Swivel Castor Selection

If you are unsure how to find exactly what nylon or plate commode castor you need, give our friendly staff a call to receive the right advice in selecting the product, best suited to your application. We are open Monday to Thursday 08:30 - 17:00 and Friday 08:30 - 16:30. The guidelines below are designed to assist you in your selection.

How to choose the right swivel castor:

Load Capacity

To ensure you choose the correct series of castor for your application, use the following equation:

Load Capacity    =       Unit Weight + Maximum load
Of Castor                                  3

For example on a trolley requiring 4 castor, take the total weight of the trolley, plus the maximum weight the trolley is to carry, and divide by 3. This will give you the load capacity you require for each castor, allowing for a margin of safety. This margin is necessary owing to different working conditions and is only a general recommendation. 

Swivel or Fixed Castor
A swivel castor can rotate 360º to improve manoeuvrability. Different castor will have a different swivel radius. Swivel castor can be equipped with a brake mechanism which locks the wheel or wheel and swivel. Some ranges are also available with a directional lock.
A fixed castor cannot be swivelled or have brake mechanisms.

Castor Fittings:

Bolt Hole Castor A single central bolt hole fixing, with swivelling castor housing. Wheel Dia from 50mm tol 25mm. Bolt hole Dia. from M8 to M12.		Institutional Castor
Expanding Adaptor Adaptors fitted to bolt hole castor, available for square or round tubing. For use with the institutional range or the medium duty range of castor. Fits tube i.d from 18mm to 32mm and square tube size from 20mm to 38mm.		Bolt Hole with Expanding Adaptor Castor
Top Plate Castor Usually a rectangular plate with 4 fixing bolts. Some smaller castor have square plates. This type of fixing is ideal for bolting to trolleys, cabinets and similar. The 4 bolts provide a strong fixing and distribute the stress evenly across the plate. These castor are available with wheel diameters from 50mm - 250mm.		Medium/Heavy Duty Castor

How to choose the right wheel?

In general the larger the wheel, the more weight it can carry and the easier it is to move.  Different materials are more appropriate for different surfaces. We have a range of polypropylene, nylon, polyurethane, cast iron, non marking rubber and solid rubber wheels.  
Choosing the correct material for your wheel varies depending upon the type of use, floor material, load capacities and amount of movement required.

Special Applications

We also offer a range of special application castor and wheels such as heat a resistant castor, stainless steel, an aluminium castor, scene shifter, low level castor, jacking and gate castor. If its special application wheels you require we can offer antistatic, pneumatic, high temperature , v-grooved and flanged steel.

View all Castors & Wheels Pages

Tube Fittings:

Ross Handling is one of the leading suppliers of tube end fittings. We specialise in providing a wide range of high quality, competitively priced products. We offer a wide variety of round, square and rectangular tube inserts, end caps, ferrules, threaded inserts and adjustable feet. We also have an extensive range of buffers, caps, connectors, metal components, hand wheels, and hand grips.

Tube End Fittings Technical Advice

External Diameter

All our tube inserts are measured using the external diameter of the tube. This means if you have a round tube with an external diameter of 1”, our 1” tube insert will be the best fit.

Many of our inserts have a gauging system. This corresponds to the thickness of your tube wall. For example our inserts are designed to fit a variety of tube gauge sizes. The unique design enables the ribs to contract to ensure you have a tight fitting tube end insert which is flush with the external side of the tube.

Gauging Table

This table will enable to you ascertain the correct gauge for your insert.

To make it easy to find what you want in our catalogue you can now view the individual pages online or download the whole catalogue via Adobe Acrobat Reader.

View Castors & Wheels Pages

View Tube Fittings Pages