lml@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> << Lancair Builders' Mail List >> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I trailered my 360 from Cleveland to California (2200 miles) three years ago, and then another 150 miles two years ago. No damage was observed. Here's what I did... I used a dual-wide snowmobile trailer, which was essentially a flatbed trailer having two 4x8 sheets of plywood as a floor with a 6" metal strip between the boards. That made it 8 feet long and 8-and-a-half feet wide. The Lancair is 8 foot 4 inches wide at the wing break so this worked out nicely. The aircraft was on the gear with no engine installed. I didn't remove it for the trip -- I just don't have one yet! I made chocks for the front, back, and inner side of the main gear tires. This way the plane could not be rolled forward or aft, and could not skitter sideways. The aft chocks were removable for loading and unloading. I replaced the hinged over-center side brace on the main gear with a solid bar of aluminum (one half by one inch) which extended a couple of inches outboard from the vertical gear leg. I attached a shackle to the protruding end and tied it down to the trailer bed using a webbed strap with a come-along. (They sell sets of four straps for about $20.) The nose was fixed by looping webbed straps between the engine mount (where the Lord wounts go) and the trailer bed. One strap on each side. This compressed the nose strut and tire. A little experimentation shows how much to winch down so that the nose gear doesn't lift off the trailer bed, but you don't squish the living daylights out of the tire. The wings went in the moving van. I completed the image by attaching a light bar to the stub of the vertical fin spar, clamping the stub spar between plywood. The tail overhung the end of the trailer by about eight feet. The airplane was liberally wrapped with black polyethylene sheeting -- it's guaranteed to rain! An ammo can on the trailer tongue holds lead shot bags. I need three bags with the plane on the trailer and one bag when empty. With the plane on the trailer, you can put two of the shot bags on the back of the trailer, lift the tongue with one hand and roll it around by yourself! No damage was observed to any part of the aircraft. However, I had to send the nose gear strut back to Lancair to fix a pre-existing oil leak so I asked them to tear it down and inspect everything. By the way, the tow vehicle was a Honda CRX with 160,000 miles on it. Still could go 80 mph, but gas mileage was reduced from the normal 36 mpg to 20 mpg! I just bought a Mazda Miata, and have installed a trailer hitch on it in anticipation of the next move. (There's not much job stability when you work for start-up companies...) - Rob Wolf LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair