Top 8 Best Car Dollies For Your Consideration In 2022 Review

Whether you’re a professional mechanic or just rearranging your garage at home, the best car dollies can make your life much, much easier!

However, no one has the time or the money to test them all personally. That’s where we come in! We took a selection of the very best dollies on the market and loaded them with anything that we could get our hands on. From cars to machinery, and even a snowmobile (don’t worry, that will make more sense later on).

We’ve compiled a list of the top 8 automotive dollies currently available and tested them thoroughly.

There are different styles, price points, and qualities represented so that we can help you find the best car dolly to fit your needs. You’re about to learn all about the good, the bad, and the ugly qualities of the best automotive dollies that we tested and find out exactly what we thought of them.

So, let’s go through them and find the perfect car dolly fo your needs…

Top 8 Best Car Dollies For All Budgets In 2022 Reviews

1 Pentagon Tools 5060 Tire Skates

This set really set the bar for the tests. With a rating of 6,000 pounds for a set of four, they were pretty standard in that area. However, they were straightforward to assemble, which is always nice. The last thing you want to do is get upset with a product before you’ve even used it. They felt very sturdy and easy to use. As far as maneuverability, these definitely didn’t disappoint.

Good value…

We thought that they rolled fairly smoothly even with a full load. They were smooth and seemed like a good value at around $160 for a set of four. We thought, like you probably do right now as well, that we’d found a clear winner in the very first set that we tested!

However, this was one of the more expensive sets that we reviewed, if you exclude the ones that have a lift mechanism built into them. So, maybe they’re not as invincible as we originally thought.

But, not so fast…

There ended up being a lot more to this test than we originally anticipated. Hang around to the end, and you’ll understand why we didn’t just stop with this set!

2 500-Pound Hydraulic Wheel Dolly – Most Versatile Car Dolly

This was the first set that we tested with a lift mechanism built into the dolly, and we were very excited about this.

These have a mechanical lift that you operate with your foot. They were listed as a hydraulic lift set, but the lift is, in fact, mechanical. We were slightly disappointed by this fact. However, when we realized that the mechanical setup is less likely to fail, and the price point is lower than a standard hydraulic setup, we quickly forgot about that small detail.

Practical and versatile…

These had a nice width of 12.8,’ and they opened from 9.5’ at their closest to 25.5’ at their widest. This means that you shouldn’t be struggling to fit just about any size tire in there. These are very well-built dollies, and we didn’t have any issues with ours as we used them to move different cars and other products around the shop.

But there’s a catch….the price!

They’re around $625 for a set of four, which takes them out of the price range of the average consumer.

This wasn’t the only set that had a built-in lift either. However, the next set is definitely a little bit kinder on your bank account.

3 OTC Tools 1580 Stinger 1,500-Pound Easy Roller Dolly – Best Mid Range Car Dolly

Here’s another set with the lift operator built into the design, as well as an easy-to-use foot pedal system. We really do like that feature.

Now, the thing that really amazed us about these particular dollies was the fact that we found them for around $550 for a set of 4. That’s around $75 cheaper than the Sunex set! We thought it was a great deal considering they are both easy to assemble and they look great out of the box.

But, there’s a catch…

However, when we started using these, we noticed that the build quality seems to be slightly lower than the Sunex set. That’s when the price made sense.

What was it about the quality that made us question it?

The wheels felt like they were made from a cheaper plastic that may not withstand the test of time with regular usage. Other parts of it had a similar problem.

However, if you’re looking for the best value for the money, we haven’t even gotten there yet!

So, let’s go back to some of the best car dollies that don’t have built-in lifts…

4 Merrick Machine MERM998002 Red Auto Dolly – Best Premium Basic Car Dolly

Now we’re back to our basic dollies without built-in lifts.

But are these worth the expense?

This particular set was tricky to review. They aren’t the cheapest; as a matter of fact, they’re the most expensive set that was tested without a built-in lift at around just over $200 for a set of four. This meant that we had very high expectations for these. We expected to see them really stand out from the pack.

However, we were very disappointed when they didn’t. Don’t automatically assume that they are a bad set of dollies, though. They did perform very well. Just not better than the others. They were perfectly average. Also, when we ordered these, we didn’t have the option to only get two. That may be a deal breaker if you don’t need four of them.

Only time will tell…

That makes you wonder why they are priced nearly $50 more than the next highest priced set? Now, in the long-term, over years and years, they may be worth that investment. But, in the time that we had them, we couldn’t justify the price increase.

If you’re still with us, thank you! We’re halfway done now. And if you haven’t seen the Car Dolly you’ve been looking for? Don’t worry. It’s coming up!

5 Liftmaster Premium Tire Skates – Best Value for the Money Car Dollies

For this set, we had already made some trial and errors with our testing, and we now had an idea of what worked well for testing, and what really didn’t tell us much at all. So, we jumped straight into it…

These came in just shy of $150 for a set of four, but you could also just get a set of two if that’s all you need.

These performed very well. However, this wasn’t the easiest set to assemble or the most maneuverable. But they weren’t the worst, either. They were definitely in the top two or three without question! For the price, these felt very well-built, which was something that really stuck with us as we tested them.

A little shorter…

The Liftmasters were fairly standard with their dimensions. The only difference being the length. They seem to be one quarter of an inch shorter than the others in the same sort of category, coming in at 15.75 inches compared to an average of 16 inches.

We have a feeling that you would be very happy with the performance that you get out of these. And they may even last you quite a bit longer than you expect.

