Recently I decided I wanted to make better use of the space I have in my garage. The garage now houses both Sevens alongside my turbo trainer, it was starting to feel a little busy.
I was aware of a significant amount of wasted space between the passenger side rear arch of the 420R and the wall. This space was due to the car being driven in at an angle, parking the front wheels close to the wall and the rear clear of the garage door and wall to which it adjoins. To utilize the space I'd need to move the car repeatedly forwards and backwards, trying to position it closer to the wall. That's not a great solution, I needed a set of dollies.
I do own some dollies, some rather expensive ones which lift a car and allow it to be manoeuvred around. While they are a fantastic product, they do have one drawback, they're pretty large. They protrude beyond the side of the car wheel, thus limiting how close you can get to an adjacent object such as a wall. I wanted a smaller, lighter, simpler solution which would enable me to get the 420R close to the wall. The cost would be key too, given I'd already invested in some dollies.
After some shopping around I came across these from my local Screwfix store. At 59.99GBP for the set, they seemed worthy of a punt.
As you would expect the dollies are supplied dissembled requiring each castor to be attached with the supplied hardware. The supplied hardware isn't of fantastic quality but is sufficient. The kit uses split washers and nuts, which I opted to replace with nylocs. The construction of the dollies, again is satisfactory. There is no flex in the metal construction and certainly seems capable of supporting a Seven. I guess if you were to be picky you could argue the design does not recess the bolt heads, but I don't think it matters, they'd don't make contact with the tyres.
Once built I tested the set on the 420R and they worked a treat. The 420R was lifted from the rear using a trolley jack and carefully lowered onto the dollies. Once sited the 420R could be manoeuvred both forwards and backwards, and the rear arced in and out against the wall. The castors ran reasonably well on the floor, sure they weren't as smooth and capable as my other more costly dollies, but they were suffcient. One person could easily reposition the car.
For the money these are certainly worth buying and I'd recommend them to any Seven owner.
Note, the Seven shown, my 420R is fitted with the wider 8" rear wheel.
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