Industrial Carts & Dollies

Industrial Carts & Dollies Buying Guide

Sort by the job before you shop the cart. Every product here answers one of a few jobs: roll a load flat across a floor, stack it on shelves, carry something long and awkward, raise it to a bench, or move a machine that weighs more than the cart. Match the job first and the brand tends to sort itself out, because most families run on Vestil steel with Valley Craft covering the heavier American-made end and a couple of specialists filling gaps. Weight is the other gate. The NIOSH lifting equation caps a safe two-handed lift at 51 lb under ideal conditions, and most of what lands on these carts is heavier than that, which is the whole reason to put wheels under it.

Two wheels or four. A Hand Truck is the two-wheel answer for boxes, drums, and appliances, and it is the deepest catalog here, dozens of Vestil and Valley Craft models from a $20 utility truck up to a $5,670 powered stair climber. When the load is too wide or too tall to balance on two wheels, a Platform Truck rolls it flat on a deck, from an $85 light-duty cart to heavy 12-gauge steel and tilting wood decks over $1,400. For carrying bags and packages through a lobby or hotel floor, the Luggage Carts are platform trucks finished for front-of-house use.

Shelves, drawers, and open frames. When the work is a set of parts, tools, or supplies that move together, you want a shelf cart. Service Cart covers the standard two- and three-shelf steel and plastic utility carts that stock a line or a stockroom, running roughly $170 to $630. For heavier gauge steel and specialty builds, Steel Service Cart holds Valley Craft utility carts, Star Industries brick carts, pipe movers, cradle carts, and parts bins, up to a $7,000 steer trailer. An A-Frame Carts leans long stock or panels against a central spine and often adds a tool tray, which suits a shop that stores and moves material on the same frame.

Long, flat, and easy to damage. Drywall, glass, doors, and sheet goods need support along their length or they crack. A Panel Carts carries sheets vertical or horizontal on a wheeled A-frame or deck, in the $400 to $550 range. For a single door or panel moved a short distance, a Panel Dollies is the $74 answer, a low caster base you tuck under one edge.

Moving machines and furniture without a lift. Repositioning a machine that weighs several tons is a skate job. The machine moving skates in this hub are low steel rollers rated by the ton, from a $78 fixed 2.5-ton skate to a 24-ton kit near $1,400. You spread the load across a set of them, steer with the front unit, and walk the machine into place. For lighter relocations, Furniture Moving Equipment runs from $121 six-wheel wooden dollies and corner movers up to Stranor hydraulic movers that jack and roll nearly 4,000 lb, plus a Vestil machinery lift near $4,500.

Raising the load to working height. The elevating lift carts in this hub put a scissor mechanism under the deck so a load rides up to bench or pour height instead of staying on the floor. They span foot-pump and mechanical carts under $1,000 through DC-powered and stainless scissor carts past $9,000, and industrial scissor lifts are covered by ANSI MH29.1, which sets the design and guarding requirements worth checking against your duty cycle. When the job is dumping rather than lifting, Tilt Trucks pivot a hopper to empty scrap or laundry, with a tow-bar option for towing them in a train.

When the cart drives or tows itself. Past a certain weight or distance, an operator should stop pushing. A Powered Cart adds traction drive so a walk-behind moves thousands of pounds without muscle, priced around $3,300 to $4,500. To pull wheeled loads or trailers, a Trailer Mover ranges from a $206 hitch mover through gas and electric tuggers to Power Move Masters past $8,000. And where order-picking means keeping stock organized on the move, the Stock Picker Forklifts here are the cage and multi-tier stock carts that hold picks in sequence.

Outdoor, secured, and specialty loads. A Landscape Cart is the pneumatic-tire nursery and agriculture cart built to roll over grass and gravel that would stop a hard caster. When the load has to be locked down in transit, a Security Cart adds a welded or folding enclosure, from $814 to about $1,100. Between these edges and the mainline carts above, the hub gives you a single place to match almost any wheeled-move problem to the right frame.