On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:09:56 -0500, dpb wrote:

On 6/15/2012 11:48 AM, Doug wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 07:56:15 -0500, wrote:

On 6/15/2012 7:23 AM, John Raymond wrote:
I'm looking to make a dolly for a 1000 lb 3-point mount wood
chipper,using 4 swivel casters.
Do I need 4 1000lb casters or would 4 250lb casters work?

If it were uniformly distributed load, each leg would support 250lb,
yes. But you would still want cushion/margin over that, of course.

But since it isn't going to be uniform, you need something that has a
fair amount of cushion over that minimum; you'll have to guesstimate how
much imbalance that might be and go from there.


As a retired str. engineer, you and Ed are correct. Likely the weight
is not evenly distributed for a couple of reasons. I agree with
others that I doubt 4-1000s are necessary but I would go with
something greater than 4-250s for safety as others have already said.
Keep in mind the 250s will carry a safety factor in their design
capacity but I wouldn't try to make use of it here.

There's no doubt that 4-1000s are not necessary...

The 250-rating would be highly likely to have enough strength owing to
its safety margin in design (altho from HF or such ilk who knows how
much faith to put into the ratings themselves???) as you note. I would
go w/ the oversize simply owing to the fact that many will become
difficult to move when loaded at or near their rating while the cost
differential isn't all that great in general and the ease of use is
markedly improved (and I think at least one other said essentially the
same thing as well ).


I think we all are pretty much in agreement but that doesn't mean the
OP agrees with us but he asked for our opinion. I don't know the
availability of casters nor am I familiar with his item nor the price
of casters. That said, I'd like to say I'd go with perhaps 4-400 lbs
rated casters. That should give him a buffer of about 600 lbs in
case he has to add something to his item while on the dolly.

I also think you make a GOOD point too to go with higher capacity
casters because the 250's at capacity may be a little difficult to
move. That alone would make me go for the greater capacity .
Good Point !!!