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Lifting a Rocket

Robb

Well Known Member
I have an overhead winch with a spreader bar for lifting my Husky. Is it safe to lift my F1 using the front and rear engine mount? It would make it a lot easier than lifting one wheel at a time. I need to change my tubes as they both have slow leaks.
 
Lifting by the engine mount is fine and done on a regular basis. Just be sure to lift by the mount and not the engine itself. You don't want to place strain on the isolation mounts.
 
When you do it try to keep the lifting straps at the engine mount attach points at the firewall. That will limit bending leverage on the mount that could be caused by lifting further forward near the engine.
 
Git ‘er done

Yes you can lift the plane by the mount - but not the engine. You might balance the lift by using the top bar on the front seat...

If you are only changing tires, I’m confident the engine mount will be fine and the tailwheel will also be fine - if I’m thinking of how yuo are doing the lift.

Too bad your plane is not equipped as most of the WW2 birds are with built-in lifting lugs...but you could add them..
 
Why not just build a simple jack? I lift my rocket with these jacks i built from harbor freight long ram jacks with a cap made from a water pipe end and drilled for a bolt. It screws into the tie down points. Works great.
 

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What the others said about using the engine mount is fine.

Here's another option:

1) Grab a set of wing jacks. My hangar mate had a set for his Piper.
2) Make a saddle from scrap Nylon or HDPE. Make it fit the jack and the lower EM tube.
3) Lift the plane using the outboard lower engine mount tube.

jacking%20the%20plane.jpg


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Of course, there are other ways.... I won't repeat them all here. Use the "search" function to find others.
 
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A common floor jack with a short adapter will safely lift on the bottom gear leg foot. The adapter is a piece of half tube (or bent plate) that cradles the gear foot and top end of it catches the cross drilled bolt head and nut that retain the gear foot. The half tube gets welded to a 4 " length of 1.5" square tube. Then a short round gets bolted or welded to the other end of the square tube that fits the floor jack pivot hole , just like the factory jack swivel pad.

The entire lift loop from ground to the lifting point is only about 5" and is very stable. It only takes a few seconds to lift a wheel free after the wheel spat ( GLF to Wheel pant radius fairing) has been removed.
 
For the last 15 years, on my F1, I have been using two gear clamps on each leg lower on the gear legs. My jack catches the gear clamp screw body and I can easily lift the wheel off the ground. I would not recommend using one gear clamp as they tend to distort. Two though, back to back, work very well. These stay with the airplane and are hidden by the lower gear leg faring.
Once the wheel is off, I place blocks of wood under the axle and release the jack while I do my maintenance work.

Your milage may vary

Tom Martin
 
I do have a set of wing jacks from my old RV7. Can the EVO's be lifted that way? The jack points are there but quite a ways out from the fuselage. Dont want to bend anything but that would be the easiest way.
 
I use wing jacks on my sport wing F1. They work but because the gear legs are so long and springy the wing needs to be raised up a lot in order to get a wheel off the ground.
 
I think the issue is the EVO wing tie down points are at the outer end of the wing. I doubt it would support the weight of the plane.
 
Why not just build a simple jack? I lift my rocket with these jacks i built from harbor freight long ram jacks with a cap made from a water pipe end and drilled for a bolt. It screws into the tie down points. Works great.

Brilliant! I am stealing this! Thanks for posting
 
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