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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

What makes this better than just a larger wheel in the right position?

The multiple smaller wheels give an extra leverage point, whereas a single, larger wheel can require quite a bit of force. If climbing multiple stairs that can wear both you and the dolly out.

I'm not sure I would have preferred this back when I was still moving furniture for a living, as a furniture dolly with belts along the back/spine will slide up a flight of stairs without much trouble.

I used to move furniture and I much preferred the type of straps that would wrap around your wrists, under the appliance, to the other lifter's wrists over the furniture dollies.

Sounds like a good way to lacerate your wrist, or maybe lose your hand.

We tended to always be labor-short for deliveries, so if we could send a job out with one person we would. A single person can safely deliver most household appliances with just a furniture dolly (up to a side-by-side fridge, which almost always needed two people due to its mass and a set of tools to remove the doors).

If you're talking about wear then my gut feeling says that a larger wheel would be far more robust than three smaller wheels (with additional axis for the combination). Especially when you're using this on streets with uneven pavement I think a larger wheel would be better.

The larger wheel will be made of slightly too thin plastic and held on with a split-pin - how else will you resell it in 2 years - so robustness probably isn't a positive factor from the sellers perspective.

The axle needs to be higher than the ledge of the step. So basically that means the radius of the wheel needs to be larger than a normal step height, which would mean a giant wheel which may not fit on the step at all!

Larger wheel requires the axle to move up a larger vertical distance while being pulled up a step as compared to the compound wheel design

i suspect the leverage of pivoting the tri-spoke axle helps transfer more of the horizontal force you are applying, into a vertical force as it pivots. A larger wheel doesn't do this the same way

moves the leverage point across the step edge

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