Wheel Dolly recommendations/experiences

[dan95x]

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I need a set of wheel dollies to move a few vehicles around at my late Granddads that have got shredded/no tyres and at least 1, possibly more, that is only really moveable initially by being able to move it 'sideways' as opposed to in the direction of the wheels.

I can (and am more than happy to) just go to Machine Mart or anywhere similar and grab 2 sets of these:

www.machinemart.co.uk/p/awd1-automotive-wheel-dolly-pair/

But I wondered if anyone has any experience with them or knows of any decent alternatives that they have actually used.

In an ideal world, they may be moving some stuff over some not terrible, but uneven slabs, and may be tasked with shifting probably 2 ton of 1930s Humber sideways, so if anyone knows of anything with blow up tyres on the market, I would be very interested - Searching 'Blow up Dollies' isnt doing my work laptop any favours.....

If I had more time I would happily knock some up myself to suit exactly what I want, but I kind of need (much against my usual way of working) to just be able to go out and buy them off the shelf, not mess about spending 4 weeks making something out of stuff I happen to have to hand 😂

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[LowStandards]

I have the Machine Mart ones above - before they became £76


They're fine on smooth surfaces, they get a bit grabby as the wheels are small and the weight of the car can push them under the tyre if they get caught.

[Dez]

None of them are particularly good with the weight of a car on unless the surface is mirror smooth. I’ve got a couple of different sets, the concrete at my old workshop was by no means rough, but they’ll snag on absolutely nothing. Part of the yard outside had road planings on, 3/4mm size, small enough to walk in on your feet if it’s wet but big enough to entirely lock up the wheels on those things once they’re on a concrete surface. I’d have to sweep it spotlessly clean before moving cars, even then it’s at least a 2 man job to actually move a 1.5ton car on them.

Your time and money would Proably be better spent getting the tyres to hold air by sticking tubes in them or fitting junker tyres.

[dan95x]

Cheers both - This is exactly what I am after (and what I feared looking at the fairly small, solid castors on them)

The tyres thing is fine for the stuff that has any forward/backwards movement, but there are at least two that have (not quite, but to all intents and purposes) been driven in and then semi-built around, and the cars are going to have to come out first really (hard to describe, but mainly down to my Granddad being a nutcase sometimes, and not especially thinking ahead when it was more important to him to just cram more stuff into his place!)

If they were wrecks I would do it a little more 'agriculturally' but they arent, although sets of hands wont be an issue so 2 man isnt a problem

[Dez]

Decent big wheeled trolley Jack and walk em out an end at a time? My Bradbury Jack is great for that cos it’s got 6” wheels at the front end.

Either that or Jack it up and put a sheet of hard plastic, tin or at a pinch plywood under the wheels, so it’ll slide on the concrete/slabs, then pull it sideways with a winch or ratchet strap.

Can you tell I’ve extracted some cars from some right daft places over the years? 🤣

[dan95x]

Jul 10, 2023 13:28:47 GMT Dez said:

Decent big wheeled trolley Jack and walk em out an end at a time? My Bradbury Jack is great for that cos it’s got 6” wheels at the front end.

Either that or Jack it up and put a sheet of hard plastic, tin or at a pinch plywood under the wheels, so it’ll slide on the concrete/slabs, then pull it sideways with a winch or ratchet strap.

Can you tell I’ve extracted some cars from some right daft places over the years? 🤣

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Oh that is definitely an option - I am being lazy/spendthrifty to be honest.  The Clarke etc ones would definitely do the one, most delicate operation, as the floor in the garage itself is fairly smooth (and the one I want to try and keep off a jack as much as possible).

I was just then hoping to find a set that would also be able to go under a few of the others to move them around a bit easier on the more uneven slabs outside, without having to keep changing/buying wheels/tyres/tubes, jacking, finding keys/breaking steering locks etc etc just to roll stuff about while I am sorting.

