Camper Dolly

[brett13]

I finally got around to taking some pics of the dolly I built. The camper is too tall for me to drive into the garage. So, I have to take it off the truck, put it on a dolly, and then roll it into the garage. Complicating matters is that my driveway is sloped, so I have to roll it all the way down where the sidewalk is almost flat. I mounted a snatch block to the back wall so I can use the truck and winch cable to roll it up and down the hill. Thought I would share.

Dolly is made of 2x6x8's (except for a coulpe of 2x4s to add some surface areas to the 'deck'. I used some gorilla glue and 3" screws. The ends have double 2x6's and the sides have one on the bottom too.

Wheels I orderd from northerntool.com. I don't remember exactly, but they are rated to somewhere between 500 and 700lbs each. They swivel, which has turned out to be good and bad. Good because I can roll the whole thing sideways into the corner of the garage. Bad when the wheel is turned sideways- it takes a large wrench to straighten it out before I can get it moving again. Used some lag bolts to attach.

A view from the bottom. Definately overkill- could have used fewer boards to support the weight, maybe even 2x4s. Damn thing is really heavy. Probably a few hundred lbs on its own. At least it is solid- no need to worry about it holding the weight/stress. I use the yank strap to help move it.

Here you can see the slope of the driveway.

 

[flinchlock]

Definately overkill- could have used fewer boards to support the weight, maybe even 2x4s. Damn thing is really heavy. Probably a few hundred lbs on its own. At least it is solid- no need to worry about it holding the weight/stress.
Holy crap... hope you do not get a job building ATC campers!

Very nice. Do you have a 4x4 version since I have a gravel driveway?

Mike

 

[paclow]

Nice work! I have the same setup with the exception of the 2x's on top. I used 1/2 " OSB plywood. Got the casters at home depot. Works like a champ.

Well done!

 

[Ted]

moving the camper around

I spoke with a couple from Washington that attach the wheels to the foot of the camper legs. No wood frame, dolly, or anything. They are able to drive into their garage with the camper, though, so I am guessing they don't have to move it up a sloped driveway.

 

[brett13]

I spoke with a couple from Washington that attach the wheels to the foot of the camper legs. No wood frame, dolly, or anything.

I was thinking that, but couldn't quite figure out how to get wheels securely on the jacks. I also would worry about the lateral stress on the jacks/jack brackets. Especially going uphill.

 

[brett13]

Nice work! I have the same setup with the exception of the 2x's on top. I used 1/2 " OSB plywood. Got the casters at home depot. Works like a champ.

Well done!

I thought I needed the support of the 2x's on top. But now that you mention it, OSB would have been better- and probably cheaper.

 

[brett13]

Do you have a 4x4 version since I have a gravel driveway?
Mike
Sure. Just put something like these on instead of the casters:
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or these: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200336328_200336328

 

[chnlisle]

Mike,

Back when I was living in Tom Tierra's 'hood I struggled with the idea of building a useful dolly. And then lo and behold Harbor Fright oops freight had their 1000 lb trailer for sale for $120. When I put it together I did so that it wasn't folding and left the lights off. It was perfect for my sloped driveway and an excellent dolly. One plus was I could use the truck to push it into the garage when I was alone. It has 10" wheels so it should handle the gravel with no problem. I also picked up their HD trailer dolly for less than 50 bucks.


It was a pain in the a$$ to put together by myself but I managed in a couple of hours. When we moved I sold it for $20 less than I payed for it.


Just a thought.

 

[pvstoy]

Looks great Brett13,

Is it tall enough when the camper sits on it the jacks clear the ground. If you go into a dip will the jacks drag?

Are you going to put eye bolts in the frame to use the turnbuckles to keep it from moving on the frame when moving up the driveway slope?

 

[brett13]

Looks great Brett13,

Is it tall enough when the camper sits on it the jacks clear the ground. If you go into a dip will the jacks drag?

Are you going to put eye bolts in the frame to use the turnbuckles to keep it from moving on the frame when moving up the driveway slope?

