Powered Trailer Dolly

[jdmackes]

I wanted to give a little review for a trailer dolly that I picked up to help make it easier to manuver my TM in and out of the garage. I picked up the Vevor 5000 lbs trailer dolly and it's honestly been pretty great. I was able to get the TM out of the garage and back it up into my driveway without issue, and it was FAR easier than using the harbor freight one I had before.

I've only had it for a few weeks now, but so far it's been great. It's not water proof so I just take it off when I'm not going to be using it. It's also really only made for paved surfaces, so I don't think it would work well on rocks or grass. Also, the bracket that holds the unit to the trailer seemed to not be bent correctly on mine, which made it really difficult to initially connect the unit. If I had a vice I would have just bent it in that, but I don't have one at the moment.

I think for the price (it was $210 when I got it, I think it's like $255 now) it's pretty good and certainly capable of moving my 2720. I do keep it down as low as possible so that the connection to the trailer is as close as possible to the powered wheel. That way there should be less swaying from the motor kicking in.

 

[Kidkraz]

Interest info. How steep of an incline is your driveway?

 

[jdmackes]

It's a decent incline, but I believe the instructions on this say it shouldn't go more than either 5 or 10 percent incline. I only really use it to do the fine maneuvers in and out of my garage, but it works great for that.

 

[Bill]

Another trailer dolly

JDMackes -

I like your solution. If I had spotted it earlier, I might have gone that way. Instead, last spring I bought a Vevor QYC1500 trailer mover, to move my boat trailer around on an unpaved surface. It is a manual mover - not powered - and it is a moose! The ground where I use it (second pic) is slightly sloped, the surface is crushed rock (aka "crusher dust") mixed with coarse sand, a few small rocks, and tufts of coarse grass. This surface completely defeated an earlier lighter-weight manual mover, and I had to put down sheets of plywood to roll it on. With the Vevor, I can move it around easily on this surface, in any area where the slope isn't too great.

Things I liked about it?
o It has an enormous weight rating - 1500 pounds trailer tongue weight.
o It has three wheels - two BIG 16" pneumatic tires that roll right over the small rocks that blocked the lighter mover with 6" wheels, plus a third rear wheel so the thing can't tip under load.
o The load-bearing wheels are wide-spaced, making it very stable even on side slopes.
o It comes with a 2" hitch ball that mates directly with your trailer's hitch. Ball height is easily adjustable over wide range, by pulling a pin.
o Because the hitch ball can be high off the ground, the mover can be pivoted almost 360 degrees without hanging up on the underside of the trailer's A-frame. My previous mover would swing only about 60 degrees in each direction, which is too little to make a tight turn.
o THE BIG ITEM? Like any manual mover, it has a T-handle on the end of the tow arm, so you can grab it and tug it around by hand. But the T-handle can be removed by pulling couple pins, and a real trailer hitch (included, see corner of first pic) installed in its place. This means that you can do a fine tweak of the starting position manually, then use your car/truck to do big movements across the yard or up a slope, and then remount the T-handle do final positioning by hand. This is especially useful when I use the truck to move the trailer until the wheels are on the smooth level floor, then inch it into final position by hand.

Vevor actually makes three versions of this mover. One has a hitch weigh rating of 500 pounds (too small), one is rated at 1000 pounds, and the one I bought is rated at 1500 pounds. Only the 1500-pound version has the trailer hitch option. The price difference is small, so I went with that. It is available from Amazon, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, etc. The list price appears to be about $160, but I caught a sale at Amazon and got it for $120 with free shipping.

Bill

https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/38/38d31e68-2301-4760-a388-b16c22a33d39.pdf

 

[Wavery]

I wanted to give a little review for a trailer dolly that I picked up to help make it easier to manuver my TM in and out of the garage. I picked up the Vevor 5000 lbs trailer dolly and it's honestly been pretty great. I was able to get the TM out of the garage and back it up into my driveway without issue, and it was FAR easier than using the harbor freight one I had before.

I've only had it for a few weeks now, but so far it's been great. It's not water proof so I just take it off when I'm not going to be using it. It's also really only made for paved surfaces, so I don't think it would work well on rocks or grass. Also, the bracket that holds the unit to the trailer seemed to not be bent correctly on mine, which made it really difficult to initially connect the unit. If I had a vice I would have just bent it in that, but I don't have one at the moment.

I think for the price (it was $210 when I got it, I think it's like $255 now) it's pretty good and certainly capable of moving my 2720. I do keep it down as low as possible so that the connection to the trailer is as close as possible to the powered wheel. That way there should be less swaying from the motor kicking in.

I've had one of those [Vevor powered dollies] for years. At first, I didn't like how wobbly it was so I made a modification. It makes it very sturdy. It uses a 1 7/8" muffler clamp. A 1 3/4" will not work. It will still be wobbly.

This picture is it mounted on my 20', 5,000# cargo trailer. It moves the trailer with ease.

 

[Bjack36]

Any Experience with MiniMover3?

I have a driveway that requires a 90 degree turn into the garage. Not enough width to maneuver with the TV. The NovaWinch MiniMover3 looks like it would do the job but I would like to know if anyone has tried it. The previous model had problems with the clamp but has been improved. Not enough specs on the website to insure it will clamp over the 5" from [frame?] on my 2008 TrailManor 2720SL.

 

[Bill]

Looks like an interesting device. The TM's front hitch and frame area is pretty crowded, especially if you have a swing hitch and/or WDH brackets. So be sure that the mounting plate will fit in the available space on the frame. And be sure that once it is mounted, the mover's handle will clear everything in and around the frame as you maneuver it. It is truly annoying to get hitched up and find that the maneuvering handle won't swing past the nose of the hitch.

There is an earlier thread that you might find interesting.
https://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21947&highlight=vevor
It starts off with a report on a Vevor powered mover that looked good to me. I added my report on an unpowered Vevor mover that worked really well for me on a rough but near-flat area. This one has a big (to me) advantage - it has a hitch ball that connects directly to the trailer hitch, rather than connecting at a separate (and off-center) mounting plate. This puts it out in front of the trailer, rather than beside it, so maneuvering is easy. Since it connects at the hitch ball, you can also connect it directly to your tow vehicle when you have enough room to do that.

Bill

 

[Wavery]

I have a driveway that requires a 90 degree turn into the garage. Not enough width to maneuver with the TV. The NovaWinch MiniMover3 looks like it would do the job but I would like to know if anyone has tried it. The previous model had problems with the clamp but has been improved. Not enough specs on the website to insure it will clamp over the 5" from [frame?] on my 2008 TrailManor 2720SL.

There's more info here. Watch the video. The nice thing about ordering through Amazon is if it doesn't fit, send it back.

If you really want it, you might consider drilling 2 holes near the top of the trailer frame and running the other 2 bolts under the frame. I'd be hesitant to drill all 4 bolt holes through the trailer frame.

https://www.amazon.com/Novawinch-Mi...dolly,aps,186&sr=8-65&xpid=RM3OW_qAfu4TF&th=1

Be sure to read the reviews.

https://www.novawinch.com/products/p/mm3-gtrtl

 

[jdmackes]

I've used my vevor one to move my trailer in and out of my garage multiple times and I've got to do a 90 degree turn to get in also. As long as you have enough room to manuever, it works fine. Only issue that I've ever had is sometimes the wheel will spin instead of getting the trailer over the small lip into my garage.