tsc dollie; JUST SAY NO.!!!!

[eepete]

JDGreenGrass:

I never meant to imply you did anything wrong. Dropped was probably a bad choice of words. I know you put it down as gently as possible. I'm sorry if you took offense. I was trying to illustrate the difference between dynamic and static load, not claim that you dropped a big load on the dolly.

Tractor Supply is definitely at fault here. Your comments on the flunky who rated the dolly is what I was trying to address. The question to ponder is if you had 1000# on the dolly, how "rough" can the loading and subsequent ride be before it fails. Steve C's comment on the brief ride on one wheel simply has to happen most of the time, and that's part of why I derate wheels as I do.

Finally, as for "what price should one pay to get quality" I think that question has been made more difficult by the same marketing geniuses that rated the dolly at 1000#. Brand names are sold to other companies, making many of them useless as a guide to quality. Specifications are vague and the means for arriving at those numbers are not clear. Many companies cheap out on the guts but make it look good in the store, and there is no way to tell until you use the product.

So you went to a store, bought a product that was rated for your use, used it appropriately and with care, and it broke. As you said, the product is Junk and the title of your thread says it all.
Thank you for letting the rest of us benefit from your bad experience.

Pete

 

[Diamondpilot]

Could be you just got a bad one.

Chris

 

[inmaestro]

All great legitimate replies.

My 2 cents, TSC should refund your money or replace the cart. The load rating of 1000 lbs was obviously in error. All the comments about unequal loading are correct, and dynamic loading probably caused the wheel to fail, but without further analysis, that is only an assumption.

But let's all share the blame a little. Many of us buy things from Wal-Mart, TSC and other discount houses for the price first, quality second. I agree it is getting really hard to find high quality products, but look at it from the retailer's perspective. If they carry only high quality (thus higher price) tools, many of us are swayed by the low price on the discount tool warehouse sales flyer, and might not even check out the higher quality store.

It is the Wal Mart effect. If prices are always falling, how come nothing at Wal-Mart is free?

So buy the best tools you can afford, be wary of anything made in China (not everything they make is junk...and they, like the Japanese 50 years ago, are getting slowly better...) Buy American made when you can, though not everything made here is automatically better these days.

I love my Ford truck (with a Brazilian engine) and my John Deere tractor (with a Japanese engine). I think my Rigid pipe wrenches were made in USA, but who knows these days?

Stay safe.

 

[CFHartman]

It really isn't a matter of putting the weight box where I want it but more about having it on wheels to align it to the 3pt. hitch.

Best move I made was buying the I Match, I love it

 

[EE_Bota]

I was at the TSC the other day, and I saw the dolly with no obvious rating, and I would have guessed #300.

Many Chinese products are rated at their breaking load, not their working load. The Chinese know they will never see you in court.

Most things made in the USA seem to either be rated at their working loads, or enough info is given such that you pretty much know what rating you are looking at. They know they will see many folks in court in cases equivalent to the "McDonald's hot coffee case."

After the Chinese poisoned those Chinese babies and killed our pets by adulterating milk products with melamine, and Christmas was ruined due to shipping lead painted toys to America for our children to chew on, and even our housing was ruined with tainted drywall, it should have become abundantly clear:

You (collectively) are responsible for rating Chinese products. They will poison your kids and your pets for a buck.

 

[2manyrocks]

The casters I bought weren't overloaded. They just snapped.

I'd take it back to TSC and see what happens.

What this about tainted drywall? Could you explain what is up with that, please?

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I would be dissapointed with the service life of the product. 9 feet isn't very far.

Stuff usually breaks for a reason, but it is rare for a manufactured product with wide distribution to be seriously over rated. It is of course possible that one of the wheels was defective from the factory.

I always try to figure out how stuff happens. I have broke enough stuff that I have gotten plenty of practice in the last 40 years. And I always try to figure out all the possibilities so I can avoid making the same mistake twice, on the rare chance that if it was my own fault.

There is one possibility that comes to mind that I haven't seen anyone address yet

Working as a mechanical designer for 40 years makes me look at things a little differently than some folks. For the following reason I would never have designed a cart to hold a 600 pound weight with castors that are only good for 300 pounds each.

The problem may have been caused when you lowered the box onto the cart. If any part of it touched down on one corner for even a fraction of a second before the other three corners it could have placed a momentary 600 pound load on one wheel.

The wheels that are only rated for 300 lbs of weight. Under those circumstances it is probable that the wheel components would become stressed beyond their yeild strength, causing failure. Once one wheel fails, the cart will tilt, lifting the oposite diagonal wheel off the ground, placing 300 lbs of weight on the remaining 2 wheels, at the very limit of the design capacity cusing them to fail also, but probably not as quickly.

