Don't worry... There is a happy ending (I hope)
It's been cold lately, averaging between -5°C and -15°C (20°to 5°F for the fahrenheit crowd

)
I've been trying to do some welding in the BigSky Fab shop when it wasn't snowing or too windy...
My next idea was to replace the remaining swivel casters with a trailer dolly and modified hitch...
A couple of trips to my favourite store (Princess Auto) and I had a 2" bolt on bumper mount receiver hitch and a 1000lb trailer dolly.
The bumper hitch was bolted to the hoist, and a short tongue fabricated from some 2" square tube.
It actually worked pretty good - after I made a slightly longer tongue, so the dolly could swivel all the way with out rubbing on the hoist frame or the hitch
Back to the fab shop and time to make 4 legs with height adjustable pads
- so I can get the trailer dolly out from under the hoist, and also as a safety measure in case the tires ever failed
I dragged the whole contraption around the yard a couple of times and it works pretty good, much better than using the swivel casters.
Almost finished now... Last step is to mount a hand winch on the post, so I can lift things a little quicker than pumping up the hoist cylinder.
I can also put a longer tongue on the hoist, and that would let me drag it behind one of my Case garden tractors...
My ramble for now

- I'll update again when the winch is mounted and I've used the hoist to pull the engine out of

car so I can replace the timing chain and adjuster...
