ELECTRIC TOWBAR FOR SCOTT 3200 FOLDING

[MoonlightVFR]

I NEED a little hlep moving A/C in and out of hanger.

Have heard of innovative persons making their own with a cordless drill basis and machine shop work.
Never saw details / availablity.

Does anyone know of a reasonable unit for sell or perhaps set of drawings for DYI ?

Current issue of Trade A Plane (Third April Issue 2010) has advertisement pg 13 for a Redline Sidewinder based on a Milwaukee drill 28V Lithium ion battery. No statement about working on Scott 3200 tailwheel. Their price is a little high. $1600.00 for a modified cordless drill ! Ouch Ouch!

Once I use for In /Out hanger it needs to have no foot print. Hang on hanger wall or stow in A/C.

I would like to hear from engineered minded 170 folks. Surely someone solved this years ago and I am just not aware.

Regards

[Larry Holtz]

I am now in the process of trying to convert my taildragger dragger to use with a winch. The previous hanger renter had a 172 and mounted a winch on the back wall to pull his plane in. I tried throwing a line around the tailwheel and pulling it in, but the Scott is pretty contankerous and its about like herding cats. I am going to mount a bracket on the dragger so I can put a crazy wheel on it. Gotta find a welder. I will update with any progress.

Larry

[blueldr]

I use a winch fastened to the rear of the hangar. It came from Harbor Freight and operates on 120VAC. I installed a cable, terminating in a snap fastener, long enough to reach my plane out on the taxiway in front of my hangar. I also spliced in a four conductor length of SJ cord, in the winch control line, long enough to carry the control switch in my right hand while using my left hand to steer the tail wheel with the towbar. The snap fastener on the winch cable fastens to the tie down eye bolt on the tail wheel. Makes the uphill pull a breeze.

[jrenwick]

A long time ago I glued a pair of 2x4s to the hangar floor, parallel to each other and a few inches apart, to make a track to guide the 170's tail wheel straight back into the hangar. It worked really well. I used a tube of construction adhesive to stick them down, and it wasn't any trouble to pull them up again when I vacated the rented stall.

[170C]

There are many options for using a winch and towbar. The one I have used for many years is I purchased one of the Delux Cessna towbar, PN 13-D1540, from Spruce (P. 671) for $49.95. (When mine came from Spruce it had a Wag-Air sticker on it, but was several dollars less than the same unit if purchased from Wag--go figure Remove the "T" handle portion & either cut off enough of the lower portion to permit the holes to line up for the pin that holds the "T" bar in the lower part of the towbar or substitute a piece of the correct size tubing and weld a ring to the short section of the cut off tube to permit attaching the snap ring which is attached to your winch cable. This will then attach to the Scott 3200 and pull your plane into your hangar and, best of all, the tailwheel is correctly positioned for the plane to be pushed out of the hangar. Tailwheels that are allowed to caster while the plane is pushed into the hangar can cause the tail of the plane to swing to one side of the hanger or the other when pushing the plane out of the hangar. This can cause severe hangar rash. I can attest to this If you can weld or have a friend that welds you could build your own towbar. Admittedly this isn't the best description of my unit, but if desired you can PM me or call me & I'll be glad to discuss it with you.

[bsdunek]

I use a winch fastened to the rear of the hangar. It came from Harbor Freight and operates on 120VAC. I installed a cable, terminating in a snap fastener, long enough to reach my plane out on the taxiway in front of my hangar. I also spliced in a four conductor length of SJ cord, in the winch control line, long enough to carry the control switch in my right hand while using my left hand to steer the tail wheel with the towbar. The snap fastener on the winch cable fastens to the tie down eye bolt on the tail wheel. Makes the uphill pull a breeze.

I just installed mine this morning. Extended the control cord the same way so I can walk with the tail and guide it. It does want to go to one side or the other. I just used a piece of 7/16 nylon rope with a loop in each end to loop around the tailwheel. Worked fine this morning.
Had to do this because I tore some cartilage in my knee six weeks ago, and this is the first time I felt like I could handle the plane. Just shot a couple of landing, but it sure did feel good!

