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Topic: Truck Camper Dolly by Rieco
Posted By: jimh406 on 01/27/17 02:53pm

I confess that I didn't know a truck camper dolly like this existed commercially. I'm looking in anticipation of possibly storing mine on one in the future. Anyway, pretty cool and not that pricey.

In this video, he moves a Host Everest at 4425 dry! Oh, looking at the Rieco site, they are just over $700.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksUVMJe-cOQ

'10 Ford F-450, 6.4, 4.30, 4x4, 14,500 GVWR, '06 Host Rainer 950 DS, Torklift Talon tiedowns, Glow Steps, and Fastguns. Bilstein 4600s, Firestone Bags, Toyo M655 Gs, Curt front hitch, Energy Suspension bump stops.

NRA Life Member, CCA Life Member


Posted By: Jack Hart on 01/27/17 04:56pm

Just built a dolly for my Outfitter Apex 9.5 which weighs about 2500# all up. For $100 dollars worth of materials it works as good as the Rieco dolly that goes for about $720 plus shipping and applicable tax. My casters came from eBay for $44.95. Lumber and hardware from Home Depot for about $50. For a heavier camper add another $44.95 worth of casters and it should work fine. Assembly takes about an hour if you have a chop saw and a drill driver.

Posted By: a_flyfisher on 01/27/17 05:09pm

I am also interested in any replies you receive on this one.

I had looked at the Rieco-Titan dolly, but after thinking about it, I believe I will build my own when I get my 1st truck camper this spring.

Here is the one that I like, from an earlier post on this forum: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/18622123.cfm

I'm thinking of getting 1250# weight limit heavy duty casters - 2 fixed position ones for one end of the dolly, and two swivel casters for the other end. I've also been thinking of carpeting the top of the dolly.

John

a_flyfisher

Posted By: Jack Hart on 01/27/17 05:41pm

I'd recommend all swivel casters, and no need for balloon type wheels unless you're rolling over gravel. Of course, the more, the bigger and higher capacity casters the better.. There's no need for carpet on the top, it would just cost a little more time and $$ and not do much.

Posted By: bb_94401 on 01/27/17 08:59pm

You'll notice on the front of the Rieco cart there are two clips for mounting a tow bar to maneuver the cart. I used a Curt Tow Bars (C19745) to make it easy to start, move and stop the loaded cart with the tractor. Thinking ahead about how to stop the loaded cart, once moving, is a very important safety consideration. If you don't have a tractor, you can easily rotate a caster and lock it in place, using a small hydraulic jack to take some of the weight off to make turning easier.

[image]

Having all four swivel casters on a cart makes directional control very difficult. Typically for very heavy loads on a cart, the front two are fixed and the rear two are swivel to maintain tracking. A good compromise is to select casters with a four position swivel lock.

I used 8" dia, 2" wide, Polyurethane on Steel casters with the swivel locks.

[image]

I lock the fronts to steer the camper into place and then rotate all the casters, 90 degrees and lock all of them to push the camper against the wall. I didn't order the caster brakes and just made chocks.

To aid in pulling it away from the wall I also installed 1/2 inch Eye Nuts on the sides, in the corners, and rig a line to them.

[image]

I didn't attach carpeting to the cart, as the empty cart makes a great work / project surface in the garage.

I tip the cart up against the back wall of the garage, when not in use, using the boom pole on the tractor attached to the Eye nuts.

'05 Ram 3500, 4x4, DRW, LB, 6spd man, CTD, PRXB exhaust brake, Roadmaster bar

'01 Corsair 10'8" - 4,200 lbs., Xantrex XADC 80A, Link 20, 4-Lifeline GPL-4CT, PowerGate Isolater, 2 AWG wire, PI 30A EMS, 2 Honda EU2000i, parallel kit, ext. duration tank.


Posted By: Boatycall on 01/27/17 09:45pm

jimh425 wrote:

I confess that I didn't know a truck camper dolly like this existed commercially. I'm looking in anticipation of possibly storing mine on one in the future. Anyway, pretty cool and not that pricey.

In this video, he moves a Host Everest at 4425 dry! Oh, looking at the Rieco site, they are just over $700.



You got me thinking, making one would be pretty easy with some extremely heavy duty casters, some angle iron, chop saw and a little time with Mr. Lincoln (my welder-yes, mine's red, not blue).

These are swivel casters rated at 2,200lbs each--on sale for $37ea
Swivel casters

'15 F450, 30k Superhitch, 48" Supertruss, 19.5's, Torklift Fast Guns
'12 Eagle Cap 1160, 800watts solar, Tristar MPPT, Magnum Hybrid 3k Inverter
'15 Wells Cargo 24' Race Trailer, 600 watts Solar, TriStar MPPT, Xantrex 2kw inverter
'17 Can Am X3 XDS Turbo


Posted By: a_flyfisher on 01/28/17 03:59am

bb_94401 wrote:

You'll notice on the front of the Rieco cart there are two clips for mounting a tow bar to maneuver the cart. I used a Curt Tow Bars (C19745) to make it easy to start, move and stop the loaded cart with the tractor. Thinking ahead about how to stop the loaded cart, once moving, is a very important safety consideration. If you don't have a tractor, you can easily rotate a caster and lock it in place, using a small hydraulic jack to take some of the weight off to make turning easier.

