Roog

Apparently it should be able to do a max speed of 4 mph on 24Volts!

Well I haven’t cracked the back door step issue yet, but I couldn’t wait any longer for a trolley so I bought a non working mobility scooter to convert. I stripped it down and cut the seat and seat post off leaving a chassis. I added a platform and wired in a 20V li ion tool battery and to my surprise it worked, so I now have a powered trolley! The idea is to drive it backwards like a forklift truck, hence the control handle is flipped. Not sure how far it will go on the tool battery, but 4 or 5 hundred metres would probably be fine for me. Stability isn’t bad at all as tyres are puncture resistant and quit firm but if it isn’t good enough I can add some screw down jacks.

Brilliant, and you know, this is very similar to a suggestion Mrs Roog made. She suggested "Put casters on the bottom of the Dob and wheel it out of the back door on to another trolley at the same height as the step". I kid you not! I really like this as it keeps the indoors casters clean! and the out door trolley can stay out side and have big wheels to get about over the lawn/grass. My hesitation stems from having a trolley on top of a trolley, but it looks a lot simpler than my hair brained idea which I will share once I have figured out if it works and i can draw it well enough that others can understand it.

Good to know that you can get ready made wind down jacks, thank you for posting.

They are very nice, by necessity they need to be fairly long, my issue is that the distance from my back door to the wall opposite may preclude the use of these beauties. They are worth consideration though, thank you for posting them.

Yes just one back door step, 190mm high, down to get out and back up to get the thing back in! I have a design for a trolley in mind which I will share once i have it drawn up a bit better, so far it has received a fairly 'luke warm' review by my colleagues, hey what do they know!

Cheers Dave that is helpful to know, adding screw down jacks and using them would be another job!

Liking the ramps all, I must admit I had a' big wooden slice of cheese' in mind! these metal ones look a bit more manageable.

That looks nice Dave, is it stable enough to keep it sitting on its wheels when observing, or do you lift it off at its desination?

I have seen lots of DIY trolleys used for transporting Dobsonian telescopes about the garden, but none that can easily get up or down a step, just the one step, 190mm high, my back door step to be precise. I am quite keen on a project but wondered whether anyone has solved this before. I have a 10" Dob and I have tried adapting a sack truck but using it scared me half to death, even getting it tilted back was a struggle, let alone the lurch forward on lowering it over the step. I am completely up for a bit of custom building, welding etc. but I have yet to find a design that will allow me to roll the scope though the house, where it is stored, out through the back door, down a step and have big enough wheels that it can get about the lawn with out bogging down! I know that a ramp is the proper answer but these aren't ideal when it gets slippery either, plus I can't see Mrs Roog being all that happy about a ramp, how would she put it, "permanently in the way." My work colleagues came up with putting the telescope on a dolly, making a square lifting platform, say 1 metre square using air bags and a battery powered car compressor, or a motor cycle maintenance lift, just to get it down the step, but this would have to be moved in place and out of the way each time. It would be nice if could all be built into a low profile base for the telescope. Oh and Mrs Roog has asked if it could it wipe its wheels before it comes into the house as well! Really interested to hear if others have sorted this issue out. I will be happy to share my ideas if they make it to the prototype stage.