Stair climbing sack truck - opinions please

[pritch]

My venue is irritatingly 3-dimensional - the sort of place where you'll walk a few yards on the flat, then come to a flight of three steps, walk a bit further and come to another small flight of steps - you know the sort.

Our sack truck has gone walkies, and I'm looking at a replacement - I was wondering if anyone had experience of the stair climbing variety - the ones with two sets of three wheels rather than two conventional wheels. In particular, I'm wondering if they are genuinely useful on stairs, and also if they're still usable on the flat, or if the stair climbing wheels make them awkward to steer.

Also, are they any use on curved staircases?

Thanks, all.

[sandall]

One venue, where access was quicker by metal fire-escapes, had one, but it always seemed a bit of a faff compared with picking up & carrying.

[Robin D]

Going back half a century I used to have to fill in as a delivery driver for large white domestic appliances when the main driver was away.

On a straight run of stairs they are great but going round a bend in stairs I would say nigh on impossible unless you have two persons. Years ago you could get them with the ability to lock the wheels such that on the flat they behaved like a normal sack barrow but not seen one for years. 

I also also once used once that had a belt track like a military tank on the rear but only the one axle. For 3-4 steps, or with a light load it was brilliant, but on a full run with a heavy or large load, there was no way of resting halfway as it would want to descend again. 😣

Finally look carefully at the overall width on either type as the design means the load has to not foul the mechanism. It also make tight doorways difficult. 

Generally found that a standard sack barrow and two bodies worked better, or better still, drop in ramps if it was only one or two steps.

[ImagineerTom]

they are great on straight stairs and straight flat, the turning circle on them is horrific so turning 90 degrees in a narrow corridor or staircase is very frustrating.

[pritch]

Cheers everyone - sounds like it's the right tool for a quite specific situation, but perhaps not what I'm looking for.

Conventional sack truck it is, then.

[J Pearce]

A sack truck with big pneumatic tyres can often climb stairs reasonably well. The 3 axle things work, but as others have said they don't like turning corners, and take some heft to pull them up the stairs.

[kerry davies]

A decent sack truck with a well balanced load on a flat surface they reckon takes 2% effort to move so a 150Kg load can be moved by pulling with 3Kg of force. Stair climbers take vastly more effort in my experience and have a strong natural inclination to bend anyone over five foot and a farthing in back breaking half. They also display a strong desire to descend dragging the already crippled victim with them.

As in all manual handling matters assessing the load, environment, distance, strength of person and availability of assistance should be first step and my preference is always to use mechanical aids like forklifts, hoists etc but if you have to lug heavy stuff around sites with stairs then either hire a Samoan prop forward or get yourself one of these little beauties.

N.B. the reference to Samoans is a tribute to the late great John-Henri Mills who bought wheeled dollies as mech aids only to find his giant South African rugby players carrying around two Steeldecks each as if they were tissue paper.

Edited February 1, 2022 by kerry davies
SPAG

[cedd]

I own a Stanley powered stair climber and can categorically say it's the best thing ever! 

It's not the quickest, but makes me rethink my get ins to a particularly unpleasant venue. I have very light boxes and very heavy ones, whereas before I'd had to divide everything in to medium sized boxes that were still exhausting. The few big heavy boxes go up on the stair climber and everything else is handballed up super quick. They're not cheap, but compared to hiring help for the sake of a few hours, it pays for itself very quickly. 

[Jivemaster]

The six wheel stair climbing sack truck that an ex employer had was so hard to push/pull/turn that it was easier to carry loads case by case. The powered stair climbers with wheels and tracks are much more efficient and turn a heavy job into a simple and easy job, Lithium power is good it's ideal for occasional moves up stairs.

NO powered stairclimber does turns or spiral staircases.

[kerry davies]

Quote

 

NO powered climber does turns, eh? Guess you didn't watch the original link so take that, oh ye of little faith. 😉

[IRW]

1 hour ago, kerry davies said:

NO powered climber does turns, eh? Guess you didn't watch the original link so take that, oh ye of little faith. 😉

To be fair, we don't actually see it doing the turn...Whilst there is no denying this is a very snazzy bit of kit, what the video doesn't show speaks volumes!

[cedd]

 

That's the one I have. Very easy to do corners. Manoeuvres just as easily as a regular one. In the video he's got the handlebar extensions out, which is great for racks etc. but does push you in to corners on small landings. 

[Jivemaster]

Both the above stair climbers are fine on straight flights and need a landing to turn on to the next straight flight. When you come to a real curved staircase where the treads are fan shaped they will not carry up the fan shaped treads safely.

I carry people upstairs or down, often. The Ferno stair climber is a seat with angled tracks and it does straight stairs wonderfully. But given a spiral or curved or fan top staircase it's back to the ordinary manual carry chair which does spirals well. 

[sunray]

The 2 biggest issues I've had with the triple wheel type barrows

1. open treads... the wheel can go through the gap.

2. high riser steps (deep steps)... they are far more difficult than a basic sack barrow