hub, and the spread on that single box was wider than on either of the other two.
The lever a sender actually controls is the hood carton. Padding the glazed door properly matters more than shaving an inch, but a hood packed flat against a rigid face board rather than floated in a cube of foam peanuts can drop a carton size, and a carton size is worth more here than any service choice.
Price a part box on your own lane Wall clocks, which are a parcel job
Stripping the clock before anything is packed
A longcase clock that arrives broken almost always arrives broken in the same three places, and all three are avoidable in about half an hour of careful work. Photograph everything before it comes apart; reassembly at the far end is where the photographs earn their keep.
- Take the weights down first. They are cast iron cylinders, usually three of them, and together they are the heaviest thing in the clock. A weight left hanging will swing against the case wall for the whole trip. Number them left to right as they come off, because they are often not identical and hanging them back in the wrong order stops the strike train.
- Secure the chains or cables at the movement. Once the weights are off, a chain will run through its sprocket and drop into the case, and a cable will unwind off its drum and jump the pulley. A twist tie through each chain loop, or a clip holding the cable against the drum, prevents a repair that costs more than the shipping did.
- Lift the pendulum off its suspension spring. That spring is a ribbon of steel a few thousandths of an inch thick, and it is the single most commonly broken part in a moved clock. The pendulum unhooks; the spring stays with the movement and gets a card sleeve taped over it.
- Slide the hood forward off the case. Most hoods pull straight off toward you once the pendulum and weights are clear. It carries the glazed door and the most fragile trim on the clock, so it gets its own box with a rigid face board against the glass.
- Immobilize or remove the movement. A seatboard-mounted movement can travel bolted in place if the case is going by truck, packed around with foam so it cannot lift. If the case is going one way and the movement another, unhook it and box it with the weights and chains, which is the box quoted at $25.68 above.
- Pad the case interior, not just the outside. The inside of an empty case has a glass door of its own, exposed backboard, and the mounting hardware the movement sat on. Foam or bubble sheeting inside stops those pieces rattling against each other while the outside is blanket wrapped.
How the case actually travels
Once the clock is stripped, the case is an item of tall, top-heavy antique furniture, and it moves the way tall furniture moves: on a truck, standing or laid on padding, either blanket wrapped or in a purpose-built crate.
Blanket wrap
The case travels padded and strapped inside the trailer with no crate around it. Cheaper than crating and gentler on the finish, and it depends on the carrier handling furniture rather than pallets all day.
Crated on a pallet
A wooden frame built to the case gives it a footprint a forklift can handle and lets it ride a standard freight lane. It adds weight and cost, and it is the safer answer for a long haul with transfers in it.
Inside delivery
A freight driver's job ends at the back of the truck unless the booking says otherwise. A clock that has to reach a hallway rather than a curb needs that written into the quote before the truck is dispatched.
None of that is priced by a parcel rate screen, which is why the request at the top of this page returned nothing rather than returning a large number. Freight review is the route for it, and what it needs is the crate or case measurements, both addresses, and whether either end has a loading dock. A person answers. Declared value for the clock is arranged with the freight booking rather than at a parcel checkout.
Common questions
Can a grandfather clock be shipped as a parcel?
The case cannot. Crated for transit it measured 84 by 30 by 24 inches at 190 lb in the request we sent on 2026-07-29, and that request came back with no parcel rates at all. Its length plus girth works out to 192 inches, past every ceiling the three big networks publish.
What do the clock parts cost to ship on their own?
Between $25.68 and $53.10 per box on 2026-07-29 from Berkeley Heights, NJ to Nashville, TN. The movement box was the cheapest of the three and the hood box the most expensive, even though the hood was the lighter of the two on the scale.
Why does a 16 lb hood box cost more than a 22 lb movement box?
Because 26 by 20 by 18 inches is 9,360 cubic inches of mostly empty carton, and carriers charge for the room a box occupies as well as for what the scale reads. The movement traveled in 1,920 cubic inches and quoted at $25.68 against $53.10 for the hood.
Should the pendulum and the weights travel inside the case?
No. The weights are loose cast iron cylinders and the pendulum hangs on a suspension spring thinner than a fingernail. Both come out before the case is wrapped, and both were quoted here as parcels of their own.
How does the case itself get moved?
On a truck, blanket wrapped or crated, priced by a person rather than by a rate screen. Send the crate measurements and both addresses through freight review and the lane comes back quoted, with a delivery type that suits a piece of furniture rather than a parcel network.
Where the package ceilings came from
- United States Postal Service, Sending Packages — the 70 lbs weight ceiling, the 130 inch length plus girth test and the tighter 108 inch figure on Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. Read 2026-07-29.
- UPS, Shipping dimensions and weight — packages up to 150 lbs, a maximum length of 108 inches and up to 165 inches of length and girth combined. Read 2026-07-29.
- FedEx, FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery — packages up to 150 lbs, 108 inches in length and 165 inches in length plus girth. Read 2026-07-29.
- FedEx, Shipping large items — the thresholds at which a shipment is handled as freight rather than as a package. Read 2026-07-29.
Carriers rewrite these pages and reprice them without warning. The ceilings above are what each carrier published on 2026-07-29, and the quotes are what came back for those exact boxes on that lane on that day. Measure your own crate and quote your own lane before committing to a method.