Rolling out relief

Dragging heavy doors and large windows was taking a painful toll on Eli Miller’s brother’s back, Miller owner of Royal Truk Division recalled.

“These doors and windows were so big that the only way he could load and unload them on and off the truck was to drag them,” he said. “They were too big to move around with a conventional dolly, and you couldn’t use a forklift because you couldn’t see where you were going. My brother said he needed some way to roll these doors and windows around instead of dragging them.”

That was almost 20 years ago, when Miller, a construction worker by day, spent his evenings welding in his shop.

“I cut the wheels off a regular handcart and reattached them at a 90-degree angle from where they were so it would move sideways,” he said. “It worked, but we had to refine it to get the proper balance and make it easier to roll and turn. We put 10-inch pivoting wheels on it and it was perfect. It took all of the strain off my brother’s back.”

A few years later, after Miller’s employer went out of business, he placed a small ad for his modified handcarts in a national publication. The response was overwhelming.

“We had been making 10 or 12 at a time in the evenings, and they would sell in a few months by word of mouth,” Miller said. “After we ran the ad we started to get 40 calls per day. We found out that trucking companies and window companies all around the country were looking for something like this, but there was nothing available.”

Along with the orders that poured in, Miller received suggestions for modifications that would make the trucks even easier to use. Today, Miller’s Royal Truk Division — the unique spelling was used to “catch an eye,” he said — makes five different dollies for various applications.

“They make life easier on the back,” Miller said. “They are adjustable in height, so they especially help to reduce strain and injury for shorter stature workers.”

Royal’s warehouse dollies and job site dollies have four casters, making it even simpler to balance, lift and move doors, windows, plywood, drywall, paneling, plate glass and other large items.

“They save a lot of backs and workers’ compensation claims,” Miller said.

Royal customers include national home improvement stores.

“The carts make it easy to get a wide window down a narrow aisle,” Miller said.

A customer on the east coast delivers huge patio doors and picture windows to beachfront properties.

“They were using six guys to drag these windows 100 yards across the beach,” Miller said. “We put large wheels on a cart so it could roll in the sand. They now send two guys to do the same deliveries.”

The carts are manufactured in Apple Creek.

You can get more information about the carts, or place your order at RTD-Hand-Truck.com. You can call Royal Truk Division at 800-584-3965.