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Thread: Caster suggestions for dolly?

  1. #1

    Caster suggestions for dolly?

    I'm building a simple dolly to get a bare shell to the blaster. There are a bewildering number and size of casters on McMaster. This is what I settled on. Any comments? My garage is decently smooth concrete but I'll be loading out onto asphalt then up a flat bed, back down at the blaster etc etc. The dolly will be 4x4s somewhat similar to attached pic I borrowed from the internet.

    https://www.mcmaster.com/27075T64/
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  2. #2
    Senior Member VA_alfa's Avatar
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    I would recommend casters with higher capacity; perhaps 1,000 lb each. I also recommend a wheel diameter of 8”. I am imagining rolling across driveway transitions and up wrecker ramps, you will want larger diameter wheels to make these transitions easier. Finally, a set of casters that swivel but also can be locked into a parallel direction will make maneuvering easier.
    Just my 2 cents.
    Alex in Virginia


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  3. #3
    Get bigger wheels that are no-flat. If you get ones with a lot of rubber it can help bump over bumps, but the ones with hard nylon are good too. I usually do swivel in the front, fixed in the back, so you can steer but it's not fishtailing on you.
    We've built really solid carts to get cars across country, you don't have to go this crazy, but we learned a lot building these. They don't fail.

    ---Adam
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  4. #4
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    I used some 3 or 3 1/2" synthetic casters.. they worked fine on smooth surface, brick driveway, and on and off a flat deck a few times (one more trip to go), they worked fine. I can see using larger inflatable tire casters if it's just all about the transport of the shell, but I was concerned with overall height to enable working on the shell at home and at the paint shop.

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    Cheers,

    Jones...
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  5. #5
    Thanks for the feedback all.

    Curious to hear where you all attached your cars, if not simply with ratchet straps. (Adam is that your technique? I can't tell from the pic)

    I wast thinking a useful product would be a set of steel fixtures designed to pick up factory suspension points then leave it to the user to decide if from there they weld/bolt to a wood/metal dolly. My mind is working this way after I made a run of plasma cut engine stand adapters for the Alfa twin cam designed to mate with a standard engine stand.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by r-mm View Post
    Thanks for the feedback all.

    Curious to hear where you all attached your cars, if not simply with ratchet straps. (Adam is that your technique? I can't tell from the pic)

    I wast thinking a useful product would be a set of steel fixtures designed to pick up factory suspension points then leave it to the user to decide if from there they weld/bolt to a wood/metal dolly. My mind is working this way after I made a run of plasma cut engine stand adapters for the Alfa twin cam designed to mate with a standard engine stand.
    Using the Factory pickup points and suspension points would be ideal. Our carts just had the body resting on 6X6's and rachet strapped down. It works, but it isn't elegant. Everything about ours tended to be overbuilt because they had to go on car carriers, so they had to be as wide as a car, as well as rugged. A cart going on rollbacks and small trailers doesn't need to be this beefy.

    ---Adam
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  7. #7
    Cool. 6x6 is probably a good upgrade from the 4x4 design I was pondering, and will provide some add'l height as well.

    Because I'm prone to distraction and now have a good relationship with the plasma cutter... are there suspension pick up points which would work for all long hood cars or did they change enough to make a '65-73 product impossible?

  8. #8
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    Here is the dolly we are using that our Metal guy David is letting us use while we test fit panels then goes for paint. Pretty good metal design by him that attaches to the suspension pickups. You can see the casters in the picture and seems to work well. Was a little dicey getting off the car trailer at the trailer is wider than the dolly, so had to lay some wood down in the middle.
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  9. #9
    Scott,

    Hello from nearby Guilford CT. Who is your metal guy if you don't mind me asking?

    Which suspension points exactly are you grabbing?

  10. #10
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    Sent you a PM.

    Pickup points in the rear is were the trailing arms attach the the torsion tube and in the front were crossmember attaches to the pan.
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