Load Moving Skates

About Load Moving Skates

Load moving skates or machine skates are an excellent piece of load moving equipment to possess for moving around large or heavy objects, they provide a modern means to manoeuvre loads around the workplace easily. The idea of load moving skates possibly came from the ancient way of moving large and heavy objects, by pushing the load across large logs and literally rolling the load into position, however this used tremendous man power, where as the modern equivalent load moving skate may only need one or two.

Where are Machine Skates Used?

Load moving skates are used across many professional industries to help with material handling solutions for a variety as applications, such as factories and warehouses, freight terminals, engineering workshops and anywhere the need constantly arises to move large and/or heavy loads from one place to another.

Types of Load Moving Skates

There are many types of load moving skates available, from basic roller crowbars, lightweight skates, complete kits and caterpillar skates. Some load moving skates come with handles, spacer bars, stabilisers and even turntables; and these skates are also available in different modes including; fixed, adjustable, steerable, and complete universal kits.

They are often available in either metal, polyurethane or nylon type rollers, and should be chosen according to the floor conditions on which they are to be used. They all work best on smooth  and level floors.

Roller crowbars are the most basic type of load mover, they are in effect a large crowbar with an extra wide plate on the lower end and fixed with a solitary roller, and are perfect for moving smaller, lighter items around such as packing cases and office equipment.

Most other load moving skates are supplied in small sets which consist of three parts; a large, usually steerable skate incorporating a long handle and two rear (often adjustable) skates with a spacer bar, these are known as a three point loading system. The front section with the handle provides the steer ability and the rear skates act as the stabiliser, to hold up larger loads. All sections will usually have multiple rollers for ease of movement and stability. These multi-roller skates can be changed to a four point system by adding an extra skate, or steering unit.

There are also complete load moving kits available which give more flexibility as to how and what loads are moved, these kits will normally consist of the front, steerable skate, the stabiliser skates, spacer bars, handles and turntables which can often be interchanged to suit the load which needs to be re-located.

The turntable type of skate consists of a platform (usually circular) mounted on numerous swivel rollers allowing smaller loads to be rotated as well as relocated easily. It is the actual object that is pushed in this case as there is no handle.

There are extra heavy duty load moving skates available in the form of caterpillar skates, these work like caterpillar tracks on a tank, but with many rollers instead of heavy grips. The rollers revolve around an endless roller chain within the body, this design makes it easy to move much larger weights around. Caterpillar skates are typically used in areas such as; bridge and ship building, large fabrications, moving large diameter pipes, concrete sections and oil rig installations, when used inverted they can be utilised as skid banks.

These heavy duty caterpillar skates can be found with lifting capacities from 15 tonnes up to 400 tonnes per skate, and can also be supplied along with guide rollers so they can be used running along tracks.

Brands available

If you have a particular brand of load moving skate that you would like to buy, it is likely that Lifting Gear Direct will be able to supply it, giving you the best in terms of build quality and compatibility.

Raptor is one of the most popular manufacturers of load moving skates that we stock, although it is by no means your only option. You can also snap up alternatives from Steerman, so there should be something to appeal to your tastes.

Alternative load moving equipment

A load moving skate setup might be sensible in some scenarios but will not fit every operation that you have to complete. Thankfully our line up of products is extensive and caters to every conceivable need.

Pallet trucks and scissor lift tables can be found in the broader load moving category, while our other material handling options include drum handling and forklift attachments.

Browse our site and you will encounter a cavalcade of high quality gear, including hoists, wire rope, height safety equipment and more.

Order with Lifting Gear Direct

If you are preparing to place an order, you can get help and ask us any questions by filling out our contact form or giving us a call on 01384 76961.