hand trucks vs dollies

[A. Maberry]

Since I mentioned "appliance dolly" as opposed to hand-truck, there is a
picture of what I mean at:

http://www.uhaul.com/sri/index.html

I guess my terminology is the same as U-Haul's except that the
tool identified as a "utility dolly" is what I would call a "hand truck".
Is this a PNW thing or an idiolect? Have people always been chuckling,
knowingly, behind by back? When I've asked for a hand truck in the past
and was given a "utility dolly" instead, no one batted an eye ...

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, David M. Robertson wrote:

> As if we need one more person confirming the majority view....
>
> While I was in school I worked a couple of summers (1966 and 1967, i think) in
> a warehouse. The terms we used:
>
> "two-wheeler" - the L-shaped thing used for carrying something vertically (or
> nearly so)
>
> "hand truck" - (1) same as a two-wheeler, (2) a larger version of a two-wheeler
> with auxiliary wheels near the tops of the handles, allowing horizontal use
> with a heavy load over a long flat course
>
> "drum cradle" or "drum mover" - a two-wheeler specially shaped to accomodate a
> cylindrical load, like a 55-gallon drum
>
> "dolly" - a low four-wheeled flatbed cart, with or without a frame handle at
> one end
>
> "float" - (like a float in a parade?) - a large dolly, either with four wheels,
> or with six wheels (not all in the same plane, so that only the middle pair and
> one of the end pairs was on the floor at the same time, depending on load
> distribution and direction of travel)
>
>   Snake
>
>
> >
>