I usually buy used, but everything I could see was either junk, old junk, rusty beyond what I'd accept, or trashed. Unusual for me, I bought new.
Milwaukee is a decent name in tools (or, was; I don't know what their rep is today). I bought a Milwaukee 40187 from Home Depot, $299 two weeks ago ($425 two weeks later: today). That came to $330 out the door after tax.
I haven't used it yet, but I like it well enough. It has aluminum handles (steel skeg). The ratchet looks OK. The strap buckle looks fussy.
- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187: Yeah, "puncture-proof 'tires'", whoopee.
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187: Made in USA.
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187: Buckle instructions are actually needed, it's not user-friendly.
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187. It'd be nice if "Made in USA" got you stickers applied parallel and square. Sigh.
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- Appliance Dolly, Milwaukee 40187: Don't scratch the floor.
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I was looking for adequate load carrying, reasonable quality, and a price point. Back in the '70s, I worked at a rental yard, and I saw how these things could go bad. I wanted a used commercial appliance truck, but failed to find one. This will have to do.
One of the first things I noticed were those "Puncture-proof" "tires". They're cast plastic -- "high density polyolefin" -- with the bore being a plain bearing. Ugh. I can imagine 800 lbs on the skeg and a non-lubricatable plastic plain bearing on a 5/8" shaft. I started looking for replacement wheels.
There are surprisingly few 6" OD x 5/8" shaft wheels available that can carry more than a couple hundred pounds. Typically, you'd use a roller bearing to get that kind of carrying capacity, but the axle on this is non-hardened mild steel, and roller bearings would wear the axle shaft pretty fast. Still, the actual miles/year that I'd be putting on this would be real low. I found a cheap caster that on paper would fit the bill: Superior 906428065 or 620PS62-RedHP93220-5/8Brg:
- Wheel, Superior 906428065
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Lo! Later that day, the USPS tracking updated to "received pkg", and the next day it's actually traveling toward me. Of course, I can't use them now.
Hamilton Caster has a very nice caster with better specs, W-620-LP-5/8, but it's $58 + shipping. Each.
Instead, I purchased a pair of Service Caster Corp.'s SCC-TPRBF620-58-HL2.1875. $72 for a pair, shipped, and I ordered Monday and received on Wednesday. Nice. They're marketed as a replacement for the very-fragile wheels that come on the Harbor Freight HaulMaster appliance truck; there are many horror story reviews and pictures floating around showing broken dolly casters for that rig. They're rated for 500 lbs (each) and have ball bearings that, while not terribly large, have their own hardened inner race that will take the friction there instead of a roller bearing that would run on the mild steel axle.
I received them today, and I like them.
- Wheel, Service Caster SCC-TPRBF620-58-HL2.1875
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- Wheel, Service Caster SCC-TPRBF620-58-HL2.1875, showing bearing 1623 RS.
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So, if the bearings are sealed both sides, what's the grease zerk for?
- Wheel, Service Caster SCC-TPRBF620-58-HL2.1875. What's the zerk for?
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- Wheel, Service Caster SCC-TPRBF620-58-HL2.1875
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- Appliance Dolly stock polyolefin wheel
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- OEM Milwaukee wheel, and replacement ball-bearing wheel.
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- Replacement ball-bearing wheel.
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- Replacement ball-bearing wheel compared to Milwaukee wheel.
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When I removed the stock wheel on one side, the axle was fairly rusty and half painted-over (the paint was stuck pretty well! I guess that's good). The new wheel's bearing's inner race wouldn't begin to slip over all that, so five minutes with a strip of 100 grit sandpaper cleaned it up, and then the wheel slipped right on.
- Axle is rusty & painted over.
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- Axle cleaned up.
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- Wheel #1 installed.
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- OEM vs replacement wheel comparison.
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The other axle had no paint, and was a tad less rusty:
- Rusty right axle.
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- More sandpaper work . . .
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- Both replacement wheels installed.
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The bearings in the replacement wheels are 1623 RS, which translates to 5/8" ID, 1-3/8" OD, 7/16" wide, with "RS" indicating sealed both sides with rubber-like lip seals. Considering that the middle-of-the-road quality VXB version of this bearing sells on Amazon for $10 ea., that's the equivalent of $40 of bearings alone, and $72 shipped to my door sounds pretty good.
