Has anyone made a dolly for pushing their camper around in the garage. It would be nice to push the camper around to the back of the garage during the winter. What castors did you use? Need to support 4,000lbs.

 

I made mine, but my camper is only about 1500lbs. I found some at Home Depot that work well. Casters with over 1000lb load rating, I'd probably shop here:
https://www.casterspecialists.com/co...rt=bestselling

I vaguely remember HD did have some high capacity ones, also Harbor Freight might have some options.

 

I did one also for my lighter camper and some more for other heavy things. One thing I noticed is the bigger the wheel diameter the easier it pushes and goes over cracks easier.
Hard part is to decide if you want two castering wheels and two fixed or have 4 castering wheels. I still don't know.

 

After pushing many loaded and empty network cabinets through doorways, I can say with some certainty that I'd want two fixed and two swivel . . . unless I could count on having at least many other people around to help control it every time it gets moved. With 1,000 pounds, not a big deal, but with 4,000 pounds and assuming there is other stuff in the garage to crash into, two fixed casters would significantly reduce the excitement.

Also I second taller wheels. They swivel more easily and roll over floor defects and debris more easily.

 

I'm putting together a new plan for a mobile base (aka dolly) for my table saw that is stored under my F-350. I started with two fixed and two swivel wheels. I think I'm switching to two fixed and four swivel wheels to help account for the cracks in the garage floor. My wheels did come from Home Depot. They had a decent selection. Mine were in the middle of the weight range. I needed the size of the wheels to be small for clearance. I don't know the exact weight of my table saw but it's heavy with cast iron top/wings and a large aftermarket fence. Certainly not in the weight range of a slide-in camper, but a similar concept.

If you're concerned about clearance, then use more of the smaller wheels.

 

Good point. I'll revise my suggestion: Two fixed and some amount of swivel. The fixed wheels should always be side by side, but at one end (for easy steering) or in the middle (for quicker steering and possibly some additional load capacity if they can be bigger). The only downside to some more-than-four wheel combinations is that floor shape changes will have to be dealt with somehow, otherwise you could find some number of the wheels unloaded or airborne as the assembly goes through dips and over bumps. Will the frame flex to allow for this? . . . or is it stiff enough to lift some number of wheels in the air? . . . if the fixed wheels are in the middle, like those Home Depot lumber carts, will the assembly move sideways when the fixed wheels are airborne such as going over a dip or trickle channel? . . . will this type of thing redirect too much weight to the wheels remaining on the ground?

The shorter the wheelbase and narrower the track, the less this would be an issue no matter the number of wheels, at the sacrifice of stability. Best bet for all of this would be any wheelbase and track but with three wheels, two of which are fixed. That adds pressure to the subjects of the load capacity of the wheels, structure of the frame, and loading on the surface it is all sitting on, but would never have any stress caused by the shape of the surface it is resting on.

 

Interesting group design going on here.

 

If you don't want to build one, Reico sells one: https://www.riecotitan.com/camper-do...product_id=116

 

Could you build something off of car wheel dolly like this
https://www.harborfreight.com/2500-l...ece-58394.html
I have used them on full size cars on a ruff cement floor, hard to move but I did.
On the polished cement floor of my garage I have now it moves really easy.
You can see one under the pickup truck that is a full side 8 foot bed and I moved it by myself.

Dave ----

 

I bought one of these for my NL 10-2.
Got the trailer hitch also, no way I was moving it without something more than human power.

 

I love that they have to add "Camper not included" to the product page!

 

The 20" height of that dolly would bother me. Does it have to be that high because the jacks can't lower it any further?

 

My jacks will go all the way down, low enough to hit the rear stairs even when they are folded up or the black/ grey tank drain. My guess is the dolly is high to avoid one or the other, which is common on campers with rear overhangs.

 

They also make a 15" dolly.

 

The lower the better in my book. I feel like some cross-bracing should reach down to the bottom of the legs if it is going to carry that much weight and roll.