Beam Trolley / Push Travel Trolley

A beam trolley — also sold as a push trolley, I-beam trolley, monorail trolley or beam clamp — is a wheeled carriage that runs along the bottom flange of a structural beam and carries a hoist or a load fitting underneath it. It turns a fixed overhead beam into a lifting point that travels. Paired with a chain block or an electric hoist, it is the cheapest way to put a movable lifting point over a workshop bay, a loading area or a maintenance pit.

Push Travel or Geared Travel

These are the two ways a trolley is moved along the beam, and choosing wrongly is the most common mistake on this product. The capacity is not the deciding factor — control is.

Push travel trolley

The load is moved by hand, pushing the suspended load or the hoist itself. There is no gearing and no mechanical advantage. It is simple, light and cheap, and on a level beam in a draught-free bay it is all most workshops ever need.

• No brake and no gearing — on a sloping beam, or with a heavy load, it will roll on its own
• Difficult to stop precisely at a chosen point
• Hard work to move once the load approaches the trolley's rating
• Above 10 t, hand-push trolleys are effectively not made — JB/T 7332 caps hand push at 10 t

Geared travel trolley

A hand chain hangs down to the operator and drives the wheels through a gear train. The reduction gives a real mechanical advantage, so a heavy trolley can be moved by one person, and the gearing resists rolling enough that the load stays where it is left on a level beam. Choose a geared trolley when any of these apply: the beam slopes, the load has to be spotted accurately, the travel is long, the trolley is used constantly, or the capacity is above 10 t.

A geared trolley is not a braked trolley. The gear train resists rolling; it does not stop a load that is being pushed by something else, and it must not be relied on to hold a load parked on a slope. Where the load must be held, hold it with the hoist.

Measure Your Beam Before You Order

A trolley that does not fit the beam is the single most common reason one comes back. The wheels run on the bottom flange of the beam, and the flange has to be measured — not guessed from the beam's nominal size. The nominal size of an I-beam describes its depth, not its flange.

• Bottom flange width — the dimension the wheels run on. Measure at several points along the beam: an older beam is often not constant, and a trolley must cope with the narrowest point it will have to pass
• Flange thickness — a thick flange can foul the wheel or the side plate, and it changes the height the hoist hangs at
• Beam type — a rolled I-beam (IPE and similar) has a tapered flange, a wide-flange H-beam (HEA/HEB) has a parallel flange. A wheel profile made for one will not sit correctly on the other
• Anything the trolley has to pass — hangers, joints, stops, welds, and the clearance at each end of the travel
• Track radius, if the beam curves. The minimum radius a trolley can follow is a per-model figure that differs by a factor of two or more between makers for the same capacity, so it has to be confirmed against your track rather than assumed

Tell us the flange width and thickness and we will confirm the model. If you are specifying a new installation rather than replacing a trolley, send us the beam section drawing and the track layout and we will size the whole arrangement.

Rated Capacity Is Not the Weight of Your Load

The rated capacity of a trolley covers everything hanging from it: the load, plus the hoist or chain block, plus any slings, spreader or lifting beam below that. A 2 t load lifted by a 3 t chain block needs a trolley rated for more than 5 t, not a 2 t trolley. Getting this wrong is the second most common error on this product, and unlike a flange that does not fit, it does not announce itself.

The Beam Is a Separate Question

A trolley's rating says nothing about whether the beam can carry it. Published beam load tables give a uniformly distributed load along the span. A trolley puts the whole load through two or four small wheels — a concentrated point load — and industry guidance is to derate the published figure substantially for that, commonly cited at 30% to 50%. Add the dynamic effect of a load being raised or snubbed and the case for checking the beam is stronger still.

We supply the trolley. The beam must be checked by a structural engineer, and the installation — including the end stops that stop the trolley running off the beam — is part of the lifting system, not an accessory.

Technical Specifications

On flange width. Standard adjustable trolleys cover beams with a bottom flange up to 203 mm, which is the figure most of the industry has converged on; wider types are available up to about 305 mm. The minimum flange width a trolley will grip is not standardised and varies between makers and between capacities, so we do not publish a column for it — give us your flange width and we will confirm the model that fits it. Net weight and minimum track radius are deliberately absent from the table for the same reason: for the same capacity they differ by a factor of two or more between manufacturers, which makes a single published figure misleading rather than useful.

