Hobo Fright CAR DOLLIES ... what say you ??

They are ON SALE this weekend ... I’d like to pick up a set or two ... are they any good ? Greaseable swivel and axles ?

If they are the black small ones (their cheapest) they are ok for small cars. I put 4 under a Cuda.....I could move the rear of the car around without too much trouble but the front was pretty much a no-go, at least by myself. Big block car.

Sold em to a guy with Porsche’s and a Miata, they work great for him.

Those ones that they're selling this weekend for $39 a pair, no good for a Mopar. I have four of those. Once you get some weight on them they deflect enough that the casters don't work good. The ones that have the foot pedal to jack them up are pretty decent. I have a set of four of those and no complaints. Even under some pretty heavy vehicles.

HJ ... tooo much weight makes them do that ?

These are the ones ....

"HOBO FRIGHT" ? ? ? ?

Don’t forget to get your free LED flashlight.

That name is the fault of the neighbor of the above this post ..... Harbor Freight

The two Pennsylvania that HOARD these lights !

I was HOPING to get one or two more but the only TRAIN LOAD they had went to western Pennsylvania...

good for rolling around an engine block. B body, not so good.

Hazard Fraught has replaced those with these.

Maybe in your neck of the woods. We still have the good stuff here in pa.

I put 4 under my sons 67 Dart 270. Could NOT roll the front end at all. The rear was movable but not smoothly.

I took 5 of the $12 wood movers dollies, took 1 apart and put two more of the swivel wheels under 4 of them to make four each into 6 swivel wheel ones, and this works well.
The steel ones I use for my engine blocks. I just welded some steel strap on so the blocks sit square. They roll around real well.

I have my challenger on those dollies, works great.
But car is a full tube chassis car.
My garage floor is very smooth and flat.

I bought a set of the heavy duty ones. No problem moving my Ramcharger around on them. It has front and rear Dana 70 axles and 36 inch swampers.

Those are not what's on sale though.

I have had those for years and love them. My Barracuda sat on them and I rolled it all over my shop by myself with no issues. But....nice smooth flat floor like the above post stated sure helps.....

I put them under the Dart as it just sits with low miles. So close to one wall.
I pushed it over so I could work on it No Go. I did better with a floor jack.
I may try the larger ones but those were junk. Would not move! You would have thought my mother in law was in tha car

So Pinkster ... you tried to CHEAP OUT with the 1000 pounders instead of the 1500 ones?

Your mother in law ...

The movers dollies ?

So the wooden ones have a better quality caster wheels ?

With 6 castors under then yes.

So you discovered the casters on the 1500 lb ones jammed up and wouldn’t swivel ?

I heard a story about LOUSY QUALITY CONTROL on the ball bearing .... but I've never seen it. A couple of months ago - I went to Hobo and I bought some of those 4” casters to put on a rollaway box and went through a BUNCH of those in the bin ..... I couldn’t IMAGINE a caster wheel moving more freely !

My wheels did not swivel I may have had a bad set.

They HAVE TO swivel ...

Looking at DJs suggestion ... buying SIX wooden dollies(with the 1000 lb rated casters) as compared to the 1500 ones AND THEN the fab work .... for only a 6$ price increase !

Doc, I went out in the garage and looked at mine that I bought 12 years ago or so. They look like the 1,000 pound rated ones but have the locking caster wheels of the 1500 pound rated ones.

I bought a set of HF cheapies years ago. They worked OK for a B-Body with no motor or trans in it. Not so well with a drive train. If I were going to do it again, I'd spend more.

i have a BUNCH of those as well ! they are great to stick in yer mouth when both hands are full, plus you can zip tie 'em to your mig gun so you can see in tough welding positions. when they ain't free, they are only $2.99 a 2-pack, so i stock up on those as well every trip !

back to the dollies. it seems hit or miss on those cheapies. they ARE good for engines as has been stated, but COMPLETE vehicles, not so much, especially on the front as has been previously stated.
the way to keep 'em from flexing is to weld a piece of 1/8 x 1" strap side to side, but the problem with that is, the straps interfere with even slightly wide tires.
my opinion, if you want THOSE particular type of dollies, buy 'em at a swap where they are only $25 a pair. if not, pony up the x-tra bux for the 1500lb versions, or buy the super de-lux aluminum pump up versions.


in any event, don't forget yer FREE FLASHLIGHT, no matter what version they offer. [one final note : don't lick the light then touck yer face. CDC warning and all. ]

And don’t shine the light directly into your eyes. Those suckers are brighter than the 🌞

The Daytona dollies they offer work well.

