Learn: Machine Skates

Our skates and dollies are all manufactured by JUNG in Germany. They're dependable and perform very well, even under harsh conditions. They're also very user-friendly, making moving a bulky payload as easy as moving a refrigerator. They're fail-safe and secure when employed the right way, safeguarding operators and protecting the precious load at all times.

A conventional machine skate configuration is made up of three machine skates to carry the heavy weight on three points; this has proven to be one of the most versatile and safest arrangements.

Having said that, not every cargo will allow for a 3-point-support, therefore our skates and dollies are easily interchangeable. You can combine them in almost any arrangement imaginable to accommodate your distinct needs. Go ahead but stay with skates of exactly the same height for your configuration. View Machine Skates.

We provide each dolly parts on their own, allowing you to configure your machine in just the right way for your needs - and you can always add parts to existing configuration.

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First, Let's Have a Look at the Characteristics of the Steerable Skate:

Each steerable dolly is sold with a pulling handlebar. The skates for larger loads also have a towing eye to which a forklift or other pulling vehicles can be connected.

The loading platform includes a swiveling turntable that the load resides on. It can be turned 360 degrees and steered by the dolly that sits underneath the load. It distributes the weight over a large area, reduces the pressure against the floor and facilitates easy movement.

On the heavier skates, the wheels are positioned inside pivoting cassettes on the inside of the frame. This innovation makes it possible for the wheels to dip into bulges on the floor, maintaining contact with uneven ground continuously.

Next, Let's Have a Closer Look at Our Straight-Line Rear Skates:

The straight-line dolly is equipped with connecting bars and additionally a pair of trolleys.

The bar maintains the wheels of each trolley aligned straight and all pointing in the same direction. The trolley can also be employed while not having the connecting bar applied, but this mode is not ideal because the material of the can wear down like misaligned car tires.

The construction of the connecting bar has actually been changed from recent models. It now connects to the exterior of the dolly instead of through the center. This concept might seem a little uncommon, on the other hand it makes it simple to position the skates under the cargo and regulate the connecting bar without having to reach beneath it.

When you use four skates to move your cargo or machines, we always suggest working with the connecting bar on each rig. It will help keep the skates in their place in cases where load rocks and one dolly loses connection with the freight.

Should you require a connecting bar longer than the one that comes with the dolly, you can quickly build your own and clamp it into the fixture. The bar is made of a normal 1x2 inch steel tube.

The front and rear skates interact with each other on a 3-point system. By working with the straight-line and steerable skates simultaneously, you achieve the same maneuverability as a car; the front steers, the rear will always follow in a straight line. Whereas the front dolly provides steerability of up to 90 degrees to both sides.

The loading console is made of steel covered by a 1/4-inch-thick anti-slip rubber load pad.

Valued clients who would like to attach the dolly skates to the load have two choices:

1. Drill through the padded loading base and bolt a bracket or another holding mechanism.
2. Pry off the rubber and weld some kind of holding system to the outer steel casing on top.

Our skids and skates feature a very low cross section. Loads are moved as close to the floor as possible for the best safety and lowest head clearance possible.

50+ years of research and development based on real world use, user feedback, and incremental improvement has resulted in a very durable wheel material titled JUWAthan, which is far superior for general performance over conventional steel, polyurethane, or composite wheel material. How are JUWAthan Wheels Superior?

More Puncture Resistant Than Other Materials Conventional polyurethane wheels get punctured by nails, metal shavings, or stones. The particles can become stuck in the wheel, causing abrasion and shortening the life span of the material. Our proprietary JUWAthan material is so elastic that it will mold around obstacles lying on the ground, much like tires on a car or truck. Obstacles will not pierce or become embedded, which means they simply cannot break up the material. The benefit is a wheel with superior durability.

Better Floor Surface Tolerance Than Other Materials The same flexibility that prevents punctures means that the wheels do not have to get up and over the obstacle, but instead flexes around debris. Loads are not stopped in their tracks as they would be with steel, nylon, or hard polyurethane wheels.

Greater Floor Contact Area Conventional wheels feature a small footprint due to the fact that only a small surface area meets the ground.

Flexible JUWAthan spreads out under the forces to greatly enhance the contact area with the floor surface. This much larger footprint of each dolly distributes the weight over a larger spot, and the pressure onto the ground is lowered.

Radically lowered floor pressure translates to wheels that even under extreme payload are non-marking and non-damaging. You can move the dolly over floor tiles or sensitive epoxy without any damage to or marks on the surface.

Less pressure on the ground also translates to easy steering, easy from a full stop, easy rolling - and less manpower needed to get the job done.

If you are moving the dolly over a thin floor (for example, on a submarine or boat), and are concerned about breaking through, please consult our guide to determine the applied pressure per square inch. You will find this info under the headline "Pressure on Thin Floors" under each Machine Skates set’s additional product information.

You can leave your cargo parked on top of the dolly for quite some time. It will not damage the wheels (or the dolly) at all. The wheels will sag down a bit until the moment the load starts moving, then the material will go back to its initial shape.

In order to maintain the round shape free of warping in the long run, the wheel has either a steel or aluminum core (based upon on the dolly's overall size), and two high-precision ball bearings inside.

The wheels need to become larger sized for heavy-weight cargo, in order to facilitate getting over obstacles on the ground. Each of our skates will maintain the capacity to bridge small gaps, ledges, or obstacles.

They are so elastic, they will perform extraordinarily well indoors and outdoors. It doesn't matter whether there is metal scrap on the surface, whether you move it on rough parking lots, it will go effortlessly over cracks in concrete - and even over countersunk railway tracks.

However, bear in mind, the wheels have been developed for low-profile purposes therefore they're small in diameter. Use the dolly only on hard surfaces, it will definitely struggle in gravel or on soft surfaces, like, for example grass lawns. + Each one of our skates has a considerable safety capacity, far above the total rated load bearing capacity. Even in cases where you surpass the permitted weight, you will still experience good maneuverability, and the dolly will not get damaged.

Please be cautious when you're using a dolly to hold one end of a load when there is a forklift on the other end - the height difference might partially tilt the dolly and elevate one row of wheels, and overloading the other wheels at the same time. If you are using this variation of load moving, please make use of a dolly with two times the load limit.

If you are deciding on a standard 3-point system, please check the value 'combined capacity' noted on the website below each product's information to find out how much load each set does support.

And in case you're thinking about mixing and matching the various dolly types, please have a look at the section 'individual load capacity'. We've listed the combined capacity - and each individual dolly - in columns next to each other in the product listings.

For more in-depth technical specs for each A/B dolly system, please print the data sheets found directly below each product listing. If you are also interested in finding a tool for lifting your freight onto the skates, please consider our toe jacks.

Please feel free to call us with any technical questions. 1-800-786-6112