A Frame Mover
14 Dec 2007
Unfortunately, I left my A Frame in the middle of the yard when the snow and subsequent freezing rain hit Chicago-land last week. With this weather the backyard is too icy to be safe for playing (something I’m concerned about). But I’ve also been retraining Meeker to use a running A Frame and really need some practice time. So I decided to unbury my A Frame and move it to my snow and ice free driveway, roll out my flyball matting and practice out there. At least that is the plan.
It turns out my “4 wheel drive” A Frame mover is certainly up to the task. I have a 9 foot, four piece A Frame made by AKC judge Adrienne Lynch’s company (whose website I can’t remember anymore) for which Iowan Mark Ries adapted his heavy duty A Frame mover. The mover is made up of two parts: retractable wheels that remain on the A Frame and a “hand truck” that lifts the front end up.
The rear wheels bolt to the A Frame and pivot out of the way under the A Frame when not in use:
The beauty of Mark’s mover is really the design of the “hand truck” part. On Mark’s A Frames he has a hole in the tubing into which the pin of the hand truck fits perfectly. For my A Frame he built a custom bracket that we mounted under the front edge of the A Frame. You just tip the pin of the hand truck into the bracket and pull back on the handle to raise the front end of the A Frame.
Two great features of this mover are that the hand truck wheels always clear the bottom of the A Frame so you can turn it in a tight circle. Secondly you don’t have to apply any downward pressure to keep the front of the A Frame up off the ground (as you can see in the photo below). A really, really smart design.
For this kind of weather the rubber tires make moving the A Frame over the 2-4 inches of snow and ice pretty easy. After 10 years outdoors, the rubber tires started to leak air and I replaced them with solid rubber tires.
I’m hoping by showing this nice design of Mark’s equipment I can put “pressure” on him to build more of them. I really want to show off his Dog Walk which, in my opinion and in the opinion of many professional trainers, is the finest Dog Walk made. It can be moved by a single person!, has an adjustable height, is strong enough for me(!) to walk across without any bounce or sag, can be quickly disassembled and only requires two supports. So Mark I want more people to experience your quality work!
Now I actually have to go and do some contact training…
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