Dolly Caster Weight Distribution?

[Tree Spud]

I am looking at building a dolly with caster wheels for some of my heavier equipment. Need some help with how to size caster wheels.

The piece of equipment is 2200 lbs. It is a Firminator G3 with seed drill and cultipacker, 6' wide by 4' deep with heavy end at the cultipacker.

Caster wheels have a rating on them for example of 750 lbs each. I was planning of using 6 wheels

How do I select what I need for the weight that will be on the golly skid?.

 

[Maddog66]

I have the same G3 and so far I’ve been able to leave mine in an easy spot to grab it with I-Match pretty easily. But all of my other implements are on untreated 2x10 platforms cut to size with 3 stringers on the bottom connecting them. Those stringers are at both ends and the middle and serve as the mounting places for my 5” tall Harbor freight caster wheels. They are each said to support 400#.

The biggest implement I’ve made a rolling base for is my 7’ PTO snowblower. It’s about 1700# and as wide as the G3, but not nearly as back-weighted. I used 5 caster wheels on a platform about 40” wide and 8’ long. 5 wheels x 400 pounds per wheel = 2000# capacity . Seriously though, it’s worked great on my nice new concrete….that’s been swept well.

Here is one pic for my grapple…..only 400#……and the blower back in the corner out of the way.

I’m curious to watch this!

 

[Tree Spud]

Maddog, thanks, good stuff! I built the below for grapple which is 700 lbs. Wish I made wider for more stability.

 

[Maddog66]

I made my grapple cart so I could store it open…as the OEM suggested. But your way takes up way less space and I like it!

I bet a solid base and 3 -4 sets of caster wheels equally spaced will do the trick.

FWIW I thought about buying real “good” caster wheels online….but I didn’t because I couldn’t justify the much higher cost. But for my G3, I might go back on that.

 

[Tree Spud]

I made my grapple cart so I could store it open…as the OEM suggested. But your way takes up way less space and I like it!

I bet a solid base and 3 -4 sets of caster wheels equally spaced will do the trick.

FWIW I thought about buying real “good” caster wheels online….but I didn’t because I couldn’t justify the much higher cost. But for my G3, I might go back on that.

I am looking at these, what are you looking at?

Low-Profile 1,000 lb. Capacity 3"x1.8125" Glass Filled Nylon Wheel Caster with Sure-Lok Brake

The low-profile, high-load capacity Shepherd BMS30152TZ-GFN61(KK)SL swivel caster with innovative Sure-Lok brake features a 3" x 1.8125" glass filled nylon wheel and a 3-1/8" x 4-1/8" top plate, capable of a 1000 lb. dynamic load capacity per caster. In stock and ships within 48 hours. With only...

www.casterspecialists.com

 

[Maddog66]

Those look nice and honestly probably nicer than the best ones I researched. Far far better than my HF models.

Isn’t there some mechanical engineering principal about building things to 3x or 5x their mass? If that happened to be true and you can assume that all wheels support roughly the same mass, then 6 of those wheels would be 3x and 8 would be 4x of your G3.

More would be safety factor…..and who doesn’t love a good safety factor? I also thing a bigger footprint is better than a smaller one in this case.

***I’ll be starting to ignore this thread the second an actual engineer shows up!

 

[rocksnstumps]

Spud,
You feel like a road trip and got $150 in your pocket will sell you 3' x 8' all steel dolly with 10" - 2000#/ea casters. Came outta a papermill. Just too big to maneuver in my small shop which has too much junk stored in it. PM me if interested

Edit The casters do have thin band of urethane? on outer edge and roll real nice so no steel on concrete

 

[Tree Spud]

Spud,
You feel like a road trip and got $150 in your pocket will sell you 3' x 8' all steel dolly with 10" - 2000#/ea casters. Came outta a papermill. Just too big to maneuver in my small shop which has too much junk stored in it. PM me if interested

Edit The casters do have thin band of urethane? on outer edge and roll real nice so no steel on concrete

Thanks, have worked in P&P Mills around the world and the equipment is usually top notch. Too big for my needs.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Understand. Btw the 3" casters you referenced above seem like good ones but if you have any uneven seams in your floor might want to bump diameter up to 4"-5" to roll easier. With a nice level and clean floor they should work great however. Nylon and glass filled should hold up well to heavy and static loads sitting awhile

 

[Maddog66]

I also went with 5” wheels after trying smaller ones. I like the extra height plus the bigger casters had heavier metal bases for mounting.

