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For most industrial facilities, the standard 55 Gallon oil drum is one of the most useful and convenient storage devices available. From waste disposal through to materials storage, drums are a convenient size and shape to serve many purposes, making them an essential addition to the workplace. Unfortunately, there is a drawback of oil drums, and this is as a result of their greatest asset. Size. Thanks to their bulk and weight when full, drums are unwieldy and tough to move around manually unless you use a convenient device called a drum dolly.

Although they are one of the most convenient storage devices ever invented, the sheer unwieldy bulk of 55 gallon oil drums means that they can be tricky to manipulate without the correct tools, and due to the many different uses that the drums have, it is important to consider what you will be using them for, and ensure that the correct drum handling equipment available in order to make certain that staff are able to move, fill and empty the drums in the correct manner and with the emphasis on safety.

In their most simple form, drum dollies are a flat wheeled platform that the oil drum sits on so that it can be moved easily around from one place to another. The dollies are intended to be lightweight but robust enough to carry a fairly heavy mass.

Drum trolleys are available in a number of sizes and specifications to carry out a range of different tasks as required. The lightest models feature an easy to clean polyurethane construction with four hard wearing casters. Available in a range of different colors to allow easy identification of materials, they can carry weights up to 600lb, making them suitable for most industrial materials.

An alternative to the plastic trolley comes in the form of the lightweight metal drum dolly. These models feature either a steel or aluminum construction, hard wearing wheels made of either steel or hard rubber for smooth moving, and can carry a weight of up to 1,200 pounds, making them perfect for most factory floor uses.

If you have the requirement for a very heavy duty solution to moving waste products and other materials around the workplace, then an even more sturdy mode is available. The octo drum trolley features 8 wheels and an even stronger construction for better support for weights up to 2,000 pounds.

A variety of other niche models including tilting drum dollies for convenient unloading are also available to ensure that what ever your oil drum movement needs, there is an affordable solution in place to give you the mobility you need at a price that is attractive and justifiable.

Ensuring that materials can be moves safely around the workplace with a minimum of risk of spillage is essential in preventing as many workplace accidents as possible. By suing drum dollies in order to move loaded drums around the workplace, you will be able to ensure that liquids are not spilled thanks to the smooth action provided by the hard wearing wheels.

Using a drum dolly rather than any of the available alternatives when it comes to moving oil drums is probably the most cost effective and simple option in most workplaces. Although lifting gear will still be required in order to move the drum into place when full, and to hoist it off the trolley when it is finished with, using the lightweight drum trolleys frees up other resources such as fork lifts, and other moving equipment for other tasks.