In your mind did I just shout "Wheel dollies!"...yeah well I might as well have. I've read more information than I want to on something so mundane so I'm asking everyone here for their opinion.

My workshop only has one door and the garage is only 24' deep so I need to be able to push the truck to the side. I have looked at a ton of different dollies and I have come to two conclusions:

1) Hydraulic dollies are not in my budget
2) People either love or hate the caster type dolly

So, does anyone use these on a regular basis and can give an opinion on which one to look for and where to get them at a good price? I noticed that some are 1000lb capacity. The truck(s) (78 and 65 F100s) I would use them are just over 4000 lbs so I guess I cant use those??

Thanks folks!
Shane

 

I bought the 1500 lb. ones at Harbor Frieght for use with my Jeep. They are the caster kind, and seem to work ok. They aren't exactly easy to push around by one person. I'd say I'm happy with them. They were just on sale again too for 40.00 a pair.

If your truck wieghs 4000 lb., the 1000 lb. dollies would work but at capacity.

 

The nose of the truck has more weight than the tail. You will need at least the 1500lb ones for the front, you could use the 1000lb ones for the rear though.
These aren't too hard to make yourself if you want a bit more capacity. There are a lot of places you can get 300-400lb capacity iron casters, then just make up a frame to cradle the tire. If you have a coating on your garage floor, though, heavily loaded iron casters are great for removing it.

 

When I lived in CT I bought four dolly's for my old Dodge D200 extended cab, because my garage, while a two-car garage, was a single-file kind. To work on the truck I'd have to push it out of the second spot away from the back wall so I could work on it, then push it back when done. Since my garage floor had an obnoxious slope towards the back wall, pushing to the wall was reasonably easy. Stopping it was not so pleasant. Usually the wall with an old tire in front of it was involved. Pushing it "uphill" into the middle of the garage so I could work on it was impossible for me by myself, and I had to chain the truck's trailer hitch to my lincoln's trailer hitch, then "tow" it about six to eight feet so I could work on the engine. When done, I'd push it back as I described above.

I would have left the truck in there by itself however I needed to keep the Lincoln in the garage too (lousy neighborhood) and the truck didn't have any tires for about a year - it sat on empty rims on the dolly's, so pushing it forward and back with the rims on the concrete was out of the question.

If you have any indentations, cracks, or even 4-40-sized nuts on the floor you're going to find pushing something that heavy absolutely miserable, even with friends helping you. But, they do work. Just go slow and be very careful. You certainly don't want to be between what you're pushing and the wall. Been there, screamed in pain.

 

Heyooo, got 4 1000lb dollies on Sunday and put them under the 65 F100 tonight. Oh. my. God. I was a bit worried that they would be hard to use or that they wouldnt be heavy duty enough for the truck but it was so easy to push the thing around I spun it around a couple of times just for the fun of it.

One question though: is it ok to leave the truck on them for a while or should I remove them once I have it where I want it?

Thanks!
Shane

 

Yes it's safe to leave your truck on them. My Jeep has been on my dollies for the last 6 months or so with out problems.

 

My concrete floor is only about 2 months old...any chance of problems with the weight on the small casters in one place?


Shane

 

I would think your concrete has cured enough to hold the wieght. But there are so many variables concerning concrete, that I couldn't possibly be 100% accurate in my assumption.