Same here.
Put 4 of the cheap ones under a 1970 hemi Cuda and couldnt move the car by myself

Trust me , If you must use HF ones,,pay up and get the ones with the jack on the side. A buddy of mine has 4 of them under his superbird and they work great

That’s the Daytona ones I referenced above. Work great and one person can easily move the car around. I had a set of the cheapies and they were terrible even on perfect smooth concrete. I now use them for transmissions and rear ends to move them around with.

The DAYTONA ones ? ... at 120 beans EACH ? !!

Ok .... so I am ASSUMING that people have had MAJOR ISSUES with the swivel action jamming up ?

I had an experience with a cherry picker up in Michigan that was a BEAR to move around ....and there was no weight on the boom !

I greased the ball bearing up and it moved like a dream

there are lots potential problems with the casters. they are cheap, so they may, or may not [which is usually the case] roll freely. this can be caused by the casting process making the wheel diameter off center from the axle bore center [and it doesn't take much !], flat spots on the axle, burrs in the axle bore, or other items, bad bearing races, bad bearings, and on and on.
the other potential problem is the tire plates are thin, so when weight is added, the plates flex, causing the casters to go off axis, jamming up.

grease may or may not help. light weight vehicles, or ones without engines may not have problems using the cheapies.
when a guy buys the cheapies, then replaces the casters with good ones, you will wonder why you spent the money on good casters when the upgraded [pay more up front] ones are less money than you pay for good casters.

or fab your own.

anyway, that's my opinion. your mileage WILL vary.............

Butt ... bCb ..., I’ll know SOON ENUFF !

I’ll pull THE TRIGGER on this soon ... and again I’ve HEARD OF some Hobo casters being bad but the ones I’ve seen are fine. Now putting actual weight on it is a diff story.

But ... butt crack .... if I can’t put my Chrysler 200 vert on a set of four ... and I can’t move it in a corner WITH EASE ... Hobos gonna get em back !

Have you alerted your banker that you have made this decision? Have the funds been mobilized into position? Harbor Freight must be ecstatic!

Pman ... don’t you have ANYTHING BETTER TO DO with your time than invading a topic with your grumpiness ?

I've used the small wooden dollies a bunch of times. Flip them over and look for flaws in the wood before you buy them, it also seems like they use whatever wood is on hand and some have a harder species or different grades. Between a friend and myself I think we had one fail out of a dozen. For a big block car you could always take some scrap wood and double up the frame, the casters seem more than adequate. Just don't abuse them and they will do the job. They work better than trying to drag the car with just a jack but you'll still have to rock them a bit to get them moving.

Grumpiness? I’m on the edge of my seat thinking 4 of these bad boys might soon go into private ownership!
I bet you could get a police escort. If you want the attention the local news would probably do a story on it!

LOL....lighten up, have fun. Are you going to pull the trigger on a Hellcat or did the Canadian/Mexican manufacture issue kill that deal?

So you might be suggesting that the wood dolly casters are better quality than on the Pittsburgher metal ones ?

Pman ..... so if you bought 2 sets (8 pieces) and they did not perform as advertised.... you’d keep them ?

This looks like it could be a great mini series on HBO.
Eric Buys Car Dollies.
I can clearly see 6 part with everyone on the edge of their seat.

That's exactly what I use them for, storing and moving engine short blocks.

Tried them on a car years ago, it was too hard to move.

I would hire an engineering firm to do applicability studies for the task at hand before purchase, To circumvent that process would be financial recklessness.
At $35 apiece there is simply too much at stake.

Spielberg or Scorsese? Hollywood stands to make millions.

Well, got up and got dressed to go down to the Horror Freight, wish me luck. May as well hit the WalMart while I'm dressed for it.

They are ok for parts cars, and cars with no engine. If the car has paint and no dents I would get something else. A 19 challenger scat is tough to move on a smooth floor on them, I have frame pull anchors in my floor, so I just pull it where needed with a come along. The rear moves easy, front not so much, even after oiling.

