Rear Tire Install Dolly...Making My Life Easier... I Hope!

This where my knees and legs comes in handy.... :D
I appreciate your design because it is something I think I could make. I am wondering if some rails were added length-wise, about 3-4 inches above the base, if that would be enough to hold up the tire/wheel while lining up the shaft? This might make it work a little easier for you?

This has got me wondering if I could mount a wheel cradle of some sort to my floor jack. My jack is a cheap Harbor Freight type....used just recently for removing my Harley's rear wheel/tire change work. My problem was jack could roll freely back and forth and a small lift point resulting in lots of cursing and maneuvering to find a spot where I could raise and remount the wheel. I need to find a jack with wheel locks and a cradle of some sort to hold the tire.....for use on the Ultra and the Rocket. If anyone knows of a jack like that, please let me know.....meanwhile I'll be keeping/following this thread and shopping around. Thanks. :)
 
This has got me wondering if I could mount a wheel cradle of some sort to my floor jack. My jack is a cheap Harbor Freight type....used just recently for removing my Harley's rear wheel/tire change work. My problem was jack could roll freely back and forth and a small lift point resulting in lots of cursing and maneuvering to find a spot where I could raise and remount the wheel. I need to find a jack with wheel locks and a cradle of some sort to hold the tire.....for use on the Ultra and the Rocket. If anyone knows of a jack like that, please let me know.....meanwhile I'll be keeping/following this thread and shopping around. Thanks. :)

I use a small floor jack too, use small wedge blocks to stabilize the wheels a bit and up she goes, takes about 5 minutes to secure the axel in place with the brake. Mine doesn't have a cradle, the frame kind of holds the wheel in place enough.

Hoopla
 
I use a small floor jack too, use small wedge blocks to stabilize the wheels a bit and up she goes, takes about 5 minutes to secure the axel in place with the brake. Mine doesn't have a cradle, the frame kind of holds the wheel in place enough.

Hoopla

I ended up using the blades of a couple small screwdrivers wedged behind the wheels. It occurs to me that my bro-in-law has two bike lifts......when time comes to do the Rocket rear tire think I'll borrow one of those to hoist the rear wheel up while my lift is holding the bike up. I think the tire would fit nicely in between the platform arms of the lift, either straight in from the rear or from the right side......hopefully with enough maneuverability to attach the wheel to the final drive.....er, what's it called....... "bevel box"?
 
This has got me wondering if I could mount a wheel cradle of some sort to my floor jack. My jack is a cheap Harbor Freight type....used just recently for removing my Harley's rear wheel/tire change work. My problem was jack could roll freely back and forth and a small lift point resulting in lots of cursing and maneuvering to find a spot where I could raise and remount the wheel. I need to find a jack with wheel locks and a cradle of some sort to hold the tire.....for use on the Ultra and the Rocket. If anyone knows of a jack like that, please let me know.....meanwhile I'll be keeping/following this thread and shopping around. Thanks. :)

Exactly why I decided against putting wheels on mine. With handles on both sides my wife and I can slide and shift it into position. With the top of the rollers only being about an inch and a half off the ground it has a much lower profile than using a lift or jack... plus the rollers let me turn the wheel without shifting its position front to back. I can raise or lower the bike on the lift for the vertical adjustment. PaddyO is going make his frame out of wood...another good idea.

All good ideas here but sometimes I just need to make stuff. My wife says we need to keep our minds active as we age.
 
Tire Dolly Parts.jpg
Tire Dolly End Blocks.jpg
Tire Dolly Sides.jpg
Tire Dolly End View.jpg
Tire Dolly Bottom View.jpg
I haven't posted one of my crazy ideas in a while so here goes another one. I just finished making this tire roller dolly to be used on my next rear tire change. The last time I removed and put the rear tire on myself I was fighting for two hours trying to get it back on. Much of the time was spent trying to get the spacer washer back in, but I thought I still needed to make something to help get the tire in position and easily be able to rotate it to line up with the final drive splines. Using my feet under the edges of the tire was not very effective for me, requiring many 4 letter words and some words I'm sure have never been spoken before. I'm not sure what the wife was thinking as she tried to help!

After a great deal of pondering, I decided this was my best idea. I bought two 1" X 8" conveyor rollers off Amazon for $20. I used some 1 1/4" and 1" square tubing, two 4" square U-clamps, some 1/2" threaded rod, 1/4 X 20 tpi threaded chair glides, various 1/2" nuts and some custom cut square oak block I made to drive in the ends of the larger square tubing. I used the oak blocks for several reasons including holding the glides on, but mainly I could now tighten things down real tight without crushing the tubing. My original plan was to put caster wheels on my dolly, but that was going to be a lot of fabrication to keep it low profile. It became a "NOT" option even though I bought small casters. the 2 1/4 inches in height plus the swivel clearance was becoming a real problem. As it is, the tire can easily rest on the rollers and be jockeyed into position using the the handles on each side. It won't be rolling around (yet another fight) on the wheels either after I get it where I want it. Now I can get the tire in position, lower my lift to the correct shaft height and then rotate the tire on the rollers to get the splines lined up.

A couple more things...I wedged the rollers in front and behind my rear tire. I determined the center line distance for the rollers with the tire resting on a flat surface needed to be 13 1/2". I drill multiple holes inward and outward from that point so I could adjust the rollers and resting points of the tire on the rollers. I may add another hole or two inward, but I don"t think I will need it. Right now, as I have it, the tire should be riding about 3/4" off the ground when resting on the conveyor rollers. The total height of the dolly is only 1 5/8" with around 3/8" spacing under the long tubing. Very easy to put a pry bar under each side to micro lift the tire for any small line up issues. I may opt to bend my 4" square U-handles up slightly for more knuckle clearance, but at the moment there appears to be plenty of knuckle spacing. The large square tubing sections are 20' long and the smaller 1" cross tubing sections are 8 3/8" long. I may or may not paint it.

