I just went through this and it was the MOST frustrating experience of my photo life. had to do a level 3 move to get down stairs in the new place.
According to canon if you're doing anything more than a 30 degree tip you MUST do a level 3 drain or ink will leak out. If I had to do this move again I would sell the printer and buy a new one - not kidding.
here's how my move went:
first, I ran out of photo gray ink prior to my move, no problem I thought, I'll just put in a new one when I get there - nope. the printer would not let me execute the move without it. so a $164 cartridge goes in, charges the line and immediately drains - there goes $50 of ink.
Next, I used 3 maintenance cartridges at $90 each and 60 % of a 4th - there goes $300+
upon draining the printer most of my tanks were 60% full. when I reinstalled the printer in it's new location it immediately needed a "consumables" maintenance call, there goes $450 and a week. According to canon moving is incredibly hard on the printer and this is to be expected.
Once I finally got to put the ink back in it filled my remaining 40% of the maintenance cartridge with brand new ink, demanded another one ($90 more)and filled that one half full - that's about $500 in ink by my calculations. According to canon as long as the printer thinks there's air in the line ANYWHERE it will continue to cycle. on a refill it's not uncommon to use up to one full maintenance cartridge (that's something like 540ml of new ink totally wasted). I had to replace EVERY SINGLE cartridge before even making a print, even my brand new gray one - that means I used a whole gray tank without making a single print from it - total cost of ink $1257.
It cost me $350 in movers/truck rental.
all the ink that went through the print heads probably took a third of their life away.
My total move cost well over $2000 and took three weeks of planning and frustration. Done over I will sell the printer (about a year old) for as much as I can get. I had offers for $2700. I will then buy a new one with a complete set of ink for about $4k and would have experienced a much smaller loss of money and time, resetting of my warranty period and new full ink tanks and a printer with no wear on it.
I will NEVER move a printer like this again. I'll sell the dumb thing and buy a new one that can be tipped up on end with no problem, tossed around(carefully) and generally gotten into place with no worries. this experience just about had me in tears and absolutely ruined my month's financial planning. If it's more than level 1, maybe level 2, don't do it!
Mark