Folding Hand Truck

A folding hand truck, which is also recognized as a hand truck dolly, is a handcart designed for moving loads. It has handles at the top end and wheels at the bottom or base. Folding hand trucks are also known as a stack truck, two-wheel dolly, trolley, bag barrow, or sack truck. A hand dolly or hand truck has a small platform at the base (when the handcart is in an upright position) to set or scoop objects onto.

The Greek philosopher Archimedes said about levers, “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.” Hand truck dollies are certainly an example of that idiom. With a hand truck or dolly, a single person can easily move a very heavy object which would be gut busting for a number of strong people.

Hand Truck Dolly

I once helped a friend with a new gun safe. This safe was extremely heavy. It was so heavy that it was mounted to a pallet and loaded on a trailer hitched to a heavy truck. When the safe was placed on the trailer, even the truck sagged down. When we arrived at his house, several strong friends were waiting there to help us unload it. We struggled to wiggle the load from the trailer without a mechanical aid. Then we opened the safe and unbolted it from the pallet. We then began the arduous task of wiggling it from the garage to the room to place it in. Then, one of the guys says, “Hey, I’ll go get a hand truck dolly.” When he returned, we quickly scooped up the safe with the dolly, lifted it up on the dolly about a foot through the door into the room, and set it in place.

Using a Hand Truck Dolly

Picking up or scooping a load like a gun safe or refrigerator with a hand truck dolly is carried out in the following fashion: The heavy object is tilted forward, the dolly platform is wedged underneath the object, then, using the hand truck, the heavy object is tilted back, rests on the platform, and is carried on the hand dolly. Then the truck and object are tilted backward until the weight is balanced over the large wheels, making otherwise bulky and heavy objects easier to move. A hand dolly is a strong lever.

Mechanical or Automatic Hand Truck Dolly

Some hand dollies feature mechanical stairclimber wheels. These mechanical wheels, which, as the name signifies, assist the dolly user in moving up and down stairs. These would have been very helpful in moving the gun safe above. However, these stairclimbing wheels can be a problem when operating on a flat surface with no climbing involved.