#flatfree

5,000 flat-free miles, guaranteed? We had to try for ourselves...

Your car has all sorts of components to absorb the shock and vibration of the road.  Why should your casters and industrial wheels be any different?  When you are transporting delicate or sensitive cargo on your carts or dollies, you need to reduce the vibration and shock from rolling across rough surfaces to protect that equipment.  Depending on the size and nature of your application, there are a few ways to do this.

1.  Soft / Cushioned Wheels

Your wheels are the first line of defense against rough terrain, because they are in direct contact with that terrain.  There is a wide range of sizes and options to get more forgiving wheels.  There are various forms of rubber, neoprene, and air-filled (pneumatic) wheels that can greatly reduce vibration by absorbing shock before it is transferred to your cart and equipment.  One of our favorites here is the flat-free wheel, which performs (and appears) very similarly to a pneumatic wheel, but without the maintenance of having to be filled with air regularly.  These 8″ x 2″ flat free wheels are super soft, while still maintaining durability:

2.  Spring-Loaded Casters

There is a fairly large selection of spring-loaded casters to help absorb shock from both the floor/ground as well as from anything being dropped or placed on top of the cart or dolly.  Most spring-loaded casters have additional “floating” legs that can pivot on the caster’s primary legs.  These floating legs are attached to springs at one of their ends, and the caster wheel at the opposite end, with the pivot point located in between the two.  Typically, this style of spring-loaded caster is geared more towards heavy duty applications such as shock sensitive carts, aircraft jacks, medical and computer equipment, and heavy duty toolboxes.  The caster below has an 8″ x 2″ neoprene on aluminum wheel and is rated for 500 lbs.

3.  Impact Resistant Casters

These casters are designed more to handle impact from the picking up and putting down of a cart itself, or for impact from dropping heavy equipment onto the top of a dolly or cart.  They use a heavy duty kingpinless swivel frame that can handle more impact and abuse than a standard swivel caster frame.  They also have a high-impact nylon wheel with oversized precision ball bearings to add to the impact-resistance of the caster, as well as increase overall weight capacity to 2,000 lbs in a 4″ x 2″ caster (shown below).

Harper Trucks 700 lb Capacity Super-Steel Dual Purpose 2 Wheel Dolly and 4 Wheel Cart Review

Harper’s JEDTK1735P Super-Steel 700-Pound steel frame convertible hand truck with flat -free tires. Telescoping handle up to 62″ for two wheeling the tallest of loads. 10″ solid rubber and 5″ durable swivel casters for easy manuverability of bulky loads. Heavy gauge base plate and wheel fenders to protect the load. Made in USA. Since 1940, Harper Trucks’ mission has been to sell the highest…

Harper Trucks BKTA86 Super Steel Flat-Free 600-Pound Capacity Hand Truck Review

Harper Truck BKTAK17 Super Steel 600 Pound Capacity Hand Truck provides 25-Degree greater performance over the competition. Never worry about maintenance with 10″ solid rubber flat-free tires. The “P” Handle design provides for easy 1 or 2 hand control by the operator. 48″ height for large loads and curved back frame for curved loads. Made in USA.