Industrial Tandem Dollies

About GKS Industrial Tandem Dollies

If you run a delivery service, moving company, or other logistics service, moving items from one point to the next is the most important aspect of your business. Being able to transport items smoothly is crucial for keeping customers happy and building a strong reputation. Employees can transport smaller items, but larger items like appliances are heavy and difficult for people alone to lift – not to mention that regularly lifting heavy items is tough on the body and can lead to employee burnout and high turnover.

Industrial dollies are a great alternative to moving heavy objects manually. Using dollies for lifting allows your team to move large, heavy items more easily. Tools like tandem dollies, container dollies, machine dollies and shipping container dollies allow you to safely move these items with less manpower. There are many types of dollies to suit a variety of lifting and transporting needs. Depending on your typical workload, GKS can recommend the best dolly and other lifting equipment for your operation.

Dollies

So, what exactly is a dolly?

There are many different types of dollies, but at its core, a dolly is a platform on wheels, often with a pull bar, towing eye, or other mechanism for pushing and pulling. Some dolly platforms will have a wheel in each corner. Others use specialized rollers to facilitate movement, which can provide greater stability on some flooring surfaces.

Dollies come in many forms. Some dollies have a single, centralized roller system or a long, narrow platform with a roller system at each end, while others may come in two parts to accommodate long objects, such as shipping containers or couches. Some may have specialized cone fittings or swivel plates to support steering and stability of certain loads. A tandem dolly, specifically, combines the rolling system and carrying capacity of two dollies by using a specialized, heavy-duty frame to create a single moving solution. Some tandem dollies can be dismounted and used as two separate dollies, allowing for greater flexibility and versatile use.

Fun fact: forms of dollies have been around for thousands of years. Some of the oldest documented moving solutions are from ancient Egypt where stone slabs were moved with logs. Some riggers, unfortunately, still use this technology today.

Dollies have been around forever, making transportation of large, heavy, and oddly-shaped items faster and easier. They can be used on a small scale to lighten the load of moving weighty, medium-sized objects, such as furniture or pallets, or on a large scale for transporting construction materials, shipping containers, or heavy equipment. Dollies can also be useful for moving objects with irregular shapes by providing additional contact points to ensure even weight distribution. The type of dolly you need depends on your application, the path to your destination, and the surfaces you will traverse along the way.

If your business requires frequent deliveries of heavy items, mid-sized dollies are an excellent investment. The time and effort saved by using a dolly, rather than manual labor alone, adds up quickly over time.

There are also objects that simply can’t be moved without a dolly. Using dollies for lifting means you only have to lift that object twice: once to put it on the dolly, and once to take it off. They make the process less physically demanding and increase employee safety by eliminating the need to carry that same object from point A to point B via manpower alone. Additionally, toe jacks, hydraulic jacks, and other industrial lifting equipment can be used for objects that are too heavy to lift onto a dolly manually.

How Tandem Dollies Are Used

Tandem dollies are an excellent choice for transporting extremely heavy loads, such as intermodal and shipping containers and heavy equipment, as well as appliances, furniture, and office equipment. A tandem dolly can be paired with another tandem dolly, such as a TL  or F dolly, allowing for incredible carrying capacity and versatility with regard to load size and dimensions. Additionally, the width of some tandem dollies is adjustable, so you can customize your heavy-duty transport solution based on the size of your load.

These multiple support points translate to better load distribution and smoother travel from one location to another. This can be especially valuable for moving fragile loads, such as calibrated laboratory equipment that must not be bumped or jostled in transit. Tandem dollies can be outfitted with specialized cone fittings to make container dollies to transport shipping
containers.

Another beneficial feature of tandem dollies are specialized, non-marking rollers. These rollers allow for smooth movement across virtually any surface and won’t leave marks, no matter how heavy the load.

GKS QUALITY

Looking to equip your crew with quality dollies for moving large, bulky objects? GKS offers durable commercial moving solutions to help you get your job done quickly and easily. Every GKS product is thoroughly tested to ensure your satisfaction. Plus, our U.S.-based customer service provides you with the support you need to choose the best industrial lifting and moving solutions for your business.

Want to learn more? Contact us today.