Standards and Markings

• Europe — EN 13157:2004+A1:2009 covers hand powered cranes and explicitly includes both geared travel trolleys and push travel trolleys. It requires a safety coefficient of at least 4:1 on the load-bearing parts.
• China — JB/T 7332-2016 Manual monorail trolleys covers hand-chain driven trolleys from 0.25 t to 50 t and hand-push trolleys from 0.25 t to 10 t, running on the bottom flange of an I-beam. It superseded JB/T 7332-2007.
• United States — ASME B30.17-2020 covers cranes and monorails with underhung trolley or bridge. Note that ASME B30.11 was withdrawn and its content absorbed into B30.17; B30.11 is still quoted on a great many supplier datasheets for this exact product and should not be relied on.
• Marking — a compliant trolley carries the manufacturer, the rated capacity and the beam flange range it accepts. A trolley without a marked flange range cannot be matched to a beam, and one without a marked capacity cannot be inspected against anything.

One regulatory note for buyers in the EU: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC from 20 January 2027, with no transition period. Equipment placed on the market from that date is assessed under the Regulation. CE marking remains a manufacturer's self-declaration supported by a technical file, not a certificate from a third-party laboratory.

What These Trolleys Are Not For

• Square tube and enclosed track. A standard beam trolley is made for the flange of an I-beam or H-beam. It is not interchangeable with a light crane system running inside an enclosed track — those use a proprietary track profile and wheel, and the systems commonly called KBK are a Demag/Konecranes trade name rather than a standard. Plain square tube is worse: there is no standard wheel geometry for it at all, so a block sold for square tube cannot claim conformity with EN 13157 or JB/T 7332. If you have an enclosed track system, send us the track profile.
• Lifting people. Nothing on this page is rated, marked or certified for lifting or suspending personnel.
• Pulling at an angle. A trolley is designed for a load hanging vertically below it. A side pull will climb the flange or derail the trolley.

Inspection and Maintenance

Before every use

• All wheels turn freely, with no flat spots, cracks or visible flange wear
• Side plates are straight and not spread — a spread plate is how a trolley drops off a beam
• The wheel gap still matches the beam flange along the whole travel
• Pins, nuts and split pins are present and tight; the hoist attachment pin is secure
• End stops are in place at both ends of the track

Scheduled

• LOLER 1998 (UK) — a trolley is lifting equipment rather than a lifting accessory, so the thorough examination interval is 12 months unless the competent person sets a shorter one
• ASME B30.17 — frequent inspection as defined by the service, plus periodic inspection at intervals set by a qualified person; normal service is commonly annual with written records
• Withdraw any wheel or plate worn, cracked or deformed, and any trolley whose wheel gap no longer suits the beam

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which trolley fits my beam?

Measure the bottom flange width and thickness of the beam and tell us both. The flange width is the dimension the wheels run on, and it is not the same as the beam's nominal size. If the flange is up to 203 mm a standard adjustable trolley will cover it; above that you need the wide type, up to about 305 mm.

I have a 2 t load. Do I need a 2 t trolley?

No — capacity covers everything hanging from the trolley, including the hoist itself. A 2 t load under a 3 t chain block needs a trolley rated above 5 t. Where a spreader beam or slings hang below the hoist, their weight counts too.

What is the difference between a push trolley and a geared trolley?

A push trolley is moved by hand pushing the load and has no gearing. A geared trolley is moved by a hand chain through a gear train, which gives mechanical advantage and stops the load rolling away on a level beam. Geared is the right choice for sloping beams, accurate spotting, long travel, constant use, and anything above 10 t.

Can I fit a trolley on square tube or an enclosed track?

Not with a standard beam trolley. Those systems use their own track profile and wheel, and plain square tube has no standard wheel geometry at all, so nothing sold for it can claim conformity with EN 13157 or JB/T 7332. Send us the track profile and we will tell you what is available.

Can two trolleys be used together?

Yes. Two trolleys under a spreader or lifting beam is the normal way to handle a long load, and it keeps the load level. Both trolleys must be rated for their share of the load including the spreader, and the beam has to be checked for two point loads rather than one.

Do you supply trolleys with a built-in hoist?

Trolleys are supplied on their own or as a matched trolley-and-hoist combination. Tell us the capacity, the beam flange dimensions and the lift height you need, and we will quote the pair together so the ratings match.