I used 2.5” lags with lock washers but it might have been better to drill through and use countersunk carriage bolts with lock washers?

 

[Foggy47]

FWIW......I bought a "cherry picker" also known as an engine hoist off Craigs list a few years ago. I think I paid $50 for it and it came with a hydraulic jack and 4 HD steel caster wheels. I use it now to lift and store my tiller which is hard to move about. Not sure if I would buy it again for this purpose.....but it works well and rolls pretty easily. Steel wheels do not roll as smoothly as those covered with nylon or glass filled surfaces. But as noted....the rubber casters may deform with a heavy static load on them over a long period of time.

I have an old RR baggage cart that I use for multiple bags of rye seed and others. I can put up to a ton on that cart....and it's large wheels roll pretty nice. If you see one of those....don't pass it by.

I do have some low cost Harbor Freight moving dollies......and use those for lighter loads like my fertilizer spreader, seeder, stump grinder, sprayer and such. They have not been a problem for me.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Have some of those harbor freight dollies too. Pair of them work great for things under 500# like a tractor bucket or box blade.

I'm kind of a cart, dolly junky at auctions but with so much former industry around here they can be reasonable to get. And good quality USA casters too. Most times Albion but some others. The favorite used on heavy duty carts seems to be 6" phenolic ones. Put 1000-2000 lbs on them they still roll and swivel nice. Easily into double digits on numbers of carts and platforms and that does not even include the HF cheapo stuff. Gotta rearrange the furniture a lot in a small shop

 

[b116757]

Personally I like 6” castors because they roll around easier as the above ^^^ poster has said

 

[Tree Spud]

I would agree larger wheels would be better, but I have a height restriction to get the dolly to fit under the Firminator.

 

[ksJoe]

I've gotten a lot of casters in the last year for carts under tractor attachments. My favorites are the steel wheels with a thin layer of polyethelene. I've not gotten any steel wheeled casters that didn't have a frame that seems easily up to their rating.

I started off getting some fixed wheels, thinking I'd put 2 fixed and to swiveled wheels on a cart. I've found I very much prefer all the wheels being the swivel style. Bigger wheels will roll smoother across imperfections in the floor. If you have a painted floor, definately get the polyethelene coated steel hubbed wheels. The poly will let sand squish into it some and not tear up your paint so bad.

Here's a sample 6" 1200 lb rated caster I have. Here's some other that I'm happy with too. All the brands of steel wheeled casters of this style have been very impressive in person (regardless of brand). If they look like these, they're solid.

I also have a set of these casters. They claim to have a 500 lb rating (2,000 per set) - which is totally unrealistic for real world use if you want them to last. They'd be fine for 200 each, 600-800 for the set. In person, these are at least as flimsy as they look like in the pictures.

How concerned you need to be about the weight rating I think depends on circumstances of use. I frequently see weight ratings where they state the per caster rating and the rating for a set of 4. The set rating is simply 4x the individual rating. As you start pushing something around on a cart, clearly some wheels will get more weight than others intermittently. What I'd be more concerned about is the conditions of operation. If you're pushing it by hand across a finished concrete floor that's a lot more gentle than towing a load across a parking lot.

If you're just going to push around by hand on a nice floor, I expect any of the 2" wide steel wheeled casters with a 750 or above rating will be fine for you. With that much weight, I'd look at 6" or bigger wheels so its easier to push around.

 

[Foggy47]

Don't forget to watch FB Marketplace for such things. Lots of various quality, but you may find things like platform trucks for a fair price. Those are the real deal for heavy weights.....and can be had for a low price often times.

Lots of wheels....but you gotta watch for the right stuff.

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