Video Transcript for Hands-On with the Trailer Valet Tandem Axle Trailers Wheel Dolly

Hi, Matt with etrailer. If you're in one of two situations where you're trying to move either your vehicle in a really tight spot in your garage, or you're trying to back up your trailer somewhere, and you have tandem axles, and you're using the dolly to move it with, and you want that process to be a little bit easier, then the Trailer Valet wheel dolly is gonna be a great option for you. And to paint more of a picture for you, if you have a car that's in your garage, and it's not moving a whole lot, maybe you're doing a little bit of maintenance to it every now and then, you can actually use four of these, they do come in sets of two, to move that car around. You won't have to use any additional dolly. It's actually something you can push with your hands. So that's pretty cool.

Now if you're in a situation like we are in right now where we want access to this bay right over here, this can be a pretty tight spot, and it's not always gonna be ideal to really back up into. Now this is one of our new add-ons we have at etrailer. And to help us out sometimes, we can even use a trailer dolly. Now those dollies are great, but sometimes you gonna face the issue when you have that tandem axle 'cause I worked with it some yesterday, and it was a little bit difficult to make those really sharp turns, anything around 90 degrees. And what this is gonna do is help align those tires when you are backing up 'cause a lot of times, they can really fight each other if you're making those really sharp turns, and this is just gonna make that process a lot easier to work with.

Enough talking about it though, let's actually check it out. So I'm actually gonna be using the MV Pro again. So I did use that last time without any of these wheel dollies, and it felt pretty good. The main issue though, when I was trying to move it, when I tried to make those really tight turns, I actually couldn't use a drill. The reason being there was just too much pressure behind it.

Now I am using a 12 volt drill. I wouldn't recommend anything over 18 volts and neither does Trailer Valet. But now earlier, I tried using just a 12 volt, and it was able to make those turns super easy. But that should show you what I mean. I'll move it now.

