Glenn Przyborski
Member
I have no idea who actually builds them, but I do know that the weigh 300 to 500 pounds and have to be constantly maintained and adjusted. The Fisher crabs are built very well and are primarily made of nickel. If they were for sale a Fisher 10 would probably retail for about $30,000. I was told that the closed loop hydraulic actuator is the same device used to lower a Lear Jet's landing gear.I just gurgeled a bit and found this:
For those not familiar with the hydraulic crab dolly — like everything American — they are a carefully controlled commodity which is only available by lease and never to own, by two manufacturers: Chapman-Leonard who makes the Peewee, Hustler, and Hybrid dolly, and J.L Fischer who makes the Fischer 11, Fischer 10.
These two giants control a monopoly. They only build so many units, so there is no supply, and it creates a demand. No one can own the dolly so there is no way to discount it. Even the rental house has to pay a lease to Chapman or Fischer every month for the privilege of renting the crab dolly to its customers. The design of the hydraulic crab dolly dates back to World War II. Originally manufactured to load bombs into airplanes, are these dolly’s really manufactured by Lockheed-Martin for Hollywood? It’s a conspiracy theory in the making.
Years ago an Italian company reverse engineered the Peewee dolly, rebuilt it with standardized machined parts for mass distribution, and outfitted it with a better hydraulic system. Chapman sued the **** out of them and banned sales in North America, crippling thier revenue and sending them out of business before they could establish a mass-production line and bring the hydraulic crab dolly to people like you and I.
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is this still the situation?
sorry for hijacking...