Home made dolly; Where do ya'll get wheels for it?

[beppington]

Caster wheels these days cost a fortune ... except at Harbor Freight. So, I bought a set of four of those, & of course found out they're junk.

Do you have a source for decent wheels that don't cost a fortune?

These will be holding about 1,000 pounds total & rolling on concrete.

Thank you ...

 

[eepete]

I got mine at Northern Tools (a step above Harbor Freight, but I wish there were a few more stairs I could climb). Here's a picture of my PHD dolly, I used 600 pound casters. These had good wheels and you can grease the ball bearings. I derate by at least 50 percent, usually a bit more. In the case of the PHD, I've got 2400 pounds of castor capacity holding up about 400 pounds of stuff.

Northern also had too cheap stuff. I've also used the Harbor Freight 1000 pound dollies for holding stuff that weights less than 200 pounds. I bolt a piece of plywood to them. You can see that approach in the dolly I made to hold my imatch. I used that approach on a backhoe bucket holder too.

Finally, you can see the tiller dolly I made. It uses the 300 pound castors from Northern. So there is 1200 pounds of capacity holding about 350 pounds of tiller. Got that done, then realized I had to lift up the tiller in order to be able to rotate the drive shaft to connect it.

Long answer to simple question, hope it helps.

Pete

 

[beppington]

Ok, thanks! Quite the assortment of dollies there! Very organized.

The wheels I got at HF are rated at 275 lbs each, & are probably holding (guessing here) a little less than 200 each, but they don't want to rotate/ swivel. I probably shoulda packed the heck out of them with grease before putting them on, but there was no easy way to get grease in them, & I kinda thought it wouldn't help much anyway.

 

[nwngunner]

i bought some of their ten inch castor wheels and they have done great. I had 3inch casters on my welder before and when i had to move it outside you had to use a tractor and just lift it. Now with the phnumatic tires, it rolls around easily.

 

[yankeerider]

I got mine at Northern Tools (a step above Harbor Freight, but I wish there were a few more stairs I could climb). ...

Pete

Check out McMaster- Carr. You might pay a little more, but I can't recall quality concerns with their stuff. True industrial quality.

 

[rambler]

The wheels I got at HF are rated at 275 lbs each, & are probably holding (guessing here) a little less than 200 each, but they don't want to rotate/ swivel. I probably shoulda packed the heck out of them with grease before putting them on, but there was no easy way to get grease in them, & I kinda thought it wouldn't help much anyway.

You have to remember, these sorts of ratings - like electric cattle fencers, air compressor motor ratings, and other such, are pretty much the rating they take just as they fail. not actual, useful rating.....

So if you are putting 200lbs per wheel, at times - most times really - you are bridging across kitty corner & actually putting almost 400 lbs on 2 of the wheels, other 2 are hanging loose with litle weight on.

So you probably shoulda got wheels rated at 600 lbs or more, to handle your load of 400 lbs, plus extra factor. 275 ain't gonna do it.

Welcome to engineering. From a simple dirt farmer.

--->Paul

 

[beppington]

Paul ... I've got four wheels rated at 275 lbs each, on a cart I made that rolls around on concrete. So, each wheel should be getting about an equal share of the load at all times.

Right now this cart has a rotary cutter sitting very centered on it, so weight evenly distributed.

But, you're prob right that I shouldn't get too close to the max capacity, especially with an product from Harbor Freight. While they seem "tough", I could tell they were not smooth swivelling even handling them in the store. Decided to give 'em a shot anyway. Another strike against HF I guess. Gotta remember: "But only tools (if any) from HF that have no moving parts."

 

[rjkobbeman]

I have dollys for two implements: 96" grading scraper and a 72" rotary cutter. I bought my casters at The Home Depot. I think 265 lbs was the max.

Once I built my dollys, I noticed a nice variety of casters at our local farm store (Rural King). Their selection includes caster with a much higher weight rating. If I run into any issues, I will get the farm store casters.

 

[k0ua]

I just got some wheels from these guys. I thought I was treated fairly.

http://www.mappcaster.com/

James K0UA

 

[6thgpSF]

not sure where your located but T.S.C. sells various wheels also as stated LOWES and Homedepot. russ