The 9 Best Car Dollies

For a sturdy, low-cost way to shove a dead car around a garage, look at the Pentagon Tool 5061 pair. Each skate is a stiff steel plate on four swivel casters. You jack up one wheel, slide a skate under the tire and let the car down onto it, and two skates carry one end of most cars. The casters arrive loose and bolt on at home, and every move starts with a floor jack.

The Sunex 7708 lifts the tire for you. Set its two rollers on either side of a wheel, pump the foot pedal, and a ratchet squeezes them together until the tire rises off the floor. Nothing is hydraulic, so there's no fluid to leak. Sunex covers it for life and says its locking casters meet the ASME safety standard for portable car lifting gear. Each box holds one dolly, so a full set gets costly.

You get four skates with the VEVOR Wheel Dolly Set, and four under four tires let you spin a car in place or slide it sideways into a tight bay. Each one is a stamped steel plate with a dished middle that cradles the tire, and two casters on each skate lock. Like any plain skate, it needs a jack to get the car onto it, and VEVOR names no warranty.

Wide performance tires are where the GoJak G4520 earns its keep. It was designed for race shops, and its rollers open wide enough for fat street and race tires. A ratchet squeezes two rollers under the tread as you work the pedal. Zendex builds it in the U.S. and backs it for seven years. Each listing is a single left- or right-hand unit, and its small casters want smooth, clean concrete.

If you only move one end of a car now and then, the WEN 73017T pair is the low-cost way in. Each skate has a diamond-plate deck, carry handles and casters with foot brakes, so it stays put while you jack up the next wheel. It goes together quickly. The casters are small, though, and they can stall on a crack or a seam in the floor, so sweep the path first.

TUFFIOM Mechanical Wheel Dollies come as a full set of four self-lifting dollies, so one order handles a whole car without a jack. A foot pedal works a ratchet rather than a hydraulic pump, and the big casters ride over cracks that stop smaller wheels. TUFFIOM gives a one-year warranty. It's a lesser-known brand with little history, and the set is heavy to unpack and store.

Restoration work is what the Omega Lift 47020 was made for. Swap its pinned adapters and the same pair holds a car by its wheels, by the pinch welds under the doors or by the frame, so a shell with no wheels can still roll. The two dollies stack for storage and the casters lock. It's a big spend for two dollies, and the warranty runs just one year.

For a shop that moves cars every week, the Eastwood 98626 set brings four hydraulic dollies and a rolling rack that keeps them together against a wall. A few pumps of the foot pedal lift a tire, and the rack ends the hunt for strays under the bench. It's a new model with little owner history so far, and hydraulic seals can weep with age. Eastwood covers it for one year.

The OTC 1572 pair handles a narrow job: rolling a front-wheel-drive car after the engine and transaxle come out, when there's nothing left to roll on. Each dolly lifts the body by its pinch welds and sets it on casters, so a shop can push a stripped car across the floor or out of a bay. It does nothing for a car still sitting on its tires.