Not really much to discuss here. I have a set and experienced some of the same issues mentioned. I still bought them. They are cheap. Expect them to perform cheap. This is the problem with a lot of things.....folks want the cheap to work as well as and in some instances be better than the more expensive/better quality pieces. Bottom line is if you want to push a car into a corner and leave it for a bit, these will be fine. If you are going to be moving around on a regular basis, save your money for the higher quality pieces.

Agree, cheap is cheap.

I've got 4 of the black steel ones under a road runner and can move the car around by myself once I get the wheels turned the right direction. A big ball peen hammer is my tool for that. I've turned the car completely around inside my garage on them.

So that's where my dad has been getting those from. There are like over a dozen here and I just though at first he was just moving ONE from place to place all over the house and garage.

That’s some GOOD NEWS ... I thought that all those lites were being HOARDED by those from Pennsylvania

Ball peen hammers and a little oil ?

Have any of you guys though about packing some grease in there ?


And I’ll be the RESIDENT EXPERT HERE after I’m done today

I’m picking up a used Hobo cherry picker and engine stand so I’m gonna fur sure try and find one of those needle greasers!

i got more than a dozen in various places just in the upstairs of my house.
you should see how many are in the garage..............

mopX ... so you using them for light AND HEAT now ?

Is the cHeEzYburgherGuy using his HOARD for more than that Hobo chop saw ?

There is nothing cheap about buying a low cost dolly that could cause you to damage your car.

Damage ? ... how so ??

Use them correctly and there is no damage. Used them to carry my motor cycle and VW engines around when I swapped them out on my trikes.

Correctly ?

When you push the car and the casters don't pivot correctly and your car hits the wall or even worse another car.

But if this equipment does not operate as advertised- you simply TAKE THEM BACK for a refund

Ok you're missing the point. They seem to work ok at first but in the middle of moving the car they fail due to cheap parts and lead to possible damage to car. Yes you get a refund but not for the damage to the car they caused.

2nd ... I’m not missing the point at all !

If the caster swivels jammed up because of poor quality OR lack of lubricant... OR the steel plate deflecting so badly ... that THAT causes the swivels to lock up .. then I would not attempt ANY FURTHER usage of these pieces.

It’s REALLY INTERESTING how this topic has gone ...

I have ZERO EXPERIENCE with this .. but I will have some tomorrow... after opening up four of the eight packages I buy ...

Back from Hobo ... and ooooops - it was 2 of the 4 packages !

They were almost out of them. The display models casters sure were free and ez ! ... I might dig into the ones I bought tonight!

But DAMN .... no blue lites ANYWHERE to be found !

The cashier said that some cleaned them out !

She thought they loaded them up in a car with Pennsylvania license plates !!

Blame it on the oldtimer snowbirds. Those guys are hoarders cashing in on incoming hurricanes.

I was 50 or 60 feet from the Ho_Bo front door and never stopped.
I mzy get another micrometer that reads wrong and a free flashlight when I am back in Tha Ho_Bo Hood. Next weekend when i drive to my dads place.
BTW) Dad has. Half a bed rpom of cheapo Harbor junk in his home.
Most outlasted him but is still new in the box or pack.
Even some vintage Uran_gue ( orange) Colored items.

Not me. That hazmat suit is stuffy and hot. I'd just give them away to one of my West Virginia friends and go back to using a floorjack like I've done for 40 years.

Has anyone checked out their new generators ??

Good morning ALL ....

Doc Swivel-Fixer here !

NONE of the close parts stores said they had a needle grease injector so I dropped BIG BUX and ordered it on eBay!

Two days it will be here .... stay tUnEd

Winning.....?

aBsOlUtElY .. and luvin it ! ... THX fir asking

So are we going to get HoBo Doc_U_Ment_U_Ree
5 part Saga about the Dollies?
InQuIErE MiNdS WaNt To KnOw

Back from the shop .... sold a biggy tool box combo.

I took apart one box of the skates .... quite honestly- I’m pleased.

The caster swivel action .... I’m not overjoyed... but I genuinely believe that with good grease injected in there it should be fine.

NO WAY would I ever try packing grease in there with my fingers... that would give the word MESSY new meaning !

BTW ...I bought a Hobo manual grease gun some time ago .... that thing works great.

