Moving TM by Hand

We brought our new 2720 home this past week. Our son helped us push it into the garage. If he is around,that's great. If he is not? mmmmmm. I believe there are electric powered "trailer movers" somewhere out there. Seems I remember someone on this site writing about them. Does anyone have info on these things? Where can we find them? etc.? Thanks. Grampa

[Bill]

You want the threads on hand dollies. Try this one.

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...read.php?t=231

If your driveway is perfectly level and paved, you can move your TM by hand, using the dolly wheel that came with it. It is not too hard, if you are patient.

Hand dollies are not too expensive, but often pretty lightweight (600 lbs capacity is about the minimum I would buy). The last thing you want to do is start moving the TM and have the dolly collapse or buckle. But if your driveway is nearly level, and paved, one of these should do the trick.

The electric dollies are nice, but far more expensive than I could ever have imagined. You find them advertised in the back of any RV magazine, including Good Sam. If you have a driveway that is sloped more than a little bit, or a gravel driveway, or you need to move on grass, this may be your best bet.

Many people (especially those with boats, I find) have good luck by mounting an inexpensive trailer hitch on the front of their car. If your car has an actual steel bumper, you can get one that clamps onto the bumper - quick and easy. Otherwise you need some sort of frame mounted hitch receiver, such as the one made by Reese (www.reeseprod.com). I bet you see a lot of these in Florida.

Bill

Hey Bill, thanks for you reply. I agree with you on the electrics. way to much. I will go around to the trailer places here and see about a front mounted hitch. I have a 98 tacoma and don't think it can be done. We will see. Take care. John

Does anyone out there have a front mounted hitch on their TV? Does it work well? Is it worth the money? After moving our 3023 TM to the side of the house for the first time, it seems like that would be the way to go. We have a trailer dolly (not electric) from Harbor Freight. It worked great for our tent trailer, but not for the TM. Thanks for your help.

Shannon
'02 3023 & '99 Ford F250

I found that I needed an electric powered dolly to move both my camper as well as my utility trailer. I bought an ac powered from:

http://www.powermoverinc.net/htmls/pmaccarts.html

If you call and talk to them, they can normally improve on the price. They find out exactly what you need, and build a unit to your specs. It has been worth it to me.

[Keith Wire]

Hi all,

I had read all the threads about electric trailer dollys and really wanted one so I could place our 2720SL in the garage and still get the TV in too. To do this it needed to be about 1/2" from the wall. Much too tight to do with the Explorer.

The problem is, besides the expence, we have a gravel driveway going down an incline to get to the garage and I was afraid I wouldln't be able to get enough traction to move it safely with the electric trailer dolly.

I finally came up with the idea of putting a ball on the front of my Toro ZTR lawn mower (see pictures at the link...).

I had some angle iron and welded it to the cross beam and put a 3/8" bolt down through it to make sure it wouldn't come loose. I had to cut away some of the foot guard where the angle iron sticks out, but other than my time all I have is the price of the new ball.

It works great! I still had Kathy help me spot it because I was soo close, but the ZTR lets me turn on a dime and go ever so slow as I maneuver it into the garage. It is a little light on the rear wheels and I may look for a way to add some weight to the back, but I am pleased with the experiment.

http://home.earthlink.net/~keiths.ha...s/KAW_2287.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~keiths.ha...s/KAW_2293.jpg


Keith

[Leslie & Nick]

Pretty Clever!!

I've had heard of others using their riding mowers equipped with a hitch ball to move their trailers/boats, etc. I don't have (or really need) a riding mower, but I had considered one of those electric trailer/boat movers, but balked at the price. We have a very tight driveway and drive under garage which makes storing the TM in the garage, 'challenging' to say the least.

Nick

[Keith Wire]

There is a hitch on the back of the mower, but it isn't strong enough. And I like being able to see where I'm going so I put it on the front.

Probably took about 2 hours to do the work, but took me two months to figure out what I wanted to do...

Keith

I have a ball hitch mounted on the back of my garden tractor, but I still pull the TM with most of the weight on the tongue wheel.......400+lb tongue weight seems like a lot for my John Deere. Hmmm.....wonder if I can rig up a WDH???

Chap

We have a 2720 that is put away in our garage. The driveway has a slight incline, so pushing the camper uphill (with 2 people) is difficult. We installed a 12-volt winch on the back wall of the garage (opposite the garage door) and attach the cable to the rear bumper with a nylon tether. The winch is powered by my towing vehicle (Odyssey) battery with a quick-connect. While one of us powers the toggle switch and guides the cable onto the spool, the other stears the unit back into the garage by pushing the hitch. Works like a charm. Word of caution: Reinforce the back wall by tying several studs together with a 2x4 frame on which to mount the winch. Otherwise, the wall may move instead of the camper!