I have a large Shop Fox Planer, 20" with spiral cutter head, its a nice planer. Haven't used it a tremendous amount but to the extent I have I have been happy with it. It is heavy as hell, probably closing in on 1000 pounds. The problem I have is the base I am using, the wheels that come with this base have on 2 separate occasions delaminated, the outside rubber/plastic that forms the wheel portion separate, actually disintegrate from the hub of the caster. As you can imagine it makes moving this beast more than difficult.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone else had this occur? I was wondering if I have overloaded the wheels, or maybe the Florida heat degrades them.
2. Can anyone recommend a better caster replacement that would be compatible with the base?
3. Should I scrap the base altogether and replace/build something that would work better? I don't move this much but when I do I am tired of worrying that I might need hernia surgery afterwards. Let's face it I am not getting any younger, 6-7 years ago when I bought this I was a bit more spunky, those were the days.
4. Finally I have to get the beast off of the mobile base, in the past I had a few friends help lift it but that was a debacle and again old guy now, what would be the best/safest way? Engine hoist?

Thanks,

Mac