Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Moving Dolly for stairs

People use normal dollies with ramps over stairs, but that sounds dangerous
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Imagine a large dolly, capable of holding a refridgerator or vending machine. It has two wheels on either side of its base. The wheels are about 16" (small car rims) in diameter (perhaps replacable with different diameters to accomodate different stairs). The center few inches of the wheel are made up of the axle and hub assembly, it must be large to support the weight. The wheels consist of four or five reinforced (sturdy) metal spokes. As the wheels move forward, they lock, preventing backwards movement, but allowing forward, similar to a rachet. This ratchet feature should be able to be reversed, so you could pull something up and have somebody pushing from below. On the end of each spoke is a rubber, pivoting foot.The idea is that while one spoke's foot is in contact with a step on a stairway, force can be applied parellel to the stairway to move the next spoke to the next step. The next spoke's foot should be facing downward because they are weighted and freely pivoting. Depending on the number of spokes and the slope of the stairway, the spoke itself may get in the way of the step, or even over-reach it. The wheels would have to be easily removeable, maybe you just slip it on the axel and put in a pin. Different diameter wheels are available. I think that covers it, the frame would have to be light, but the locking mechanism, and wheels would have to be strong. Perhaps to make it mobile, (it wouldnt work as well on flat ground) the frame should be aluminum, or a similar light-weight metal. Later I realized you could just put ratcheted wheels on a normal dolly for the same effect... but this dolly would look much cooler.
Felixfish, May 03 2005

You mean like a "wesco stair-king battery powered stair-climbing appliance dolly?"? http://www.advanced...%20Hand%20truck.pdf
[ato_de, May 03 2005]

(?) or like a "Escalera Stair Climbing Handtruck?" http://www.escalera.com/models/models.htm
[ato_de, May 03 2005]

or even a "Motorized Electric Stairclimbing Handtruck?" http://www.powermat...o/stairclimbing.htm
first three hits on google. [ato_de, May 03 2005]

(?) you can even buy an unpowered one on e-bay. http://cgi.ebay.com...5097&category=26222
[ato_de, May 03 2005]

help http://www.halfbake...editorial/help.html
[ato_de, May 03 2005]

[link]






       All that and some paragraph breaks, and I'll take one. I love using dollies to move heavy objects, if I can't get out of it any other way.   

       I've known a few dollies, and they've each had their own name.......Salvador, Parton, Lama, to name a few.
normzone, May 03 2005
  

       blue.
po, May 03 2005
  

       Kinda like all of those, except this one has cool pinwheel-looking wheels. All of the linked products look more like dollies, and less like steam-powered riverboats. Its like changing robots from wheels to legs, but much more half-baked.
Felixfish, May 03 2005
  
      
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