[GAHorn]

[... I tore some cartilage in my knee six weeks ago, ...!

Bruce... When your wife asks you.....the "Iraq-position" is a political question. It's not one of the excersizes in the Kama Sutra! (more seriously, ...sorry to hear of your injury)

[k0al]

A few years ago, I got tired of struggling with putting my 170A in the hangar and built an electric tug. I bought from a salvage yard the transaxle from a garden tractor with wheels and tires for $20. I made a frame from scrounged steel, mounted casters on the end opposite of the drive wheels. I found a 12 volt DC electric motor in a surplus catalog, brought out the field leads to a drum switch ( to give forward & reverse ) and mounted it along with a 12 volt battery with a starter solenoid from a 12 volt Ford auto on the aforementioned frame. I played some with pulley ratios, but found that the 5 speeds of the transmission gave quite a wide range. A vee belt couples the motor to the transaxle. The motor mounts are slotted to provide belt tension.

On the frame at the drive wheel end, I fashioned a pair of "ears" from 1/4 inch thick steel plate with cutouts to match the contour of the Scott tailwheel arms.

I guide the tug to the plane and then at the last moment I lift the back end up and let the ears go under the Scott arms. I release the weight of the tug and the tailwheel is held about 1 inch above the tarmac.

No more slipping on the snow, I just guide the tug in and out of the hangar space.

Total cost, maybe $200 including battery and a few hours of "sweat equity".

I didn't make drawings, but I probably can provide digital images too anyone so interested.

Al N5155C

[GAHorn]

...I didn't make drawings, but I probably can provide digital images too anyone so interested.

Al N5155C

Send 'em to my email (on front page of Flypaper) or post them here? Thanks!

I've often dreamed of replacing the tines on one of my garden-tillers with wheelbarrow-wheels, and then rigging up a reverse-pulley (figure-8 v-belt) drive. It wouldn't be hard.

Of course, I've had L-19 tow-adaptors installed on my landing gear for 10 years now and still haven't built a towbar for them! (NOw that I"ve got a RED lawn tractor, maybe I"ll get that towbar built!)

LawnTractor.jpg (3.1 KiB) Viewed 12198 times

[MoonlightVFR]

I am still looking and listening for tow bar ideas.


The modified powerful cordless electric drill idea still attracts my attention since the features of froward / reverse and a clutch type mechanism are self contained in the drill housing itself.

Has anyone actually seen one up close ?



Regards

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Yes I've seen a drill powered type airplane mover. There was a person at my airport who designed and developed a few many years ago. Not sure if he sold his designs or he made and marketed them but I know they were sold commercially.

Anyway I witnessed him using his prototypes to move his Rockwell 114 in and out of the hanger many times and it seem to work very well. The design I saw him use the most actually used a friction wheel against the front tire to roll it. It would not work on a tail dragger or a noise wheel with a wheel pant. His later designs drove their own wheel and could be used with wheel pants and I suppose adapted to a tail wheel but they weren't as slick small and light weight as the one that drove the front tire.

[GAHorn]

Not cheep. ($1200)

http://sportys.com/pilotshop/product/13033

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

The design I saw had the drill virtually unmodified. The drill was the handle and turned a shaft inside a tube leading down to the wheel. At the wheel was a 90º gearbox with a friction wheel which ran on the tire.

I seem to remember this system to be in the $1K range as well.

[GAHorn]

Here's the pics Member Al Culbert sent of his self-designed tug. (I've got an old MonkeyWards riding mower behind the hangar that could donate a trans-axle. THANKS Al!) Where/what did that DC motor come from?

Click on pics t o ENLARGE

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

That is very cool. I've been trying to formulate a design around a transaxle like that for some time but never really got past the type of axle I'd use. Those types of axles are found on lots of mowers. Most will also have gears to select 3 forward and one reverse which could be used instead of reversing the electric motor.