Don’t Ruin the Party Before the Guests Even Arrive
Buying a bounce house or party tent? A hand truck or dolly is a critical piece of equipment that can save you and your family from a whole lot of physical—and perhaps also emotional—duress.
When you think of things that might dampen the mood at your next backyard shindig, you probably think of the standard stuff. Rain, parking issues, people not bringing dishes to pass, noise complaints from those irritable neighbors everyone has a set of. The prospects of pulled muscles or a sore back probably wouldn’t cross your mind.
And then it happens. You bite off a little more than you can chew, and suddenly you’re alternating between a heating pad and an ice pack while your frustrated significant other soldiers on by themselves, surely destined to end up beside you on the sofa with similar war wounds.
Dodging this entirely avoidable trip to the makeshift living room infirmary has a simple, relatively low budget solution: Investing in a hand truck or dolly. The right hand truck, dolly, or cart makes transporting hefty bounce houses, inflatable slides, and party tents a snap. It’s also safer for your equipment, lessening the risk of stress tearing. And unless your last name is “Schwarzenegger” or you’ve been bitten by a radioactive spider that gave you superhuman strength, a hand truck or a dolly can help you avoid serious injury, too.
What’s a Hand Truck? What’s a Dolly?
What is a hand truck, and what is a dolly? What’s the difference between them? And which of them wins the age-old hand truck vs dolly debate?
These two phrases—hand truck and dolly—are often mistakenly used interchangeably. It’s okay for you to do the same as well. But there is technically a difference between a hand truck and a dolly, however.
A hand truck is an L-shaped device with two wheels. If you’ve ever rented a moving truck, there’s a good chance you’ve used a hand truck before. You may have used a heavy duty hand truck to move something even bigger or heavier, too; an appliance hand truck to move a refrigerator or stove, for instance. Most hand trucks are pretty simple in design, though more advanced models do exist, including powered hand trucks for the biggest jobs.
Meanwhile, a dolly is usually defined as having four wheels, either as casters or on two axles. They’re flat and horizontal, meant for pushing and pulling their cargo rather than pivoting on an axis like hand trucks do. People often describe dollies as carts or hand carts.
Do You Really Need a Hand Truck or Dolly?
Let’s say you just bought yourself a nice new vinyl crossover inflatable bounce house and a 20 x 20 frame tent. You’re going to set both of them up in your backyard this weekend for your child’s birthday party. Will a hand truck or a dolly really make that much of a difference?
Your new bounce house weighs around 125 pounds. Your party tent? That’s approximately 285 pounds. So that’s 310 pounds of equipment you’ll need to transport from your garage to your yard.
Without a hand truck or dolly, you’ll need two or three people to safely lift the equipment off the ground. It’s cumbersome and tricky to grab hold of safely for a trek that long. This isn’t a fun ordeal, and there’s a risk someone could be injured in the process, too.
If you did pick up a hand truck or dolly, however, that’s a whole different story. One or two people can quickly load the item up, and one person can transport it out to the yard and unload it. And all of that can be taken care of in a tiny fraction of the time required to move it without a hand truck or dolly. Best of all, you minimize your risk of serious injury in the process.
Hand Trucks and Dollies Have Lots of Different Uses
Your new hand truck or dolly won’t just be useful for your inflatables or party tents. They come in handy all around the house and yard, too.
Many of you reading this have used a furniture dolly while moving at some point, or perhaps an appliance dolly. But they make themselves useful in all sorts of other applications as well. Taking out heavy trash, stacking and moving boxes while rearranging, or getting that old sofa to the curb without help? Having one of these invaluable pieces of equipment can make all of that go a lot smoother.
Give us a call today at 716-566-5806 and let us help you find a great hand truck or dolly to work with your inflatables or party tents. We’ll find an option that works well for your specific equipment and fits in your budget, too. Don’t risk ruining the party with pulled muscles. Buy one of these essential items and let them do all the heavy lifting for you!