If someone leapt on and said 'I know of these blow up tyred ones, and Ive used them and they are great, but they are  £300/£400' it would still probably be worth my while getting a set to save on a***ache and b*ggeration, but I may have to accept life will just be a bit more difficult than I hoped/lazily wanted 😂

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[slater]

SGS do exactly the same ones for considerably less money. Theres even cheaper to be found on ebay too.

[squonk]

I've seen a recovery driver use cheap baking trays!! Jacked the car up, stuck a tray under each wheel and then dragged it out. Cost a lot less than the dollys do and probably worked better.

[braaap]

My experience:
buy the cheapest ones and be willing to spent at least the same price again for some proper castors.

My first dollys had full steel castors which were really bad to use, especially on rough concrete floors.
Looked like these, maybe red, can't remember:





My current set had some castors with a pretty hard plastic around them. Bought the set of 4 for a price offer at 67€.
Like these, pictures shows original castors





I replaced these with some proper castors from ebay, too, called blue wheels. They have a softer, hard-rubber-ish surface and they work really good on my smooth coated concrete floor. Of course there shouldn't be any screws etc. on the floor.
These, paid around 80€ for the set:

[nickwheeler]

As mentioned, the flaw with these things is the casters which are too small for anything but really smooth surfaces. The cheaper dollies come with cheap casters, and they don't last long. More expensive wheels are better, but aren't a total solution.

Baking trays? I used to keep a couple of plastic wheel trims on the truck for that purpose which are even cheaper. Glossy magazines sort of work if you're desperate....

[dan95x]

Thanks all - Fears (bit strong, but you know what I mean!) confirmed, that the only way of getting what I hoped was off the shelf would be to modify a set of 'normal' ones with better castors.

One of the few times in my life I was happy to just buy something off the shelf to make my life easier, and I am still going to end up altering something instead

[braaap]

But changing 16 wheels is not such a big thing. Remember, if You buy the cheap ones new, You need to assemble them anyway.

So better buy good ones immediately and do the job once.

[grumpybadger]

I've used the machine mart ones over a couple of projects as I don't have the space to walk around the van without moving it.
I can confirm everything above and add that it still surprises me just how high you need to lift a car to get tgem in.

You could look at the wheeled chassis stands as they have bigger castors and come up on market place and ebay fairly cheap.

[ChasR]

The other choice here, albeit price goes up, are Go Jacks, which are handy things.

[dan95x]

​Its really annoying when theses things never get concluded - I went with SGS's version of the Gojack style pump up dollies, and I have been really impressed to be honest, especially for the price.

These ones: www.sgs-engineering.com/ws4000-680kg-wheel-skates

The castors while not massive and 'all-terrain' like I was looking for, are bigger and more 'rubbery' than I expected, and so cope pretty well, even with a few lumps and bumps - Have used it on smooth concrete (perfect for it) lumpy/broken up concrete (pretty good) not-quite perfectly laid slabs (pretty good too) and some kind of crappy tarmac (not too bad).  So far have only used them on fairly light vehicles (Beetle, 911, 412), it still needs to be seen how they cope on 2/12 ton of Humber, but I am pretty impressed.

I havent seen the Gojack ones in person - You can tell that the SGS ones, while good quality are built to a price so to speak, if I had to guess, the Gojack ones are probably 'nicer' kit, but still, for what I needed, I am well chuffed (don't take that to mean that these are curse word quality by any means, they are good - Think if it as maybe these being Halfords Pro vs Gojacks as Snapon, if that makes sense)

Cheers for all the advice  😊👍

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[biturbo228]

I've wanted a set of those for a while so I can make some DIY corner-weighting scales like SuperfastMatt

[dan95x]

Sept 28, 2023 12:46:25 GMT biturbo228 said:

I've wanted a set of those for a while so I can make some DIY corner-weighting scales like SuperfastMatt

I am pretty impressed - I thought I might end up buying them for this series of vehicle movements I need to do and then get sell on, but actually I think I will just keep them for moving stuff round in future