[image]

Having all four swivel casters on a cart makes directional control very difficult. Typically for very heavy loads on a cart, the front two are fixed and the rear two are swivel to maintain tracking. A good compromise is to select casters with a four position swivel lock.

I used 8" dia, 2" wide, Polyurethane on Steel casters with the swivel locks.

[image]

I lock the fronts to steer the camper into place and then rotate all the casters, 90 degrees and lock all of them to push the camper against the wall. I didn't order the caster brakes and just made chocks.

To aid in pulling it away from the wall I also installed 1/2 inch Eye Nuts on the sides, in the corners, and rig a line to them.

[image]

I didn't attach carpeting to the cart, as the empty cart makes a great work / project surface in the garage.

I tip the cart up against the back wall of the garage, when not in use, using the boom pole on the tractor attached to the Eye nuts.


Thank you for the detailed response. This gives me more to think about.

One question I have though is how hard is it to push your dolly by hand? Do you think with good casters, on a level cement floor, should I be able to push a 4000# camper by hand (I'm pretty strong, relatively speaking.)?

I live in PA during the winter (MT in the summer) and National Caster is located only about 30 miles away. I think I'll go there to discuss the best casters for camper dolly applications. There are so many different ones to choose from.

Posted By: Jack Hart on 01/28/17 06:14am

I like using all swivel casters because I parallel park my camper in a tight space in my barn. It's almost impossible to do this with fixed casters, especially when you're positioning the camper by hand. I didn't mount a tow bar and there's no room for a tractor where I park the camper. When I need to move in a direction greatly different from the way the casters are pointed, I just use the camper jacks to take a load off the dolly, re-position the casters by hand, raise the jacks and roll. Another advantage to all swivel casters is that as many as necessary can be used. eBay has a set of four 1000# casters for about $45. Eight of these would cost less than four of the $37 swivel casters mentioned above and carry significantly more load.

Posted By: Artum Snowbird on 01/28/17 08:31am

I bought a 2000 pound 12 volt winch and bolted it to the floor in my shop. The camper would come off outside on asphalt and I would pull it into the concrete inside floor. Once on concrete it was no problem. I had four full swivel locking casters on mine.

Mike
2012 Winnebago Impulse Silver 26QP
2005 16.6 Double Eagle
2018 Jeep Wrangler JK
previously Snowbird Campers,
Triple E Motorhome and Fifth Wheel

Posted By: USMCDOC on 01/28/17 08:38am

Artum Snowbird wrote:

I bought a 2000 pound 12 volt winch and bolted it to the floor in my shop. The camper would come off outside on asphalt and I would pull it into the concrete inside floor. Once on concrete it was no problem. I had four full swivel locking casters on mine.


Watching the OP's quoted U'tube vid, i was thinking the same thing as you have done.. use a winch! If i had a dolly to move mine, i would need a winch just to get it into the garage, but once it was in there, nothing else would go in it!

Posted By: maxum1989 on 01/28/17 10:51am

I have an aluminum tube framed dolly for my 2000 pound Northern Lite which is very useful in moving it around without having to load it. However, it isn't the easiest thing to move on your own. If you are on a polished concrete floor I would say no problem. But, if you're outside on concrete (mine is a broom finished concrete) with ANY debris, sand, really anything, that gets in the way of the castors it will be difficult. Its amazing how small of a pebble will stop it in its tracks. Plus, if the concrete is sloped that is another issue.

I mounted a tow-bar on the front to help move it most of the way when I'm just going straight out and back.

I use mine primarily to shuffle spots between by fifth wheel and camper. My storage area is deep buy only one lane wide.

2008 Chevy 2500hd Duramax/Allison
2006 Wildcat 27 bhwb
2009 Lance 830 *Sold*
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 *Sold*

Posted By: SidecarFlip on 01/29/17 05:33pm

I agonized a while about a dolly for my Palomino and finally arrived at a reasonable cost solution, a used single axle boat trailer. Everything is already there, tongue and all plus I hook it to my quad and back it and the camper in the garage. It takes 2 (my wife guiding me) and me on the quad, but unlike a dolly with casters, I can move mine about on gravel or even park it on the lawn with no issue and a boat trailer has various tie-down points to secure a camper to.

Bought a used Tee-Nee single axle boat trailer on Craig's List for 200 bucks, plus, I can use the trailer (with a plywood deck for hauling my quads behind the truck and camper. All good.

The Reico dolly is only good on hard concrete or asphalt. I have a gravel drive and apron so that don't work.

