I've been looking at making an engine dolly for the bus (type 4) but it would be handy if it would work for a type 1 as well (my buggy). Googling around it looks like the type 1 dolly has 4 wheels and the type 4 has 3 wheels for some reason. Has anyone made one of these and got the dimensions, in case I measure the wrong bit. The Type 4 one is my priority as I need it next - no idea why the type 4 has only 3 wheels though - they're both from aircooled.net A mate who's used one for a type 1 said it need some extra strengthening as the wheels tend to splay out under load so i expect to add struts to the design above.
I use a bit of ¾” ply about 18” square with four castor wheels. It works for Type 4s, V8s, gearboxes, chest of drawers and anything else that’s too heavy to carry.
I used a large piece of ply and some lengths of pipe as rollers when I took my engine out. It worked surprisingly well for moving the engine around. Just keep chucking the rollers back under the leading edge when they pop out the back
Geoff you're right a bit of board will do the job and that's what I've used for years. I just fancied the convenience of this design. The older I get the more I look for ways of avoiding shifting heavy lumps. I also have a suitable piece of angle iron and some castors too. Otherwise I'd take Dicky's sound advice, probably. And yes I'm looking for something to weld, for fun
Bought a ply one with decent casters from machine mart and have used it on type 1/4 engines. Does the job. I also have a bike Jack which has been great for getting it in/out.
This was OK until I needed to tip the engine slightly forwards to get the gearbox input shat to go in properly.. then it was a different pain to using the whole thing on a wobbly jack. My main trouble is losing weight and strength over lockdown so I could no longer overbalance the engine onto the jack .. and an injury to my left arm that is still a pain 18 months in..
I used a piece of thin timber about a foot long and a trolly jack. I pulled the engine out until there was only about a few mm of clearance from the input shaft then lowered it.
It is tricky, the first time I removed the engine I managed to bring the input shaft with the engine, which meant stripping the front of the box to fit a new circlip! I find the bike stand is more stable but I have recently picked up a second hand truck Jack, huge great big thing but much better than my shop bought ones.
