ATV receiver hitch trailer dolly

After a mishap with my fish house/camper while backing down the driveway with my four wheeler and a dolly cart this summer (if you watch the video you will see the scratches), a buddy and I were brainstorming ideas so it doesn’t happen again. He came up with this idea for a receiver hitch. So we worked on it together, made a couple different prototypes and came up with this. A receiver hitch that squats the suspension 2-6”on your ATV so you get a little traction but it won’t put all the tongue weight on your axles. The problem I was having with a dolly cart is I wasn’t getting any traction even with chains on, on the ice last winter because ALL the weight was on the dolly making my wheeler have very little to negative weight on the axels. Also it is nearly impossible to back a trailer up because of the added pivot point of the dolly combined with the pivot point of the ATV hitch. We made a couple for ourselves then thought we would make a few to sell. My buddy and myself used them a lot this Summer and they worked really good for moving heavy trailers around with our ATV’s. Although we have not tested them on the Ice yet, I don’t see why they won’t work for pulling your wheel houses out on early Ice before it’s safe to drive pickups out. We have them for 2” and 1 1/4” receiver hitches. Asking $150 each.

Located in Annandale MN and St.Cloud MN
Call/text (between noonish and 8pm please)
763-two three eight- 8029 (Annandale)- Brandon
320-two six seven- 3197 (St. Cloud)- Chuck
Leave a message, we both work full time and are not always able to take phone calls.

Thanks, MNdrifter.

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Video of it in action……

Cool idea Brandon! Once I replenish my toys, I’ll hit ya up. If it takes off you will need to get some better looking models for the video though!

BigWerm wrote:

Cool idea Brandon! Once I replenish my toys, I’ll hit ya up. If it takes off you will need to get some better looking models for the video though!

I know, that guy looks like he just climbed off a backhoe. Funny you should say that, do you have the number to the bikini Ice fishing team…….?

I want one with a ski on it for pulling my trailer out on the ice

Hey @cmherrmann, (icenutz) we considered making a ski for it, but thought that once snow gets deep enough to need a ski, pulling a fish house with an ATV would be impossible anyways unless you have a track machine. Thanks for the input though, if we get a bunch more requests for a ski, we will reconsider making one! We have sold a few, the ones we sold so far people have loved them! One guy said he pulled a 30’ camper into deer camp with it. He didn’t want to scratch his new pick up on the way in the driveway so they put a plank down so the wheel didn’t sink in the mud and pulled it in with his four wheeler.

Add a pivoting ski that with a ski tip on both ends and this should work good in the snow.

Update:

We are currently developing a ski to go on the wheel, but with no snow right now there’s no way to test it. I don’t feel comfortable selling it without testing first. But I’m telling you I really don’t believe a ski is going to make much difference. Once you get over a foot of snow your going to be “plowing” snow with the house, the wheeler is going to be cutting through snow also and so is the the wheel house. Also by the time there’s that much snow we will be driving trucks out anyway. The only benefit of having a ski I see is if you have them on the wheels of the fishhouse, the dolly and pulling it with a tracked machine. Then you would be able to float over the top of the crust. I’m hoping to bring a few to red next weekend. Heard they may be a chance to pull the wheel house out with wheelers next weekend. That’s assuming I get my deer this weekend in the St. Croix state park. Otherwise I’ll have to pull out the smoke pole next weekend instead.

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That’s a great idea you guys came up with and should help eliminate the concerns of the weight one puts to the axles on a ATV/UTV.
One thought that I had was I beleive they make some dolly wheels with grease Zerks. Might prolong the bearings in the dolly wheels.
Also might get to expensive… don’t know
Guess some spray litheum grease would do the trick

Cool idea!

How does it do in soft grass or mud? I would imagine pivoting from forward to reverse would be a pita on soft ground? Using it in the fall/winter when the ground is frozen looks like a no brainer, but what about the spring and summer months?

I want one but is there a discount without having to listen to the Country Music?

bullcans wrote:

I want one but is there a discount without having to listen to the Country Music?

