Truck camper dolly thoughts / sanity check.
I have been reviewing my options for a camper dolly. When the camper is off of my truck, the camper and truck sit side by side in a carport on a gravel surface. This surface is somewhat flat, but not ...
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A couple years ago I performed a grand experiment, trying to build a camper dolly for my relatively smooth, relatively level gravel barn floor.
My dolly ended up with 10 large pneumatic casters, my reasoning being the more tire I could put on the ground, the easier it would roll. The intention was to be able to move the camper.
It did not work well. First time I put the weight of the camper on the dolly, the front tires went right down to the rims. I needed to add two more casters to the front of the dolly to carry the weight of the front of the camper.
After that problem was solved, I tried to move it. It would not roll because some of the casters were facing the wrong way. The only way I could get it rolling was if I jacked up the dolly and positioned the casters in the direction I wanted to go.
The next spring, all the tires were FLAT. After I aired them up, the camper would not roll. I ended up wrapping a chain on it and tugging it with a tractor to get it out of the depressions that formed in the gravel over the winter. In dragging the dolly, I managed to bend two of the casters.
All in all, it was a failure. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now because it's all nailed together and pulling it apart will destroy it.
My dolly ended up with 10 large pneumatic casters, my reasoning being the more tire I could put on the ground, the easier it would roll. The intention was to be able to move the camper.
It did not work well. First time I put the weight of the camper on the dolly, the front tires went right down to the rims. I needed to add two more casters to the front of the dolly to carry the weight of the front of the camper.
After that problem was solved, I tried to move it. It would not roll because some of the casters were facing the wrong way. The only way I could get it rolling was if I jacked up the dolly and positioned the casters in the direction I wanted to go.
The next spring, all the tires were FLAT. After I aired them up, the camper would not roll. I ended up wrapping a chain on it and tugging it with a tractor to get it out of the depressions that formed in the gravel over the winter. In dragging the dolly, I managed to bend two of the casters.
All in all, it was a failure. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now because it's all nailed together and pulling it apart will destroy it.
