General Tech Wheel Dollies

[KVH]

I bought four wheel dollies to place under each of the wheels and tires of one of my cars, thinking they'd be great for moving the car around in the garage. That's what I thought until the dolly wheels kept getting caught and stuck in my concrete floor pour joints/expansion joints. Is there an easy fix? I tried sheet metal strips, but they only help a bit. Thanks all.

 

[charlie74]

I have dollies from harbor freight and with a large sheet of cardboard under the car (from a fridge or something like that IIRC) I can roll it over the expansion joint without much trouble. Maybe the wheels are bigger and/or the gap smaller, I don’t know(?). If you had a large sheet of cardboard or your sheet metal but it wasn’t enough maybe you could fill the joint with a fine gravel and then put the thin material over top so the dolly doesn’t sink as much. Or maybe a small diameter piece of metal conduit under the sheet material to support it. Probably lots pf possibilities…

 

[Popeye]

If the cracks are big, you can fix with concrete / grout (or even use the grout in a caulking tube). I’m not sure how “hard” grout is; whether it might will crumble under the weight of the dollys.

For smaller cracks, thickened epoxy could work, but epoxy can get expensive, unless you buy it in the gallon jugs like I do…

 

[KVH]

I have dollies from harbor freight and with a large sheet of cardboard under the car (from a fridge or something like that IIRC) I can roll it over the expansion joint without much trouble. Maybe the wheels are bigger and/or the gap smaller, I don’t know(?). If you had a large sheet of cardboard or your sheet metal but it wasn’t enough maybe you could fill the joint with a fine gravel and then put the thin material over top so the dolly doesn’t sink as much. Or maybe a small diameter piece of metal conduit under the sheet material to support it. Probably lots pf possibilities…

Good ideas. I’ve got a great piece cardboard—big. And I’ll put sheet metal under that and crush the leading edge of the cardboard.

 

[charleyf]

I find that cardboard also stops my wheel dollies. I have filled the expansion joints with a material that comes in a tube from the hardware store. That helps some. But it is not a hard filler, it is somewhat soft. When I am moving the dollies I try to orient them so that I do not get two wheels of a dolly going into the joint at the same time. Having momentum really helps get across he joints. Regardless if the engine is in the car I have trouble moving the front end around much. The small wheels are the problem. Also if you get the dolly wheels stuck in the expansion joint use your (floor) jack to raise the car up a bit and then rotate the dolly to get the wheels out of and across the joint. It is slow but it keeps you moving forward.
I have a lift that fits under the car and also has wheels that attach to the lift . These wheels are about 6" in diameter and I am able to use the lift to move a car around much more easily.
One thing that I have found the dollies very useful for is as a moveable parking spot for an engine or transmission when it is out of the car. Using a few 2x4's as needed to balance the part it sits on the dolly and is moveable around the shop as needed.
Charley

 

[JHaydon]

I think the material in the tube is called "sanded caulk". As it sounds, it's caulk with sand added. Great for gluing up cracks in non-structural masonry (e.g., stone siding on the house, sidewalk cracks, driveway cracks).

I haven't tried this idea on dollies, but -- you know how the hard plastic casters that came with HFT and Home Depot rolling tool chests come to a sudden stop when they hit any kind of tiny little debris? I searched McMaster-Carr for slightly softer urethane casters with the same bolt patterns. They roll much easier because they can deform (like a tire) when they hit something small.

The big question mark is whether they have any with both the correct load rating AND diameter (so you don't end up with jacked-up 8" high dollies).