Finally got around to swapping out the casters on my 2+ year old Limo Jr. The original Marathon no-flat casters kind of went flat, or at least two of them did. I needed/wanted bigger/wider tires too anywat, since I keep my smoker on a covered back patio and have to go cross-country through my yard to where I normally smoke.
After digging around on the internet, I found 4.10/3.50-4, 350 lb rated fixed and rigid casters at Home Despot that seemed to fit the bill - staying in the no-flat world with the bigger sizes was cost-prohibitive. At about $25/each for the rigid and about $27/each for the swivel, plus tax and free shipping, total was about $115 for all four. Now these are pneumatic tires with tubes, but something had to give to move up in size and width. I did spring for new 18-8 SS 5/16-18 x 1" bolts with matching washers so the bolt heads wouldn't rust though.
Link here - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Shepherd-10-in-Black-Rubber-and-Steel-Pneumatic-Rigid-Plate-Caster-with-350-lb-Load-Rating-9797/300277691 and https://www.homedepot.com/p/Shepherd-10-in-Black-Rubber-and-Steel-Pneumatic-Swivel-Plate-Caster-with-350-lb-Load-Rating-9796/300277682
Just for comparison, here's a picture of one of the original rigid and a new rigid caster. Overall height increased about 3"-4", so I'll have to be careful moving the smoker around. But it's got to be better the the original narrow tires with the permanent flat spot. There's a picture attached of one of the two wheels with the flat spot.
Where I store my smoker has a slight slope, so more of the smoker weight was on the two "downslope" wheels, which may have contributed to this problem. I looked at trying to come up with some way to retrofit golf cart wheels too, but that looked to be expensive and time consuming. So, I tried the quick-and-dirty-and-cheap method to see if it helped. So far so good. I do realize it's gonna be a bad day when I find one of these flat - Life is full of tradeoffs.
After digging around on the internet, I found 4.10/3.50-4, 350 lb rated fixed and rigid casters at Home Despot that seemed to fit the bill - staying in the no-flat world with the bigger sizes was cost-prohibitive. At about $25/each for the rigid and about $27/each for the swivel, plus tax and free shipping, total was about $115 for all four. Now these are pneumatic tires with tubes, but something had to give to move up in size and width. I did spring for new 18-8 SS 5/16-18 x 1" bolts with matching washers so the bolt heads wouldn't rust though.
Link here - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Shepherd-10-in-Black-Rubber-and-Steel-Pneumatic-Rigid-Plate-Caster-with-350-lb-Load-Rating-9797/300277691 and https://www.homedepot.com/p/Shepherd-10-in-Black-Rubber-and-Steel-Pneumatic-Swivel-Plate-Caster-with-350-lb-Load-Rating-9796/300277682
Just for comparison, here's a picture of one of the original rigid and a new rigid caster. Overall height increased about 3"-4", so I'll have to be careful moving the smoker around. But it's got to be better the the original narrow tires with the permanent flat spot. There's a picture attached of one of the two wheels with the flat spot.
Where I store my smoker has a slight slope, so more of the smoker weight was on the two "downslope" wheels, which may have contributed to this problem. I looked at trying to come up with some way to retrofit golf cart wheels too, but that looked to be expensive and time consuming. So, I tried the quick-and-dirty-and-cheap method to see if it helped. So far so good. I do realize it's gonna be a bad day when I find one of these flat - Life is full of tradeoffs.
