new owner and trailering tips for newbies

[tx_swordguy]

THIS IS A REPEAT FROM THE AVID FORUM
I recently bought an avid flyer in really good shape. Started as a late B model that was upgraded structurally to meet C model heavy hauler standards. 1150 lb gross with rotax 582. It is in fantastic shape and has been flown a lot over the years with 1200 hours and its on its 3rd engine. I trailered it back from Wisconsin to Texas on an open boat trailer that worked very well with just a couple of complaints. Not knowing how it would move /vibrate that long distance I had a couple of rub areas so I wanted to pass along some tips for new owners like me that might not know what to look for in packaging the plane. This plane spent most all its life with the wings extended so the 2 owners prior to me ( I am the third) never ran into issues. With the wings folded and the rudder and elevators secured there was still some movement that I was unaware of happening despite all my research. even with a small piece of foam rubber the owner put between the flaperon and tail I got a couple of rub places that I did not notice pulling until I had gone a couple of hours. I ended up with a 1" rub on the front of the vertical stab that need a patch. My suggestion would be to get a long piece of 2" foam rubber maybe 18"x4' on each side of the tail so the tail is sandwiched between each flaperon and the foam takes any vibration. I got some additional foam at walmart and it really solidified the wings movement the rest of the trip (everything moved more as one piece rather than each piece moving individually. Also the builder fabricated air foils on everything which is great except when folded the air foil on the strut close to the bottom pivot is up against the plane and rubbed a bit. When it was folded it looked and felt really solid, but there is a lot of little movement going on that over the course of 1000 miles did just a little bit of damage. Nothing that can't be fixed and now I know better. I think I will cut off the bottom part of the strut air foil so I can trailer it. I thought about extending the wing tie down rod so the wing will actually stick out another 6" each side to miss the side of the plane. That is the easiest fix. Just don't know yet. I have 1000' field I plan on using but will have to trailer it 10 miles to the airport so I can get familiar with it prior to trying my field for the first time. I can do that trip at 30-40 mph so not really worried about it. If I extend the rods there will be gap in the flaperons/tail of about 6-10" that will need to taken into account with some sort of packaging. Anyway thought I would share. Thanks to Joey for answering questions about the earlier avids . I thought I was pretty well prepped for the ride home and had my truck loaded with tools, tarps, 2 spare tires and everything else I could think of I might need. I didn't realize I needed to foam EVERY possible rub place since it "felt" so solid when it was folded. Hope this might help others