Camper Dolly

[msiminoff]

When not in use, my TC is stored inside my warehouse. It's safe, dry, & temperature controlled which is great, but I have finally gotten fed up with the amount of jockey'ing it takes to get the whole rig into the back corner of the building... not to mention getting the truck back out after unloading :M
So, this morning I built a simple steel dolly on wheels. Now I can back into the roll-up door, raise the camper, pull the truck out, slide the dolly under, and lower the camper onto it. Rolling the dolly (w/3500lb camper on board) across the concrete floor is a simple one-man job, but steering is easier with 2 people since all of the wheels are swivel casters.
Here's a few pic's;


The dolly is 33" tall (truck bed is ~34") which minimizes the amount of time I spend running the jacks up and down.


There's a 3/4" plywood deck on top of the dolly and I'll be using a second piece of ply on the lower shelf l for storing my cargo rack, motorcycle rack, tailgate, etc.


The best part is that I can now quickly & easily get the camper tucked all the way into the corner.
BTW, my shell is stored on a rolling dolly too :C

Cheers
-Mark

[homefor2]

Geeze you guys with big shops really Pi## me off cause I want one but don't have the $$$$. It also makes me wish I had learned to weld and had the equipment. There are so many times when being able to weld stuff would have been such a great skill. I can do woodwork but metal is another thing. Great job building those units.

[RideSlow]

AKSuperDually wrote:


The next part is getting a hoist system for the canopy. I have a Leer 122 I'd like to have on my truck when the camper isn't on....but it takes 4-5 people to lift the behemoth onto my truck bed.

4 posts in the ground, spaced at about 12 " in from the front/rear corners, holes cut big enough diameter for some metal conduit to go thru, back the truck in between, undo the rail clamps, lift from inside, slide a 2x4 under the shell across the bed at the front and rear, then lift the shell high enough to run the conduit thru the hole in the post, under the shell, and to the other post. Same at rear. The 2x4 keeps the shell from sliding forward or back, or off the edges, until you have it up. Drive truck out from underneath.

[BoilerEE]

JumboJet wrote:

BoilerEE wrote:
Glad everyone seems to like it - one thing I just noticed today (because of my borderline OCD) is that I may have overstated when I said "overbuilt by a factor of 10" -- noticed there's a slight bow in the lower "outrigger" portion.

Place a swivel caster in the middle of each span.

Did almost that now and made it work way, way better!

I ended up putting two fixed and two swivel directly under the upright sections, and it's way easier to push around now - can do it on my own and the casters seem to swivel much easier than before.

I'm not totally sure that the "outriggers" are 100% necessary, but they do add to the "looks right" factor, FWIW

Other modification I might do at some point is some guides to help set it down straight, but it's not really necessary either.

[msiminoff]

Nice work BoilerEE!! Thanks for sharing.
BTW, I don't see any reason to add turnbuckles… especially with your jacks so close to the ground.

dadwolf2 wrote:
Could you guys tell us what casters you used?

Mine are made by Albion and rated at ~3000lbs each. I bought a bunch of 'em for another project a few years ago and these were left-overs that had been collecting dust in a corner of my warehouse.

-Mark

[mkirsch]

mlts22 wrote:
This is my novice mind wondering, but I wonder how difficult it would be to make one with bigger wheels, so it can be used to move the TC around, even if it is on gravel or rougher terrain that the smaller casters might not function well on. That would be quite useful for outside storage lots.

I tried, and it doesn't work as well as you'd hope it would.

Last fall I built a camper dolly using 10" pneumatic caster wheels in the hopes of being able to roll my camper around my crushed stone floor barn.

The crushed stone has been packed down for a long time and has plenty of dirt mixed in so it is very smooth and solid.

I used ten casters, each with a capacity of 300lbs, spaced evenly along the length of the camper, to move a 1600lb camper.

When I first dropped the camper on the dolly, the wheels under the front of the camper just about popped from the weight. I had to move extra wheels under the front of the camper.

Even with the tires pumped up hard, it does not roll well on my barn floor. I can not imagine trying to roll it on grass.

[JumboJet]

BoilerEE wrote:
Glad everyone seems to like it - one thing I just noticed today (because of my borderline OCD) is that I may have overstated when I said "overbuilt by a factor of 10" -- noticed there's a slight bow in the lower "outrigger" portion.

Place a swivel caster in the middle of each span.

[BoilerEE]

mlts22 wrote:
I bet you could make those and sell them for a good price.

This is my novice mind wondering, but I wonder how difficult it would be to make one with bigger wheels, so it can be used to move the TC around, even if it is on gravel or rougher terrain that the smaller casters might not function well on. That would be quite useful for outside storage lots.

Could probably sell 'em to other people in AK, but shipping down south would kill the profit margin!

I'm sure you could build one for outside, but honestly, a cheap flatbed trailer would probably do the trick as well or better. I think for outdoors the issue would be control and the ability to push it on a rough surface (assuming you could find pneumatic tire casters with the load rating). Like I said, even on my perfectly level, trowel-smooth, just swept concrete floor it took every ounce of strength I had to move it around.

[BoilerEE]

Glad everyone seems to like it - one thing I just noticed today (because of my borderline OCD) is that I may have overstated when I said "overbuilt by a factor of 10" -- noticed there's a slight bow in the lower "outrigger" portion. I don't think it's an issue - about 3/16" over that nearly 2' outer span, but it's more than I was expecting. No other obvious deformation, and I'm still pretty happy with the overall design.

dadwolf2 wrote:
Would I be correct to assume that a larger caster wheel would work best. Castercity.com has a great selection of casters.

That was my thought, but again maybe the double-wheel setup would spread the load over more bearing surface and reduce rolling friction? Not sure.

[Grit_dog]

Nice work!

[mlts22]

I bet you could make those and sell them for a good price.

This is my novice mind wondering, but I wonder how difficult it would be to make one with bigger wheels, so it can be used to move the TC around, even if it is on gravel or rougher terrain that the smaller casters might not function well on. That would be quite useful for outside storage lots.

[Bigfootchevy]

Great job.

Paul

[dadwolf2]

Would I be correct to assume that a larger caster wheel would work best. Castercity.com has a great selection of casters.

[AKSuperDually]

Awesome. I miss having a shop that size....Hopefully before this winter I will have another.

Good job on the construction! It looks great!

The next part is getting a hoist system for the canopy. I have a Leer 122 I'd like to have on my truck when the camper isn't on....but it takes 4-5 people to lift the behemoth onto my truck bed. Mostly it occupies space on my trailer now....but if anyone has every spent winters in a northern climate...you know snow in the bed of your truck sucks! It also prematurely wears your truck bed.

[jimh406]

Awesome job, and even better storage!