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

mully95 said:
This where my knees and legs comes in handy....
Click to expand...

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 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"?
 

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.
 

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


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


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

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.



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!
 
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