The top of the deck on the dolly is 15" high, so the jacks clear the ground by at least 6" when raised. Thus, no problems over dips, bumps, etc.

No plans for eyebolts. Once the weight of the camper sits on the dolly, it is like one unit and doesn't seem to shift. I use the pulley to pull it up/lower it slowly and there has not been any shifting yet, even with small abrupt stops (my wife is a little jerky on the brakes) or going over expansion joints. The slope of the driveway is deceiving. I don't know how to measure the angle, but it is too steep to push/pull up it by hand, but not as steep as it looks in the pic. 10% grade maybe?

 

[brett13]

Maybe will work this time.
Takes only a few minutes to put wheels on jacks before loading and take off after loaded.

Very cool. Thanks for posting this.

Ben, Stan- what do you think? Is the lateral stress too much? How about on the hill like my driveway? With this, I could just roll it down hill onto the truck.

 

[pvstoy]

Thanks for the feedback. The height is decieving in the pictures, That is one monster of a dolly.

Ben, Stan- what do you think? Is the lateral stress too much? How about on the hill like my driveway? With this, I could just roll it down hill onto the truck.


Maybe you can make a funnel and just let her go...

On a slope I would be afraid that the front wheels if too small would hit a expansion joint and the camper would tip over...

 

[benburnett]

wheels on jacks

The one thing that I would worry about with the wheels on the jacks was if you hit a piece of gravel and one of the wheels stopped. With enough momentum going it wouldn't take much to do some major damage to one corner in that case. On a perfectly smooth surface I would think that it would work fine but I don't see too many driveways that are flat and that smooth. One good expansion joint or small rock could ruin your day.

My experience with this type of rock vs wheel was on a skateboard long ago. I was cruising along rather well, very small rock stopped front wheel. By the time I realized what the law of physics implies in a case like this I was about 15 feet in front of the skate board and about to do a frontal landing that I knew was not going to be pretty.

Some road rash later and an investigation into the cause of my sudden flight without a pilots license taught me to watch the road a little closer from then on and of course this lesson has stayed with me to enlighten me to other applications of the same principals.

 

[EdoHart]

Small trailer = great idea.

My drive way is also sloped, so when I want to take the camper off, I've either left it on the street or in the locked parking lot a work. I never even considered putting it on a trailer! I think I'll pick one up soon, then I can put the truck in the garage for some mechanical work I have planned.

Thanks Jay.

 

[chnlisle]

Ed, I live to serve.

The trailer worked really well and ended up being just a little more costly than building a dolly and considerably more useful.

 

[buzzman]

Grandby dolly

This thread inspired me to make a camper dolly for my new Grandby yesterday. I sort of followed brett13's idea, but I used whatever materials I had laying around so it's somewhat different. I made mine using five 2"X6"X8' boards, two 4'X8' sheets of 3/8" CDX plywood, a couple of scrap 2"X8" boards that I cut to 64" long, and four old heavy duty caster wheels I wasn't using for anything else. I forgot to take pictures during construction so you'll just get to see the finished product. I basically framed it like a 2"X6" stud wall that was 4' wide and 8' long with the studs on 16" centers. It was then sandwiched between the two sheets of plywood. The 64" long 2"X8" boards were lag bolted across each end with 8" sticking outside the box on each side where I bolted on the casters. The boxed platform turned out very strong.

Now I can take the camper off the truck inside my shop and easily move it out of the way for storage.

Buzzman

 

[Linda]

That really looks great!

 

[SunMan]

That is great. Sure looks solid!

 

[simimike]

buzzman, nice dolly. But that is a really nice shop. Love those Sprites.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[buzzman]

Mike,

My shop is getting full. I need to stop accumulating "stuff" or I will have to add on to the shop. I plan to pull the white sprite on a trailer behind the FWC on some trips to the Rockies next year. Camp somewhere, with good, hard surface roads, and cruise around in the sprite. At least that's one of my ideas. We'll see if that works.

Buzzman