Lol. I didn’t think I could get a bunch of outdoorsmen/lady’s to listen to “cowboys from hell” long enough to watch it work. It’s all about knowing your audience….. If you really want to buy one, you could be the magical one to put us back in the black after our initial investment! I’d throw in a free hat someday if we make it big enough to have hats!

BTW. No deer today. Seen 7 fawns, one spike buck. It was like I was running a friggin daycare today.

Bump. Tis the season, got a couple left if anyone’s interested.

Is 150$ still the price? I’d love one for 75 to 100$, 150$ just seems a little steep

billy03z71 wrote:

Is 150$ still the price? I’d love one for 75 to 100$, 150$ just seems a little steep

Sorry. for what we got in them, we aren’t making much money anyways. The wheel is expensive. There’s grease zirks on the ball bearing caster plate and the wheel bearings. A good cart will cost you a couple hundo, and they are huge and bulky, and real PITA to pack up for a fishing trip and store in the off season. Also we got them in a few stores now, it wouldn’t be fair to undercut them. Again I get it, it’s expensive for an unnecessary luxury to get that wheel house out 2 weeks earlier.

Drifter.

What’s the capacity of the caster wheel you use? And looks to be a 6”?

Bigwalleye30 wrote:

What’s the capacity of the caster wheel you use? And looks to be a 6”?

8”, 850#’s.

Bump. Seems there’s some interest again this year. Been selling a few without really advertising. Haven’t had one complaint or returned. So they must be working as well as they have for myself.
$150 ea.

Thanks, Brandon.

I like one if there’s still on available

I have one and like it on hard ground. with the sandy soils in the yard, the caster wheel digs in at start up, sometimes I cant even go, but otherwise this works well on the ice (8×16 ice castle)

Thanks for the honest review Bill Willis! If you use it often in softer soils the wheel could be changed out to a fatter air filled tire. They sell them at harbor freight northern tool, Menards etc. it would dig in less. We use the solid wheels because most people use them on ice. Thanks again!

Gentleman,

Great idea and product! It’s just the solution I was thinking of and BOOM!! Here it is. Although I do not have an ice fishing house, I do need to move a lightweight boat and two work trailers down a narrow access point to my shop garage and then turn it inside. What size ATV is in the video, and how much does that fish house weigh? I need to move a 14’x7′ work trailer rated up to 7000 lbs on a flat concrete driveway. I have a 700 lb tongue weight max. Being a newbie here, please be kind on me for my next question: Would a 200-250cc ATV be able to move 7000 lbs about 45ft with your hitch set up, or am I looking at around 400-500cc to be capable? I am currently searching for ATV’s and would like to buy one of your hitches. Look forward to hearing from you.

Alan, welcome to In-Depth.

Your trailer has 2 axels rated for 3500 lbs each, the trailer doesn’t weigh 7,000 pounds unless you have a load on it. I move my 20, fiberglass boat with my electric golf cart so you should be ok assuming the trailer is empty.

Send a PM to MNdrifter he will be able to help you.

That fish house in the video was 5k lbs. I move my new one 7500# around my packed gravel driveway. Like said above, loose ground does not work well. That four wheeler is a 700. 200cc might be on the small side to safely move around a 7k lb trailer. That’s just my thoughts, I have no first hand knowledge though.

Yes, dual axle 2450 lbs. empty, and with all my tools and gear it will be around 6500 lbs. with a full load. I just want to get the right sized ATV. I appreciate the responses, and guidance!

I’m interested in purchasing one of your dollies if you have any available. Let me know how to reach you.

ZHR wrote:

I’m interested in purchasing one of your dollies if you have any available. Let me know how to reach you.

You could probably pick one up from him this weekend, but you’d need to go to Mille Lacs

ZHR wrote:

I’m interested in purchasing one of your dollies if you have any available. Let me know how to reach you.

I tried to pm you. It says your deleted. 🤷‍♂️ Yeah I’m heading to ML this weekend. We could maybe meet next week. My name is Brandon, My number is in the bottom of the original post.

11” of ice on Indian point. Went about 11mph. Event went off road 100 yards to fishing spot.