On 09/08/2011 05:30 PM, Martin Olliver wrote:
> I am refurbishing a stock four wheel Europa trigear trailer with tilt
> bed. Can any one who has this type advise me if a winch is required,
Yes, you need a winch. I bought a new <100 US$ electrical winch with
remote control on ebay, and it is perfect for the task.
You need to add two attachment points on the airplane, one next to each
main gear leg. Then route two cables from the winch to these attachment
points. The cables meet the single rope from the winch somewhere close
to the tail. By adjusting the length of the two cables you can cause the
trailer to align itself automatically with the trailer. Do not try to
winch the airplane with a single attachment point near the tail, as the
tail rises up when the airplane crawls up the bed. The winch tries to
pull the tail down, and much stress is put on both the airplane and the
winch construction.
I have the winch mounted just behind the "brake assembly" (I guess this
assembly has a name in English but I'm not sure what it is).
Although my car delivers 12 Volts to the trailer, I added a small
battery to the trailer itself because of the high load of the winch. The
battery is automatically recharged by the car while driving. (I also
have a ground cable on the airplane so the airplane's batteries are
recharged automatically as well while it is on the trailer.
One warning with this trailer: Do NOT use the tailplane stands, it will
wiggle everything loose while driving. I made two wooden boxes on the
"triangle" of the trailer which contains the tail planes.
Make sure to measure the load on the tow hook: In my case it came out
with a whopping 140 Kg's. My 1972 Mercedes I use for towing has air
suspension and won't sag a millimeter, but 140Kg's is just to much for
most cars. I solved this problem my adding end stops for the main gear
so the airplane stays a bit more to the rear of the trailer.
Another thing I found out is the best way to secure the airplane. You
definitely need to secure the tail. I added a "tow hook" on the airplane
and when on the trailer I attach two steel cables with a spring in them.
The springs are needed because of the flex of the trailer itself. You
shouldn't abuse the airplane by using it as a device to stiffen up the
trailer.
The nose gear is my main attachment point. I have made a clamp that goes
over the axle of the nose wheel. If you ommit this, you will find out
that sooner or later the airplane turns slightly and any bump in the
road will cause the nose wheel to jump up and land besides the ramp.
Don's ask me how I know... Just make sure you secure the nose wheel to
the trailer.
Oh, and never forget to install a very strong rudder lock. I didn't had
one the first time I had the airplane on the trailer and the first truck
that passed in the opposite direction smacked the rudder to the other
side. This was enough to cause a crack in the hinge. Luckily the
airplane wasn't finished yet so I could easily repair the damage (and
stiffen up the hinge area with some uni perpedicular to the crack so a
future mistake or tail slide ( ;-) ) won't cause the same damage again.
I'm very satisfied with this setup, and we use it every time we are
going to fly because we have the airplane hangared at home. It drives
very stable and 100Km/h is our standard speed on the way to the airport.
We rig the airplane directly on the trailer, and the whole operation
---From trailered to unloaded and ready to fly takes 15 minutes. We refuel
directly at a road gas station so at the airport we don't have to refuel.
Initially I was afraid that driving the airplane wouldn't be good for
the gyro's but now with 130 hours the gyro's still sound as new.
Frans
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