Efficient elevated wagons

[garlicfingers]

I'm trying to break out of my DIY, HS/Community Theatre construction rut. I'm building a 4'x16'x 15" rolling platform. I usually stack two levels together. The base platfoms have the casters and then I stack the second level on top.

This show has to travel and be set up quickly.
I have also made "U" shaped caster boards that mount under the platforms for smaller units, 4'x4' at up to 30" high.

I don't have the ability to use steel.

I have also seen folding gates that have caster boards that mount to them.

Any Ideas? Thoughts?

 

[robartsd]

I'm sure you know that you should have a caster under each point that the top platform needs support. The legs of the platform transfer vertical load down to the casters. The caster board provides a surface for mounting the casters (the end grain of the legs would not provide a good mounting point directly on the legs). The casters/bottom of the legs need to be braced adequately to prevent relative motion between them - the casterboard and x-bracing of the legs can be designed to provide this. I don't see any need for a lower base platform unless for some reason the casters cannot be directly under the vertical supports for the top platform - then the purpose of the base platform would be to distribute the load to the casters.

I'm not sure what you mean by folding gates. Perhaps you mean parallels. If using a parallel for the platform legs, I'd be especially careful about the caster board providing enough rigidity at the base of the parallel - It might be best to just go with a lower platform at that point.

 

[kicknargel]

Do you need this to break down to travel, or can it ship as one 4x16x15" unit. Or two 4x8x15" units?

 

[bobgaggle]

Get a bunch of these
http://www.rosebrand.com/product62/Leg-a-Matic-Corner-Bracket.aspx

Then build two knee walls at 12" or whatever the height needs to be (15"-3/4"?-Height of caster) Leave off the top plate (your studs are sitting in the legamatic) and add some diagonals. For travel, unscrew from the brackets and pull the whole thing apart. Ideally you'd build some 4' bracing pieces to support it on that axis, so you'd have 5 pieces total, and they'd all be 4" thick or less. Shown separated