The barn is a bit tight getting cars in and out, so I've been looking at buying these... BUT... people I know who bought the cheap ones tell me they're no good with the slightest bump in the floor.... and a mate bought the fancy racing ones that have a built in jack to lift the car, and the jack handle on one of his broke off. So I thought I'd make my own, as I had some scrap steel lying around to do the job. 1" box section and 1" angle steel - about 4mm thick, so good sturdy stuff. I used the 1" box section for the length-wise pieces, as I don't want it bending in the middle of the long members, and the angle for the cross pieces. I bought some heavy duty rubber castors from Screwfix, rated at 95kg each - that's about 750 kg for the pair of skates, so should be enough for any of my cars. I based the size on a 15" rim with an R888 on it, and made the well of the skate about an inch or so wider. Preliminary sketches - I wanted one side lowered, to limit how high the car needs to be jacked up. I wanted 3" castors for the load rating, and easier rolling, but didn't want to have to get the wheel over 4" off the ground to get it on the skate. Drew a template on a piece of cardboard, and used that to line up the bits. Here's the first one tacked together and re-checked against the wheel. Make sure the wheels are going to give me enough ground clearance to get over little bumps and the odd stone. Had to make some adjustments to make sure the castors could swivel through 360* as well. 2nd one was easier. I just cut the lengths to the same sizes as the one I'd already made, made a slight design adjustment for the 2nd one, with the angled pieces at the ends of the low side - the first one didn't quite fit properly, or allow the castors to turn, so I had to weld in some extra bracing, and cut off a couple of sections to allow clearance. Cleaned the worst of the rust off, Painted in No1 Rust Beater, castors bolted on, ready for action. Will get a final coat of paint at some point In action... brakes on this car are part seized and it's a non runner, so the job of moving it was suddenly a lot easier. The car is 13' long and the barn is about 16', so it's a lot easier on the skates than doing a 13 point turn to get it out Happy with the results, and they didn't look like they're about to collapse at any time soon! There's a pallet truck under the back axle in this one, so the car is completely off the ground.
Awesome work! I have been thinking about making a set for mine. That way I could push it into a double pallet bay in the warehouse out of the way!lol
Certainly easier to get it in and out of tight spaces. It's probably cheaper to buy them, if you have to pay for the steel, but I had some lying around for ages. Castors were 20 a set from Screwfix. If you're in a warehouse, do you have a couple of pallet trucks handy?
I thought I'd make a pair and see how they worked. Besides, Screwfix only had 2 sets of castors in stock at my local branch, and I didn't have enough steel for 4.
i need a set of these for the same reason but reluctant to shell out 100 for a set of four that i will only really use twice, to move one car out of the way to fit another one in the garage and then back out again once the other car has gone.
You can buy Clarke ones from Machine Mart for 50 a pair, ish, and two are probably enough for most jobs, unless the brakes are seized solid. You're a bit far away to come and borrow them, really.
seen them at pair prices, a bit better. Going to see if a local garage has a set i can borrow for a weekend. Car rolls no problem, but access into my double garage is through one door, I just need to side shift one mk1 to make room for another one, don't really fancy having to push it backwards and forwards a massive amount to try and steer it over.
Move front end on skates, back end on trolley jack, if the floor is reasonably smooth. I'd steer clear of the ones on ebay with cast iron wheels. I know someone with broken wheels! I've also found that the skates need a bit of persuasion to move the car in a straight line, so 4 skates would be tricky to control on your own. Suggest you line up a helper or two...
Thanks... made them a lot harder to make, but hopefully it saves running out of jack height, or having a car fall off a jack.
Great DIY job on those skates Mike and definitely a handy tool to have about the garage/workshop. I personally used the below Go Jack's pictured there awesome no hassle having to jack the car up etc and have used them to move a rolls royce in the past
I would plump for decent castors as i know sh*t ones aren't worth the effort on anything but perfect level ground, my floor is just a bog standard garage concrete, fairly even but with weight on them won't be so easy to move.
Those are the ones my mate has with the broken handle. I checked back with him and he bought them (cheap) 2nd hand with the broken handle. They still work ok on his lightweight racers, but I would be worried about using them on a normal weight car.
I personally wouldn't worry about them breaking any more than the pumping handle tbh, i've had my eye on a few 2nd hand sets but i keep buying other bits as my use of them would be limited. However i think you idea is great for a cheap and cheerful DIY to cure a problem with tight space
Any other experiences - recommendations please ? After recently extricating the Mk1 from the corner of the garage using a trolley jack I now realise the error of my ways