I guess that is about it...Here are some pictures in case you are interested.

What about fitting some low profile flange type casters under the unit similar to this... Many sizes.
26161531b.jpg

FSBT-5_8-ORTHO.jpg

Hudson Bearings 5/8" Nylon Ball Carbon Steel Low Profile Flying Saucer Ball Transfer NFSBT-5/8CS
 
Last edited:
What about fitting some low profile flange type casters under the unit similar to this... Many sizes.
26161531b.jpg

FSBT-5_8-ORTHO.jpg

Hudson Bearings 5/8" Nylon Ball Carbon Steel Low Profile Flying Saucer Ball Transfer NFSBT-5/8CS

Actually...I bought 4 very similar items but decided not to use them. Very low profile, but I did not want it moving around in any way once moved into position. I figured the movement would be one more thing I would be fighting with. If I would have used them, I was going to put 4 threaded bolts located on each corner that I could turn down to rest on my garage floor to keep things from moving.

Thanks for the thought.
 
I finished my dolly based on Bedifferent's design. I used wood since it is what I had lying around and am comfortable working with wood. The outer frame is made from 2X4's. The inner sides which hold the tire are a 1X9 inch board cut in half, so each side is 4.5 inches tall. The dowel rods are 1 inch in diameter. I got the same conveyor rollers from Amazon Bedifferent used. I got the leveler legs from Amazon as well: U-Bracket Levelers (4) by Kiboko LLC. I used 1 inch #10 screws to attach the legs to the base. I used a hand drill to make the holes and a hand-held circular saw to cut the wood. The conveyor rollers are 10 inches apart on center and the dowels are 2 inches on center from the conveyor rollers. The dowels are 1.5 inches from the sides of the dolly. The frame is held together with glue/screws. The longer, inner sides of the frame hold the tire. One of the sides is screwed to the frame of the dolly. The other moves on the dowel rods. I cut holes in the side that moves for each dowel rod and conveyor roller so that it is able to move. I used a 1 inch woodcutting bit to make the holes and a half-round file to enlarge them enough so the side would move without binding or interfering with the movement of the rollers. In the picture on the left you can see two shims that I use to hold the tire in place. I got a package of 12 shims from Lowes. I glued 3 of them together to get the thickness I wanted for each shim. When the shims are removed the tire can rotate on the conveyor rollers. See this VIDEO. In the foreground of the video, the two shims can be seen stacked on top of one another. The leveler legs lift the bottom of the frame about 1/2 inch above the floor. The bottom of the leveler legs is plastic so it slides pretty easily. The feet of the leveler legs pivot a little bit so they can adjust to the floor if it is not level.

Dolly Holding Tire.jpg
Dolly Side.jpg
Dolly Top.jpg
Leveling Legs.jpg

Thanks Bedifferent for posting your work and letting me copy it.
 
I finished my dolly based on Bedifferent's design. I used wood since it is what I had lying around and am comfortable working with wood. The outer frame is made from 2X4's. The inner sides which hold the tire are a 1X9 inch board cut in half, so each side is 4.5 inches tall. The dowel rods are 1 inch in diameter. I got the same conveyor rollers from Amazon Bedifferent used. I got the leveler legs from Amazon as well: U-Bracket Levelers (4) by Kiboko LLC. I used 1 inch #10 screws to attach the legs to the base. I used a hand drill to make the holes and a hand-held circular saw to cut the wood. The conveyor rollers are 10 inches apart on center and the dowels are 2 inches on center from the conveyor rollers. The dowels are 1.5 inches from the sides of the dolly. The frame is held together with glue/screws. The longer, inner sides of the frame hold the tire. One of the sides is screwed to the frame of the dolly. The other moves on the dowel rods. I cut holes in the side that moves for each dowel rod and conveyor roller so that it is able to move. I used a 1 inch woodcutting bit to make the holes and a half-round file to enlarge them enough so the side would move without binding or interfering with the movement of the rollers. In the picture on the left you can see two shims that I use to hold the tire in place. I got a package of 12 shims from Lowes. I glued 3 of them together to get the thickness I wanted for each shim. When the shims are removed the tire can rotate on the conveyor rollers. See this VIDEO. In the foreground of the video, the two shims can be seen stacked on top of one another. The leveler legs lift the bottom of the frame about 1/2 inch above the floor. The bottom of the leveler legs is plastic so it slides pretty easily. The feet of the leveler legs pivot a little bit so they can adjust to the floor if it is not level.

Dolly Holding Tire.jpg
Dolly Side.jpg
Dolly Top.jpg
Leveling Legs.jpg

Thanks Bedifferent for posting your work and letting me copy it.

I like it @PaddyO ! Pretty cool and it shows a lot of imagination....a good explanation of the materials and how you made it. I tried to see the "VIDEO", but it didn't come up. I'm going to be adding a few things to mine as well to trap and hold the tire upright. I need to get out to my trailer and get a good measurement of just how wide that tire is on the rim and fully inflated. Those U-Bracket levelers might be just the ticket for adjusting some side boards in and out to trap the tire upright. I want to be able to add and remove those boards easily so I can slip the dolly in and out from underneath the tire when I am done. The forum is always a wealth of useful ideas!
 
Back
Top