Heavy Equipment Moving Cart

[kevin]

I consider this a piece of shop equipment, so I think it may be of interest here. I'm sure I am not alone in having to overcome some particular obstacles in getting equipment into my shop. First, my shop is in the basement, and second, I have to haul equipment over a grass yard (and down a small hill) to get to the entry door.

In the past, I have moved equipment using a heavy duty furniture dolly, but this has several drawbacks: The cart wheel tend to sink into grass, especially with a heavy load. The swivel casters on the cart make it hard to steer and promote tipping. And finally, the small caster wheels tend to get stuck on small obstacles like raised door thresh-holds.

To address these issues, I built the cart below (shown with a 360 lb surface plate strapped to it) for about $100. Build details for the cart can be found here:

https://sites.google.com/site/lagad...mills-etc/build---heavy-equipment-moving-cart

The design is a no frills six (pneumatic) wheeled cart with a pull handle. The six wheels both increase load capacity (in theory the cart can support 1600 lbs), and also give the cart a bigger footprint so it does not sink into soft ground. Also, the 8" pneumatic wheels roll easily over bumps and door thresh-holds.

Today I used the cart for the first time to move the surface plate shown in the picture into my shop, and it worked as well as I had hoped. With a little effort, one peson could pull the cart over grass, though I had a second person help me with the move to play it safe on the hill. A 3 ft. length of 2x2 was also used to help move the cart through turns, and to use as a brake on the hill.

Note: to move the cart down hill, it was placed rear end toward the bottom of the hill. In this way one person could hold the handle on the uphill end, and a second person could lever the 2x2 under the rear end to work as a brake and positioning lever.

 

[mikey]

Great idea! Are the two wheels near the handle steerable?

 

[kevin]

Mike - the wheels are not steerable. I thought about putting them on a rotating yoke (like a Radio Flyer kids wagon) but decided against it. I wanted to make it as simple and as sturdy as possible - the steering can't break because there is no steering! I've also had some bad experiences with steerable wheels and heavy equipment - seems to encourage tipping.

The build is dirt simple. Once I had all the parts, I got it built in an afternoon. In fact, it was originally so basic that I didn't even put a handle on it. A few test runs (unloaded) quickly convinced me that a handle would be a worthwhile addition. The handle is removable, which is useful when trying to wrestle machinery in tight spaces.

My idea when building this thing was to start with something very basic, and then make additions (like the handle) or modifications as necessary. So far I don't see the need for any other improvements, but then I've only used it once.

I hope others out there who have a similar need will build their own, and perhaps come up with some useful improvements. If so, I hope they will let us know here.

 

[mikey]

Thanks, Kevin. It is definitely going to be useful, especially if you have to transport something over outside ground. I've just used a 1000# convertible hand truck for that and while not as elegant as yours, it works. Inside, I've found a Johnson bar and heavy duty corner casters to be very useful.

Watch your back when lifting!!!

 

[bhigdog]

6 wheel shop parts carts typically have the center 2 wheels set slightly lower. That makes turning in their own length possible and turning in general easy..........Just saying................Bob