My rather limited experience with 3 point attachments, hitches and top link adjustments would seem to support the posability that things are not always perfectly level front to back and side to side when lifting and lowering them with a 3 point. Even a slight varience in the concrete floor of as little as a quarter inch under a tractor tire or the cart wheel could cause an overload condition. The only sure way to be able to set down a solid 600 pound object on a wheeled cart without hurting it is to get a cart that has wheels that are rated for 600 pounds each so momentary loads caused by floor variations and or link adjustments will be adequetly supported.

The product may of course just be "junk" as you have stated

However there is a good chance that its design capacity of one of the components was at one point exceeded, leading to total failure of the assembly for reasons previously stated.

chit happens but it usually happens for a reason...

junk happens usually because of the lowest bidder in the supply chain

You bring up a great point. You left one thing out.

If what you state is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, the dolly should be rated for 300lbs.

Agree.??

Also, wouldn't you think that the dolly, when in use, carries objects of un-balanced weight.?? If you put a grand piano on it, don't you think that one or 2 of the wheels are carrying different weights.??

Another point of fact is when I lowered it onto the dolly I adjusted the top link to be certain that it was flat on the dolly, and centered.

Also, I am a deer hunter. I use tree stands. They rate tree stands at 80%. In other words a tree stand rated at 300lbs. will actually carry approx. 360lbs.

I am a stubborn sob. I haven't seen a reply here yet that makes sense to me, though it is a good discussion.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

JDGreenGrass:

I never meant to imply you did anything wrong. Dropped was probably a bad choice of words. I know you put it down as gently as possible. I'm sorry if you took offense. I was trying to illustrate the difference between dynamic and static load, not claim that you dropped a big load on the dolly.

Tractor Supply is definitely at fault here. Your comments on the flunky who rated the dolly is what I was trying to address. The question to ponder is if you had 1000# on the dolly, how "rough" can the loading and subsequent ride be before it fails. Steve C's comment on the brief ride on one wheel simply has to happen most of the time, and that's part of why I derate wheels as I do.

Finally, as for "what price should one pay to get quality" I think that question has been made more difficult by the same marketing geniuses that rated the dolly at 1000#. Brand names are sold to other companies, making many of them useless as a guide to quality. Specifications are vague and the means for arriving at those numbers are not clear. Many companies cheap out on the guts but make it look good in the store, and there is no way to tell until you use the product.

So you went to a store, bought a product that was rated for your use, used it appropriately and with care, and it broke. As you said, the product is Junk and the title of your thread says it all.
Thank you for letting the rest of us benefit from your bad experience.

Pete

Pete....Understood. This is a good discussion and I hope I haven't made it personal towards anyone. It's not my intention if I have.

Merry Christmas and peace on earth.!!

 

[FlaDon]

The casters I bought weren't overloaded. They just snapped.

I'd take it back to TSC and see what happens.

What this about tainted drywall? Could you explain what is up with that, please?

Chinese drywall was imported that had flyash that was very corrosive when damp. Think just humidity dampness to set it off. It now is eating away at homes that were built with it and eating into the wiring conduits. Also releases toxic fumes into the air. Story.

 

[Steve C]

You bring up a great point. You left one thing out.

If what you state is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, the dolly should be rated for 300lbs.

Agree.??

Also, wouldn't you think that the dolly, when in use, carries objects of un-balanced weight.?? If you put a grand piano on it, don't you think that one or 2 of the wheels are carrying different weights.??

Another point of fact is when I lowered it onto the dolly I adjusted the top link to be certain that it was flat on the dolly, and centered.

Also, I am a deer hunter. I use tree stands. They rate tree stands at 80%. In other words a tree stand rated at 300lbs. will actually carry approx. 360lbs.

I am a stubborn sob. I haven't seen a reply here yet that makes sense to me, though it is a good discussion.

Well I dunno, if I was trying to sell these things in a huge volume to a buyer I would probably just take the capacity of the wheels and multiply by 4 to come up with a capacity. It is cheap and reasonable if one is stacking bags of rice on it.

I have never been in that position, I have always had to make sure that my designs worked without fail every time, so I have always designed things so a single point failure of a possible substandard component would not cause a catostraphic failure such as you experienced.

This will cause the item to be "overbuilt" at an expense of 20% above the minimum or so, but since I haven't designed things for mass production it is an acceptible cost. The items I have designed have their costs spread over hundreds of thousands of production units, so spending a couple of bucks to do it perfect and avoid personal injury makes a lot of sense to me. At least that is the way I have always approached it. But on second thought, I am unemployed so perhaps the world doesn't need that. Holy crapp! I have been wrong for 40 years!!!