kgorman

We have a new place to store our 28' Pace trailer, however, there is not good turnaround room to back the trailer up. I think I need some sort of trailer dolly/mover. We don't want to spend a ton of money though.

My question is this, do I need a power one? Has anyone ever moved a #3400 trailer around a parking lot using a manual dolly? I see there are some rated to 700lbs tongue weight, and we are at 600lbs w/o the car in the trailer.

Any advice?

I already checked out this thread, and am considering both the power movers linked in it, as well as thinking more about a front mount hitch.

Professor Helmüt Tester

You can move it with a stout 4-wheeler ATV, if the hitch mount is strong enough. Benefit of this is that you'll then own a 4-wheeler ATV.

If you can't fly that past whoever might have veto power, look for a used forklift/tow-motor. Probably find one for $1000-2000. Forklifts are great fun, and really useful (but not as much fun as a 4-wheeler).

ervtx

I've researched the power movers before, and concluded that the biggest variable is elevation. The slightest incline translates into something quite a bit more than a 3400 lb load.

You might consider car dollies. I have the kind that griots sells just for moving my trailer around once it's in the garage. I was worried that the two axles of the trailer would be too close to fit two of them side-by-side, but it fits easily. Mine is an open steel trailer (a little over 2K lbs?). I can move the whole thing sideways with one hand. I wouldn't try it on anything but a flat surface, however.

ATV option is a good one. If you have one that's not quite powerful enough, or if you have a riding lawn mower, you could combine that with the car dollies which would lesson the load on the ATV or lawn mower.

MJR911

we have an 18hp garden tractor (NOT a riding lawnmower) and routinely move the trailer with car loaded (total about 3500 lbs) in and out of garage

Cory M

you could buy an old forklift for pretty cheap that would do the trick

F350Lawman

I have seen plenty of pretty heavy horse trialers moved w/ manual dollies, it didn't look too tough.

This may bee a dumb question, but with practice can you simply back the trailer into the driveway to start with? if it is a fairly straight and level run it might be OK. I have two driveways, on with a turn around and one without. Once I got use to backing up the narrower of the two, it was not an issue.

kgorman

I *love* the idea of a fork lift. But I can't find anything cheaper than about $2500 on Craigslist. ;-(. I will take a look for 4x4 ATV. Good idea.

We did get the trailer into the shop by backing it in, but we had to use a parking space that was empty across from the door in order to get enough run room with my truck. We can't guarantee that spot will always be empty.

Thanks for the responses so far, keep the ideas coming!

chrisp

saw this while surfing. no personal experience.

http://www.powercaster.com/Products.html

kgorman

I took a look at front end receivers, and it appears most of them are rated for 500lb tonque weight. It's probably ok to use them for just moving the trailer a few feet I suppose, but it seems less than ideal for a trailer with >600lbs on the tonque. Too bad too because they are ~$200, so it would be a less expensive solution. It also requires removing my front fog lights (ford f350). So thats a bummer.

Professor Helmüt Tester

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/for/1000554525.html

You ain't trying that hard...this took all of 3 minutes, and I'm 3000 miles away.....

Here's another one...and look what kind of company is selling !!!:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/for/998933898.html

and another:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/tls/994867585.html

kgorman

DOH! I did see that last one... they both look nice!

Thanks for the head-slap!

Ok, I'm back to CL listings.

SCOTITUDE

Get some blue paint.

kgorman

I purchased a hand mover from Harbor Freight to see if we could possibly move the thing by hand. It was only $50, so It thought we might try it. Two of us were able to pull the trailer out of the shop and put it back. It was lots of work, and is not something we can do often. Just the little decline for the storm drain made it a bear.

I researched ATV/UTV's, and there seem to be some deals on craigslist for under 1k. So I think we will go this route. Plus we can throw the thing in the trailer and use it in the pits to fetch fuel or move tires or whatever, so we spend 1k, but we get double-use out of it. I read up on some of the ATV forums and I guess farmers use these things a lot to pull/push all sorts of stuff around even though the tow ratings are much less than the weight we want to pull.

The forklift option is just to expensive when you look at what needs to be fixed on a 1k forklift. And the dedicated trailer mover is silly when all you can use it for is moving trailers.

I will report back on the success of our quest for an ATV. Thanks for the comments/help everyone.

kgorman

Just an update. We ended up purchasing a older Yamaha Moto4 200 ATV in good condition for about $700. It has shaft drive and reverse. The 200 is fine to pull the trailer around, and it works quite well. Thanks for the suggestions.