Arcade Dolly...what do you use?

pcnerd

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Im thinking of getting a dolly to help move my games around but Im not sure where to go an purchase one. I see them online from happ and stuff but shipping is crazy! I would like to find a local place to pick one up but not sure of the best kind to get. Would a regular appliance dolly do the job?
 
A good refridgerator dolly will become your best friend in this hobby. You can get them at U-Hauls, online, hardware stores, etc. I'd suggest shopping around because prices do vary. Get the kind that have attached straps that you can "cinch" afer you'v buckled them.
 
A good refridgerator dolly will become your best friend in this hobby. You can get them at U-Hauls, online, hardware stores, etc. I'd suggest shopping around because prices do vary. Get the kind that have attached straps that you can "cinch" afer you'v buckled them.

Good Idea, I forgot Uhaul sells them! Ill check around. I checked the local HomeDepot but they didnt have any good ones. I like these ones at Happ cause they have the retractable casters to support the game in the tilted transport position. I just cant seem to find that kind local though!
http://www.happcontrols.com/material_handling/33000300.htm
 
The bigger wheels are better. I prefer air-filled wheels. Kinda a pain to remember to check them periodically, but if you're moving games inside the house, you'll appreciate them.

I bought several games this summer, and had left one Saturday to pick up a Star Wars. My wife got sick of seeing the new games in the garage, so she enlisted several teenagers to move them to the basement.
The Gravitar game has wheels, so it was no problem.
But since I had the dolly, they dragged the Centipede across my hardwood floors, and scratched the ever-living crud out of them.

It was a good thing she did this, because if I did, I wouldn't have woken up the next morning!
 
Good Idea, I forgot Uhaul sells them! Ill check around. I checked the local HomeDepot but they didnt have any good ones. I like these ones at Happ cause they have the retractable casters to support the game in the tilted transport position. I just cant seem to find that kind local though!
http://www.happcontrols.com/material_handling/33000300.htm

the prices are wrong on there website. The 66" is $549.90 and the 72" is $409.00??????? The prices are reversed. Grab this deal while you can.
 
You want the ones with the solid rubber wheels, as big as possible. Ones with straps are good but I don't like the buckle kind. I work at an appliance store and we have ones that have a strap with a handle for tightening. They work great for our purposes. Our boss paid $250 for them. Definitely worth the money if you do a lot of moving. I have one of the crappy carts with no strap and balloon wheels but it only cost $20. It depends on how much moving you do.
 
I was just thinkin about this the other day, the strap on the appliance dolly I have is about to go and having the retractable wheels would be awesome. So I looked at what Happ had, and just googled that make/model and found other sites selling for a lot less..

http://salestores.com/stevenss.html

Now if I can just find a local dealer for these I'll be in business!
 
I have one from Home Depot that has a strap and stair tracks, looks just like the U haul hand trucks. $130.00 out the door.
We used that sucker to get three Rush The Rock cabs up into a 24 Ft penske rental sideways ... Wish we would have gotten a pic of that!
 
I use a regular $30 hand truck that I got from Northern Tool and Equipment.

I make sure that the tires don't have too much air in them and that to strap the cab to the dolly. The middle tube is great for hooking the straps to. If you air up the tires too much it causes the load/cab to bounce all over the place so you want to figure out a good middle ground between being over and under inflated..
 
This is why you don't want to use the cheap $19.99 special:
PICT0163.JPG


Yeah, that's not supposed to bend that way...
 
I bought this one:

143751_lg.jpg


From Northern Tool. It's $30. Yes, it's cheap.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200377813_200377813

The build quality? It's so-so. I did a lot of research before buying a hand truck. I looked at stuff from $19.99 to over $500. 4 wheels, stair climbing tracks, pneumatic versus hard rubber wheels, straps, no straps, convertible, etc etc etc.

In the end I really sat down and THOUGHT about what I needed out of my hand truck. For me, it was occasional moving around the shop/garage, and probably for light duty furniture moving too. I am by no means a professional mover, and I do NOT plan on moving any cabs up or down stairs without help. I also have a home with entrances on the main AND basement levels (sloped property), so stairs aren't really ever an issue.

As far as straps go, if I really feel the need to strap a cab to the hand truck, I'll get a ratchet strap and strap it on. In most cases, if you practice a good center of gravity, you can maneuver a cab just fine without straps. If you're feeling like you can only move it with straps, then you shouldn't be trying to move it alone anyway -- get help.

As far as tires go, there's tons of folks that say hard rubber is the way to go, but I disagree; I tend to find myself going across many different surfaces with cabs: gravel driveway, concrete, hard floors, carpet, turf, dirt, sand, etc. There's no way that hard rubber would roll across those surfaces. Sure there's issues with air pressure and bouncing, but again, if you're moving a cab so big/heavy so quickly that you're going to bounce it around, you're in the same situation as illustrated above: get help.

Quality wise, I figured it was a smarter investment for me to buy into something less expensive up front. If I find that I'm replacing 2 or 3 times, I'm still out less than $100. Plus by that point, you've moved enough cabs that the investment in something more robust will be worth the investment.

I also based my observations on my buddy's dolly over the past 4 years. He's had virtually the same one as I bought, except his has small hard rubber wheels. It's held up just fine through about 20 cabs or so. His only complaint? He wishes he'd gotten pneumatic wheels.

As far as that bent handle goes, RedWolfJC, I'd say pulling on the handle versus tipping the cab will bend even some of the best made dollys out there. They're not made to tip the cab for you -- they're made to assist in transporting it once it's already tipped.
 
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