6 ABN Car Tire Dolly – Best Budget Car Dolly

These were the cheapest set that we tested, coming in at just above $110 for a set of four. Mind you, they’re not the cheapest by much, but the cheapest nonetheless. Therefore, please keep in mind that these are at the bottom of the price range as we go through this review…

Regardless of the low price, these were one of the easiest sets to assemble. Everything just seemed to fall into place and line right up. However, they weren’t the sturdiest or easiest to use (should be no surprise there), but they were surprisingly maneuverable with a load on them.

Built to last…

The cast iron wheels were well made and also felt surprisingly durable! You could be pleasantly surprised by these.

However, if you’re on a tight budget or don’t often need to move much about, they are an excellent buy. But if you regularly use dollies, it is better to go with the more expensive options in this review.

7 MOTOOS Skate Castors – Best Affordable Car Dollies

With this set, we thought that we had a pretty good idea of what to expect due to their price range. These come in around $115. So, they’re very similarly priced to the ABN Car Tire Dollies that we tested just before these.

However, again regardless of the price, this set felt the sturdiest out of the entire bunch, which was surprising to us right from the start. They were also probably the most maneuverable set that we tested. Surprised? So were we! We started thinking, “Is this too good to be true? Can one of the cheapest sets REALLY be the best set of car dollies?”

That’s when it hit us…

We noticed the load rating. See, when we were going through and deciding which ones to test, we just assumed that they were all rated to carry the same load. That was a big mistake. Here is why….

Where all the other sets that we’ve tested, the load rating has been 6,000 pounds. But, for some strange reason, these are only rated to hold 4,000 pounds! What? A full ton less weight! It’s lucky that we were only testing these with a small hatchback when we realized this little fact. We’re just lucky that we didn’t have some big truck or something on these things. That’s the huge takeaway with these.

Superb for smaller car owners…

But that said, if you don’t currently need the usual weight capacity and can’t see yourself needing it in the future; they make an excellent affordable option for those with smaller, lighter cars and boats.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, last set coming up! This one might be a surprise entry, but they were different, and we thought, “Why not give them a go as well?”

8 Shepherd Hardware 9298 Snowmobile Dolly Set – Best Snowmobile Dollies

These are very different from the others! And that’s because, as it states, they are a snowmobile set.

If you’re familiar with snowmobiles, then you may be able to guess what the biggest difference in these compared to the others. Any guesses? That’s right. There are THREE of them instead of TWO or FOUR!

Since snowmobiles only have a single track in the back and the two skis in the front, they obviously don’t need a set of four. Also, these are carrying lighter loads as well, so they’re a scaled-down version of the others. Slightly smaller load weight areas, slightly smaller casters, etc.

But there’s more…

Where they really start to differ is the price and the maximum load capacity. The ones that we found were around $50 for a set of three. How incredible is that price point, though? Honestly, for that price, we couldn’t pass up on the chance to test these out.

The other major difference to the others is the load-bearing capabilities. These are only rated to hold 1,000 pounds. This makes sense when you think about how much a standard snowmobile actually weighs. It’s considerably less than a car.

No snowmobile…

Now, in complete honesty, we didn’t have a snowmobile just sitting around to try these out on. However, we did have some heavier stuff (which we estimated to be about 1,000 pounds) that we loaded up on these bad boys. With some careful maneuvering and balancing skills, we were able to move things around surprisingly well!

However, we did notice that they (again, for obvious reasons) don’t seem to be as sturdy as the others. But they did a good job anyway!

Best Car Dollies Buyer’s Guide

So…picking a winner is easy, right??

That’s actually a pretty difficult decision!! Here’s why…

There are a few things that we need to take into account when looking at Car Dollies. We looked at things like build quality, ease of assembly, rated load weight, and, obviously, the price for a set of them!

Some of these dollies performed magnificently! They did everything that we wanted them to and more. However, they were expensive. Therefore you need to ask yourself if it is worth spending that amount of money on dollies if they’re only going to move your boat on the trailer once or twice a year?

We certainly don’t think so.

Then we have some that are very well-priced. However, with those, it seems that the build quality is questionable. Do you just buy the cheapest set and take the risk that they build quality will be inferior? And that you’ll have to go through the whole process of trying to exchange them for another set? Again, we don’t think so. As you can see, it’s a tricky dilemma to try to figure out which one is best.

One thing is for sure; we can’t recommend the snowmobile set to the average person. It’s not that they disappointed us in any way. They performed exactly how we expected them to perform. And, for $50 for a set of three, they’re a great buy.

These were more of a, “Hey, for $50, you can’t go wrong! Right?” kind of purchase. So, if you’re looking for a set to use to move your snowmobile around, then these are a great set.

Looking for more superb products to maintain your car?

If so, check out our reviews of the Best Jack Stands, the Best Carburetor Cleaners, the Best Automotive Paint Guns, the Best Tire Pressure Gauges, our Best Battery Terminals review, or the Best Car Battery Charger you can buy.

Or how about the Best Mechanic Gloves, the Best Car Compasses, the Best Buffing Pads, the Best Bug Tar Removers, and the Best Car Vacuum Cleaner currently on the market in 2022.

So, what are the Best Car Dollies?

Well, the overall winner are the…

Liftmaster Premium Tire Skates

This is the set that we would buy!

They really impressed us because we didn’t have any real quality issues with them. They were easy to assemble, felt very sturdy, and they seemed to be of very high quality for the price point. However, they weren’t the easiest to maneuver, but they weren’t the hardest either. And, at around $140 for a full set of four, we believe that they are the best value for the money as well!

Happy car moving.