Car dollies/skates ? Moving car around a garage ?

[SimonTheSailor]

Anybody have any recommendations for car dollies/skates to push a car around in a garage ?

I've only got a single garage but thinking of pulling the suspension off for a repaint and other things. Its a small garage so when it sits squarely in the garage I guess I've only got 18 inches down the side of the car. Be good to be able to push the car over to one side to give more space and then move back to do the other side.


I guess this is quite chuncky looking and goes under the subframe, meaning both wheels and suspension can be off all at the same time.




Where as this would be a bit cheaper but I could only do one side at a time leaving one wheel on and propping the other side up ?



Or anything else ?

[TegTypeR]

The top picture is also a wheel dolly, just a slightly different style that means you don't have to jack the car to get it on them.

[SimonTheSailor]

Oh I see - thought it was larger than it is !! Cheers

[Krikkit]

What you probably need is a custom trolley knocking together, what car is it?

[SimonTheSailor]

Lotus Elan M100

[indapendentlee]

Not sure either of the above would do what you're trying to do. For the second set of skates you'd need to jack the car up as someone else said - guessing not easy with 18 inches to play with.

The top pic (I know them as gojacks) are great and you can put them on all 4 wheels without lifting but if you imagine the two tubular bits need to move further apart and then round the wheel you might need more than 18 inches between the face of the tyre and the wall.

https://youtu.be/w9NfwVNIil4?t=25 - this shows what I mean.

[GreenV8S]

As a 'straw man', have you considered just lifting one end of the car on a trolley jack facing sideways and using that to roll the car sideways? As long as you find a suitable lifting point central on the car and keep one end on the ground at all times it will be stable. If you need to do this frequently you'll probably want something more convenient, but for something you only do occasionally this would be worth a try. (I use this technique with the V8S when I want a lot of space on one side.)

[wildoliver]

Depending how often you are going to use them skates are a help.

The top type are better for moving vehicles as you don't have to jack the car up to drop it in to the lower type.

I have the lower type and use them occasionally for allsorts, they come in very handy if a car is tight in a corner and the brakes are seized on. I've used them to move bare shells around on with blocks in the centre too.

They will only work on fairly perfect concrete. They don't like steps and gravel is a total no.

For your job I'd make an oblong frame up out of fence posts gusset the corners with some ply and fix some big industrial pneumatic casters. Will make moving the shell around much easier. Years ago I had a pool table mover which I used to the same effect. Just another thing I lost in the move after relationship broke down.