Last time when I was moving this, I was struggling, especially with the hand crank. This time I can really just rely on using the drill. So when I'm making my turns, this isn't too bad. You can see back there the tires are looking pretty good. And something else that's really gonna affect how everything's gonna operate and feel is gonna be if you're going up a slope or an uneven spot. Earlier, we hit a uneven spot, and we had some issues. That's really going to depend on where your location is and your dolly. Really, the whole process of really using the wheel dollies is helping me out a whole lot now out. (drill buzzing) And right now, you can see we are coming up on a crack, and right now I'm pretty impressed with this. We are going up a little bit of an incline. We've hit a 90 degree turn so far, and we're still able to use the drill, not too much of a fight. And I think the trick to going over these cracks is just to keep that momentum up so you can get across there, and you can even tell we have some softer soil in there, and it really didn't stop this at all. So so far, this is impressing me. Now that we've got this inside, we can take a closer look at the specs. So if we're using it in the way that we're using it right now for tandem axles, this is gonna have a weight capacity of 7,000 pounds. Now we are really pushing that capacity today on the trailer we have, and you might run into some spots where you find it's really hard to jack up if you're really pushing that capacity, or you might not be able to get it to work at all. We actually had to move it to the front axle, and part of that is gonna be due to our environment. We we inchesre on a little bit of a slope, and that can really change how things are really gonna work. So you might have to do a little bit of problem solving. But if you're using it in a different way, if you're just trying to move that vehicle around in your garage, then for each one of these in a singular use, it's gonna be rated for 2,000 pounds. So when you're moving your vehicle around in your garage, you're gonna be using four of these, and that will have a max capacity of 8,000 pounds. If you take a closer look at the construction, this will be made out of steel, and it's gonna have a black powder coat finish to it. That finish is gonna help it last longer. So if it is in any rainy conditions, then it'll be less likely of rusting. And also looking at the steel, when I first saw it, it has this more of a slim design to it. And I was actually pretty impressed it could handle 7,000 pounds like this. And what I actually like about that is that slimmer design helps it a lot easier to be stored in your garage. And then if you take a closer look at the wheels, these wheels are gonna be made from a polyurethane. So you can tell how they're holding up. We are getting some bits that are already digging into it, but I think it's holding up pretty well so far. We've been using this all day today. And we're gonna have these ball bearings made out of steel in here, and that's gonna allow it to make those full rotations. Now we are gonna have a total of six wheels per dolly, and they're even gonna come with this on and off switch. What that's gonna do is allow this to stick into place, so it's not gonna roll around on you. You're only gonna have two of these per dolly, and what this is gonna be great for if you're just stowing this away somewhere for just a short period of time, you'll be able to do that. Give you a little bit more peace of mind. I know some people will actually store it like that. I wouldn't recommend it since it is pretty small anyways. You could just let this down and then store it somewhere else in your garage since it's not gonna take up a lot of room. And then when we take a closer look at these wheels, these are gonna be made out of a polyurethane material, and that's gonna be what provide you more of that smooth glide across the ground. It's also gonna be very sturdy and robust. And what's gonna help support this is this steel ball bearing right up at the top. That's gonna allow you to make those full 360 turns, and we will have a total of six of these. Now I will say only two of them do have these locking switches right here. What that locking switch is gonna provide for you is the ability to stow this for just short periods of time. So if maybe I need to step away real quick, I can just make sure I've locked that into place, so it gives me more peace of mind. Now I know some people will just stow these dollies like this. I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you do have a heavier load on it. Instead, you could just simply take this off since it's not gonna take up a lot of room in your garage anyways. When you have this stored, you're gonna have this little hook on the side of it that holds down this pedal. Just push down on that some and release that hook. That'll go up now. And if we wanna actually get it on here, we just need to spread these two sections out just like that. Now you might run into the issue if this lever is pointed up, you won't be able to do that 'cause this is actually meant to ratchet it down to make sure it's even tighter. So we wanna make sure that lever is pointing down, and then we can spread them out. Sometimes if they won't spread out, you just gotta push down one time, all the way up, and it'll release. And then you're just gonna push this around your tires. You wanna make sure this is gonna fit around them completely. So you just need to make sure your tires are within spec so they're at least 13 inches in width and 32 in height. If they meet those, try to center that up right on here, and cinch it down into place. What we're gonna do from here is just lift up on that lever just like that. It's also important to make sure your vehicle's either chalked, or you got your jack in place just so it doesn't move too much on you since this is gonna be lifting up a bit. And then I'm just gonna come over here and just press down on this pedal with my foot. You're gonna lift it all the way up until it clicks again, (dolly clicking) push down again. Eventually, you're gonna start feeling a lot more resistance against here. Sometimes I might just grab the side so I can get a little bit more tension. You might have to use your body weight. Something else that's gonna be helping us out are gonna be these sections here. These are just rollers. That's just gonna help get your tires into place and off the ground. Now right now, our tire is just slightly off the ground. I would prefer this to be a little bit more just since if you're going into spots that have maybe just a little bit of rocks or debris underneath there, your tire could catch on it. So I'm probably gonna go one more time, and you're gonna notice I'm gonna have to put a lot more force in behind here 'cause my whole body weight sometimes isn't enough. So I'm just gonna push down on that. And this is a far better spot to be. Now once you're done using it, you'll probably wanna set this down too. A simple way of just bringing this back down to the ground is just gonna be coming back over here, pushing that lever down. And what we're gonna do is use that foot pedal once again. And what I recommend is just doing this slowly. So we're gonna press on here. There's gonna be a lot less resistance. Use your body weight to push down, and then slowly let your foot up. You'll eventually reach a point where it's gonna click. (dolly clicking) That tiny click right there lets you know it's all the way up. You shouldn't have any resistance until you get next to the bottom. Press it down once again, and then you'll just repeat this process until it's all the way down on the ground. This is gonna open you up to a lot more opportunity when it comes to really moving different types of vehicles with that higher weight capacity. And this is meant to work with tandem axles too. So it's gonna open up not just the vehicles in your garage, but also trailers as well. Well that was just a look at some of the features and how to use the Trailer Valet wheel dolly. I'm Matt, thanks for watching.