Making Our Own Spa Dolly To Move A Hot Tub

BUILDING OUR OWN SPA DOLLY

We're in the process of buying a hot tub / spa. We're going to buy a used unit but obviously there is the issue of transporting it - a hot tub is extremely heavy - usually about 60 stone (and some heavier) and the size is also an issue - over 2 metres wide.

Note: You can view each picture at FULL SIZE by clicking on it.

When moving a spa into place usually the spa has to be 'up ended' on to its side to allow it to be squeezed through tight gaps. This requires a Spa Dolly. We decided to make our own.

First we obtained some wheels off a scrapped wheelie bin like the one below (they simply unbolt as they're generally secured with 10mm bolts.

Here's the wheels....



Next we got some old scaffold planks that were being discarded by a scaffold company as they were too old to be considered unsafe when 100ft up the side of a building (but still in very good condistion!). Ideal for us!



So we got two of the planks and cut them in half.



Four planks were too wide so we went for three instead and braced them horizontally with some shorter planks.


Next the wheels were secured with some 10mm bolts right through the scaffold planks and the bracing planks. The bolts were too long and hung down too far interfering with the wheels so I had to saw the ends of the bolts off after attaching them. Also the heads of the bolts were sunk into countersunk holes in the scaffold planks on the top so they wouldn't damage the tub that was going to site on the dolly.

Circled you can see the problem - the bolt on the right has already been cut down.

Here's some pictures of the finished article. To show some perspective our chihuahua WotWot is sat on the newly created Spa Dolly.





The whole project took about 4 hours (including getting the parts). A fun project for a Saturday afternoon!

Next project - prepare the ground ready for the hot tub!