Truck Camper Dolly (Trailer) to get into garage

[Josh41]

Time to get the camper off the truck and into the garage. My garage is only 6' tall and the FWC (Fleet Shell, 700#) on the truck is 7'. So I was planning on building a dolly with casters and tow bar to put it in and out of the garage. After looking at the cost to build the dolly, I realized it would be about the same price and slightly better quality to buy a Harbor Freight trailer to slide the camper in and out of the garage. So, pack up the wife and dog and head over to HB to look at trailers, they start as low $199. Wow, only problem, HB says the trailers are recalled and they can't sell them. Anyone know of other trailers at the $200 to $300 price range??
Thanks

 

[NivekD]

Ton of those trailers for sale on classified sites. Check craigs list or your local classifieds. I built my own. Had everything already so it was cheap.

 

[mkish]

We built a dolly with plywood, 2x4s, and casters. It does take 2 people to push (and mostly to steer) our much larger and heavier Northstar 800 (over 2000 lbs usually), but I'm sure it's much easier to deal with than a trailer.

We did use Harbor Freight casters at first and that thing was 10x easier to move once we replaced those with good ones!

 

[BLOOSE]

I need to do the same thing. I am interested to see the solution you choose.

 

[Living The Dream]

I just use two of these

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Buffalo-...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CNiqkqDW5tYCFUmyTwodebUINg

they do the trick just fine. I was originally going to build a custom one too, but you can't really even buy the casters for the price of the dolly. Ever time my camper has been on them it was an empty shell, but I believe even a fully loaded camper would come under 2000lbs on two dollys. Good luck - Tim

 

[Kya]

Harbor Freight trailer doing the trick for me. Only a couple hundred bucks and it does the job of moving my camper in and out of the garage.

 

[Josh41]

They stopped selling them. Something about a recall.

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[Joeprunc]

Built one with 2x4s and castors from Harbor Freight. I built a frame to match the frame of the camper itself. I have a bit of a lip going from the driveway to garage, and really glad I have largest castors, and a cart that is distributed throughout the camper frame. With the height I got really lucky, I measured multiple times, but forgot about the fan cover. Have about 1" to spare above and below.

It fits perfectly, but really wish I had that garage space back.

 

[Josh41]

Joeprunc, that is exactly what I am going to do, what size wheels did you use, are they the hard ones or pneumatic, I have a lip to get in my garage as well.

 

[mkish]

Mine is similar, although not nearly as pretty. I had something cheap from HF but switched to these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006P68K50/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pldnSite=1 We actually thought the dolly was a terrible idea and really hard to use until we got decent casters.

They work great. We have some uneven concrete seams as well. We usually push the camper into the garage before unloading (we can pop it up in the garage) so it's a lot heavier than yours will be. (I prefer to store it with a full water tank as part of my halfassed earthquake preparedness plan, but we do dump the plastic flavored stuff on the lawn and get fresh water before a trip...)

 

[Joeprunc]

Joeprunc, that is exactly what I am going to do, what size wheels did you use, are they the hard ones or pneumatic, I have a lip to get in my garage as well.

Got the 6" swivel hard castors. The pneumatic's will go over the crack easier, but I didn't want to deal with them going flat all the time, and not entirely sure about the load capacity. With the hard castors you still have to get some momentum to get over the cracks. I can move my camper with just one person, but its a lot less stressful with another set of hands.

 

[Runt]

Mine is a bit burly to traverse a gravel drive way. I used a 2X4 frame set on edge, used steel 90 degree reinforcements one cross support all screwed together with 3" wood screws with three per joinery. I added 2X4's to the bottom and mounted 6 casters in total each with rated 400 lb capacity. They are 10" wheel casters with pneumatic tires bolted through the 2x4's. Four (front and middle) swivel, with non-swivel casters in back. Added an extra board behind the first set of swivel casters with a 2" receiver that is bolted through the two 2x4's to share the load. I can slide a 2" ball mount hitch to hook a hand cart or a ball coupler/tongue with a 2" tube to hook to my atv or truck. Top side is a full sheet of 3/4" plywood all screwed to the box 2x4 frame. The sides have D rings to attach the camper anchor/tie down straps. Total cost was roughly $ 500.00 can ....you can drop $ 200 if you do not add the receiver, tube and coupler.

 

[Josh41]

Made this from leftover wood in the garage and 4 swivel castor wheels. Scrap plus about $100 in harware.

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[mkish]

Looks good. Is there a dog in the camper or is it a reflection?

 

[Josh41]

Thanks, that's my buddy Skiff.

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