And I did get a flashlight with it ... BEFORE those from Pennsylvania cleaned the store out !

I have an extra blue LED light or two if you need one. 7.99 EACH plus shipping.
Let me know how many ASAP.

Pinkster .. the Dollie report is above !

But the cashier Dolly has got my attention !

So cHeEzY..... no handling charge ?

Do they come with rechargeable batteries?

AND a solar charger ??

https://www.harborfreight.com/light...-portable-worklightflashlight-64005.html

i'll let mine go for only $8.99 each, but FREE shipping ! [batteries not included]

Do I sense some COMPETITIVE OFFERS brewing?

So cHeEzY.. you going to beat BUTT CRACKS offer ?

Now to ON TOPIC ....

I had to try out a new idea on the casters

I put the stud of the caster in my drill/driver and SPUN IT for about 30 seconds ....

That HELPED free up the bearings.....

There was a light grease in there but with some heavier grease ...

Now you spending 480$ per set ...

So which is it, are they too hard to push, or do they roll too easily? With mine at least, you push the car into something it's your fault because the things won't roll on their own on a flat floor.

You need to pay attention to what's going on, and not use them on an incline. In other words, use your head for something beside a place to store a hat.

There you go UNCK !

A nice smooth floor and no cracks in the floor is important- OF COURSE !

Still waiting on the injector .... I have faith that all this is going to work out grrr8 !

Grease them, oil them, glass smooth floor, they still suck if the car is heavy, especially if it sits on them for 6 months. The wheels are cheap junk, which is what I paid for. They work well for moving an empty shell of a car. There are 2 versions of wheels, some are flat, some are a little rounded...flat roll even harder.

The $39 for a pair answers that question.
Notice the support bars underneath?
BlowOut Sale! Yea because they got stuck with container load of them.

Damn Philly... you’ve been ON THE RAG for quite some time !

I talked to a bud up in Michigan yesterday and those skates work QUITE WELL I’ll have you know.

He reports that his 110 lb wifey - ALONE - pushes a 71 Charger around with ease !

So she tells the truth about her weight and age?

I admit my car is a basic shell, has a 440/AT/Dana in it but no fenders, glass, or interior. I haven't noticed if the wheels on mine are flat or rounded, they're years old though.

I haven't greased the wheels, just make sure they're pointing the right direction, find a good solid place to push, and kind of rock it (push,push,push) until it starts moving. This is just to move the inop car around in a 2 bay garage. Maybe the expensive easy rollers would be worth it if I was pushing the car from one end of a huge shop to another, but I'm not.

Had them under my Cuda. Worked fine. Then I put the engine and transmission in and not so much. the front ones bent so much they were almost scraping the floor

Aside from the silly stuff...I worked in a shop for a while that had some of these cheap dollies. Unless the car was a shell, they were trash. Bent up, wheels folded over. I don't know how many times I threw them out in the lot and just grabbed a floorjack. Someone would always drag them back in and try to use them. Trash.

I've also used the better ones with the hydraulic lift and pedal. They were were marginally better.

Right now, I have no interest in anything made in China. Even less than before. Nothing made there I can't do without. I'd like to see them cut off, but I know it wont happen.

Got the grease injector - did a-couple of casters and it’s LOTS better... just spinning them by hand.

All I plan on putting on the skates is a Chrysler 200 and a carrotvan. FAR from the max load of 6000 lbs.

The floor in the shop is smooth and I can’t imagine the casters jamming up.

Sure: but isn't this thread about making a Silk-Purse from a Sow's Ear?

Philly... WHY do you persist on being so SILLY?!

If these did not work - ON THE WHOLE - as advertised.... Hobo would stop selling them because people would return them.

I can’t give you a personal report TODAY .... busy this weekend.... but I’ll have them greased up and assembled by early week.

THEN I’ll even might post a vid of a 100 pound chick pushing my Carrotvan around WITH EASE.

Hopefully ...

I think you need to be in it behind the wheel going Voorm Vroom while she does!

That would probably be the fastest thing he’s been in for awhile. Lol.

Pinkster... so you’ve done that with your mother in law pushing you ?

And cHeEzYburgherGuy .... you were right yesterday BUT TODAY I picked up a brand new 2020 Scat Pack Charger !

Drove it about 300 miles ... that’s one sweet ride.