Car Dollies Needed....Make or Buy??

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Moparone said:
They were very hard to move. If the car was not finished they may work but if you are trying to easily move a finished car with one person, these are not the correct ones to have.
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I never had any issues moving my cars around my shop by myself on the dollies, complete cars included. On a sloped driveway I needed two people.

But this shouldn't be surprising, how easy do you think it's going to be to move a 3,500 lb car? They're just dollies, they don't defeat the laws of physics.
 
72bluNblu said:
I never had any issues moving my cars around my shop by myself on the dollies, complete cars included. On a sloped driveway I needed two people.

But this shouldn't be surprising, how easy do you think it's going to be to move a 3,500 lb car? They're just dollies, they don't defeat the laws of physics.
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I’ve used the expensive one and you can move a car around with one hand. If you done mind pushing on your car as hard as you can then the HF ones will work fine.
 
Moparone said:
They were very hard to move. If the car was not finished they may work but if you are trying to easily move a finished car with one person, these are not the correct ones to have.
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Gotchya. Thanks. Yeah, Harbor Freight's casters aren't known for being the best.
 
72bluNblu said:
I never had any issues moving my cars around my shop by myself on the dollies, complete cars included. On a sloped driveway I needed two people.

But this shouldn't be surprising, how easy do you think it's going to be to move a 3,500 lb car? They're just dollies, they don't defeat the laws of physics.
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I wonder if they had a bad run of casters? I have an OLD floor jack I got from them when they first opened in Macon YEARS ago. The jack works GREAT but it rolls like crap. I need to get up off my butt and put some better casters on it. I have a better jack I use on the concrete floor, but I use the old one outside so it's not a huge deal.
 
I have three sets of the black HF version, they work okay for what they are. It does usually take two people to move a complete car, but I have a small winch that makes it a one person job. Very useful for moving a car sideways, into a confined space.
I also have a pair of the cheaper diamond plate version from HF. Don't bother, they're garbage.
If you have a floor jack (have three HF Jack's, very good for the price!) there is no need to have a jack on the dollies. Save yourself some money.
 
Moparone said:
I’ve used the expensive one and you can move a car around with one hand. If you done mind pushing on your car as hard as you can then the HF ones will work fine.
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Yeah but the expensive ones can cost $800 - $1,000 pretty easily. The HF ones are what, $140?

I think this is just a matter of expectations. I had no problems using the HF dollies to roll my cars around my shop even by myself. If I had a professional shop and a bunch of cars I had to move all the time then I wouldn't use HF dollies. But for a hobbyist with a car or two that has to rearrange their shop to do different work once and awhile they work fine.

It's like most HF stuff in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend a HF welder to someone that welds all day long for a living, that's not going to hold up. But if you need to weld in a couple of patch panels or a set of subframe connectors in your garage they work just fine and you don't have to spend 5x as much.

RustyRatRod said:
I wonder if they had a bad run of casters? I have an OLD floor jack I got from them when they first opened in Macon YEARS ago. The jack works GREAT but it rolls like crap. I need to get up off my butt and put some better casters on it. I have a better jack I use on the concrete floor, but I use the old one outside so it's not a huge deal.
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Entirely possible. They're just cheap casters, nothing fancy. And clearly quality control is somewhere HF saves money. But they also exchange stuff pretty easily if you get something that doesn't work right, so as long as your comfortable taking something back if it's not working right then I don't see it as a big issue. We all know why that stuff is cheap, sometimes its gonna mean you get stuff that doesn't work. And yeah, something that costs 5x as much should work better!
 
72bluNblu said:
Yeah but the expensive ones can cost $800 - $1,000 pretty easily. The HF ones are what, $140?

I think this is just a matter of expectations. I had no problems using the HF dollies to roll my cars around my shop even by myself. If I had a professional shop and a bunch of cars I had to move all the time then I wouldn't use HF dollies. But for a hobbyist with a car or two that has to rearrange their shop to do different work once and awhile they work fine.

It's like most HF stuff in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend a HF welder to someone that welds all day long for a living, that's not going to hold up. But if you need to weld in a couple of patch panels or a set of subframe connectors in your garage they work just fine and you don't have to spend 5x as much.


Entirely possible. They're just cheap casters, nothing fancy. And clearly quality control is somewhere HF saves money. But they also exchange stuff pretty easily if you get something that doesn't work right, so as long as your comfortable taking something back if it's not working right then I don't see it as a big issue. We all know why that stuff is cheap, sometimes its gonna mean you get stuff that doesn't work. And yeah, something that costs 5x as much should work better!
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I have to admit, I've had good luck with most things I've gotten there.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I have to admit, I've had good luck with most things I've gotten there.
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Same here, I’ve honestly had better luck than I’d like to admit.

I’ve said it before, I bought one of their swivel head 3/8” ratchets for my wrecking yard tool bag. After using it for awhile, I like that one better than both the professional series craftsman and snap on ratchets I have in my tool box at home. So much so that I bought another one to use at home, I use it the most and it’s held up for years. It’s not even one of the newer Icon branded ratchets.

But yeah, I’m not doing any of this stuff professionally either.
 
Got mine off Amazon, 100 bucks for all four. Have worked perfectly.

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I have several sets of the HF casters, they work.
They also hold 833 trans, and 8.75 center awesome for storage.
 
Anybody use these on a Racedeck covered floor? The floor is flat, but the tiles have a diamond tread on them, lots of little bumps, and I wonder if the smaller wheels would end up sinking into the floor if left in the same spot for a long time.

Not my garage, just a pic off their website showing the floor texture..

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I picked up 4 from HF I don't recall they were really bad on the wallet, and they work for pushing the car around on a concrete floor.
 
72Duster440 said:
........but the tiles have a diamond tread on them, lots of little bumps, and I wonder if the smaller wheels would end up sinking into the floor if left in the same spot for a long time..........
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The HF's I have will leave divots in my "dot" floor side of the garage. It's also harder to roll the car on them. I can only imagine what might happen on tiles at the joints.
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I have 2 sets of the HF ones.. use them on everthing up to 3/4 ton trucks and can move it around myself without much effort. Absolute no complaints. Especially for price. Affordable and proven.

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6PakBee said:
HF had a Christmas special for $109.99 and I went for it. 1300 lb. Capacity Self-Loading Positioning Wheel Dolly
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I'm not really a big fan of HF but I purchased 2 sets from them. Just the dollies were useless but the one with the jack works great. Purchased them just to move a body around but then I had to move my Ford diesel dually and they actually did great. If you have bigger tires get one pair of the larger ones for the rear, they didn't make them when I got mine, but they are on the list.
 
mopowers said:
What are your impressions?? Do they work well?
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I've already got one set and it works so well I wanted another. I don't have a lot of space for storage and my cars are parked like sardines in a can. The dollies allow me to rotate them in the length of the wheelbase and that is a valuable ability.
 
Harbor Freight I paid almost $200 for four, my barn floor is not smooth but moving my car is easy. Wheels have locks.
 
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