2015 Backpack SS1500
1997 Ford 7.3 OBS 4x4 CC LB

Posted By: sonuvabug on 01/30/17 12:55pm

In the tech folder, there are a few threads discussing camper dollies. I looked at just about every design, including pre-fabricated and decided to follow another member's (Spott) path ... using a farm wagon running gear as the platform for my TC dolly. I didn't go with a wood frame like he did but instead chose to have one welded up. See linky for Spott's dolly:

Farm Wagon Running Gear Based TC Dolly

I'll post a pic up in the Spring once I paint mine. I wanted something that would handle (and not damage) asphalt, cement, gravel, grass and whatever else with ease. That pretty much knocked out any caster based dolly. Here's what I did:

  1. Bought an old (circa 1940's) 6 ton farm wagon running gear - $100
  2. Needed 4 new tires ... bought 4 almost new used, low profile snow tires for - $100
  3. Welding (incl. materials) to fabricate an angle iron box frame (open bottom) - $250
  4. Still to go, paint, maybe a plywood floor - $100'ish


Total investment will be around $550 with a plywood floor, less than $500 without the floor. BTW - I'm thinking a platform floor to help keep the critters out.

I ran out of time to finish it (paint & floor) this fall but still used it to load and store my TC on this winter. It is super solid, very easy to maneuver by hand or hitch with the running gear pin tongue, rolls over everything on the 15 inch passenger tires and ... the wheel assemblies and steering mechanism are grease-able.

After painting it to match my TC colours, I'll also be dressing it up with a set of Chebby hubcaps even though the TC is hauled with a Ford. It wasn't that hard to put the pieces together and everything I sourced came used from Kijiji (like CraigsList).

2007 Adventurer 90fws Truck Camper
2001 FORD F250 SuperCab; 8' box; 4x4, 7.3l diesel, rear Sumo Springs

Posted By: SidecarFlip on 01/30/17 01:08pm

I have at least 5 flat racks sitting in the yard (Hay wagon), I farm but my issue with a hay wagon (flat rack) is, one. they are a pita to back up (I do it all the time), 2, used ones are usually well used and the king pins and tie rod ends are shot and most importantly three, too high up. I went with the boat trailer because the camper sits plenty low, in fact, on the trailer, it's around 12" off the ground and lower is always better when storing. I have a 12 foot high door on the storage barn so it goes in and out nicely, plus it was cheap (on Craig's List and I can use it (boat trailer) as a street legal utility trailer. Cannot do that with a flat rack...you can pull them down the road up to maybe 25 mph. After that the weave back and forth gets dangerous.

Posted By: mkirsch on 01/30/17 01:20pm

Forget a camper dolly if you're rolling over gravel. It doesn't work. As soon as you try to pivot the wheels, they dig in and get stuck. That's with my little 1750lb camper on ten 10" Harbor Freight pneumatic casters with a total capacity of 3000lbs. Not to mention that only one out of ten held for more than a few hours.

I suppose if you get big enough casters, but you're talking big $$$. In my case almost as much as I had invested in the camper at the time. $150 on HF casters was too much in my book.

Putting 10-ply tires on half ton trucks since aught-four.

Posted By: Jack Hart on 01/30/17 07:04pm

Yes, if you're rolling over gravel or grass, you'll need a boat or utility trailer type setup and a tractor of some sort to move it. The downside is that the camper may sit too high to get into a garage. Moving over a concrete surface is much easier and the dolly is much cheaper to make. I'm fortunate. I can back my truck with the camper attached into my concrete-floored barn. I unload the camper onto the dolly in the barn and roll it out of the way fairly easily with just four 5" casters.

Posted By: SidecarFlip on 01/30/17 08:09pm

In my view, a 200 buck used single axle boat trailer with small wheels and tires (12" rims is what they usually have), is ideal especially for the p;rice plus it already has a tongue.

In fact I leave my TC on the trailer all winter, I just run the jack legs down 'till they touch the floor and call it good.

Old boat trailers are pretty easy to come by. Craig's List is full of them.

As a side note, I've always been suspect of Harbor Freight products. Their Predator engines aren't bad (they are actually Lifan) but the rest of their stuff is questionable.

Posted By: timdan94 on 02/07/17 04:35pm

Here is my camper dolly Its made out of a shipping pallet and 8-900lb capacity casters


[image]

[image]

Posted By: KansasKen on 02/08/17 05:52pm

I am the old guy in the video, if anyone has any questions about my experience, feel free to pm me. I don't scan rv.net regularly so sorry for not catching this sooner.
I will say as I did in the video, that Rico Titan was awesome to work with to find a solution for the difficulty in getting the front castors to swivel, without any additional cost on my part. I did a video of the difficulty that I posted on YouTube but replaced it with the one showing what they did to correct the problem. If there is a way to email it, I'd be glad to share it. Lots of nice creative ways to solve this as shown in this topic, but I don't have a welder nor would I trust anything I came up with to support the heavy TC. Not to mention I probably would have not guessed to try an offset pair.

2011 Host Everest Triple & F350 Crew DRW 4x4 Diesel (both loaded see profile)

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