Tail wheel dolly?

[Av8r3400]

A friend built one for his Avid that attaches to the towing tongue mounts with a large (10"?) pneumatic caster wheel - of course from HF.

Works good for him. I keep forgetting to photograph it…

[kitfox5v]

Skypirate has a sketch of one one in his photo album.

[herman pahls]

Great discussion since I have to fold the wings every time I fly.
I like Skypirates idea on photo 21 of his Album.
What ever the design is, I feel the dolly needs to be pinned to the fuselage like Jerry Tex did to prevent a real bad day if it ever fell off with the wings folded.
I am hoping Larry can get a photo of his friends design since I have heard that it may have a lever arm that both raises the tail and is also used as a tow bar.
I envision the the Sky Pirate design that straddles the tailwheel in a near horizontal position with small wheels to roll it in place.
Then pin it to the rear towing position, then pull back on an approx. 4-5 foot long bar with a tee handle to raise the tail, then pin it to the front tow position.
At some point when raising the tail the dolly will transition to the castering wheel. Since my hanger floor is gravel I would use a large castering wheel.
The design challenge is to get the dolly to break over center so it will stay in place till you get the second pin in place and then have the tee handle end up at the appropriate height for both raising and lowering and moving the airplane.
In the mean time I designed a simple, fool proof quick drain at the header tank that only takes a minute/ gallon if I need to and is very useful when you need to drain the fuel system.
Herman

[Jerrytex]

As Herman mentioned, I was nervous about it falling off the stand so I used a ratchet strap and a pin. Once I was comfortable rolling it around, I didn't use the the strap any more and it worked great rolling in and out of a PAVED hangar. Gravel would be challenging but I bet you could use ATV tires or use a couple of sheets of plywood to roll it on to.

[kitfox2009]

image.jpg

I use a home made dolly to move my Vixen around. Would think a beefed up version would work well with a tail dragger.
Cheers
Don

[Esser]

Love the reg, I have C-FOXD reserved

[wildirishtime]

I used to fold my wings every time i fly. if you guys would just fly off more fuel you don't need the tail up !

I just fly flight, If I recall it's about 6gal each side and you can fold the wings. mark off the lcoation on the wing and call it good, fold it up and keep life simple.

~Brendan

[Av8r3400]

Okay. I cornered Paul this weekend and got some photos of the tail stand and how it works.

Here ya go…

[t j]

It's condition inspection time again. It has been a lot of monkey motion to get my kitfox into my shop and spread the wings. The wingspan is 32 feet and my shop has posts every 12 feet at 30 feet. It always takes a lot of maneuvering back and forth to get it back in the corner with the wings spread.

I ordered 3 Mini Furniture dollies from harbor freight to make it easier this time. Pushed it back in the corner, spread one wing, spun it around and slid it sideways with the spread wing between the posts and spread the other wing. Lots easier.
http://www.harborfreight.com/movers-dolly-93888.html