Long Distance Move of RV-10

I might be moving several hundred miles from my current home soon and am currently on the finishing kit stage of my RV-10 build. It is up on the gear and the fuselage is finished. The wings are in a cradle. I do not yet have the engine in so it is just the full fuselage and gear. If I need to move this long distance what is the best way to do this. With the gear on it is a bit wider than 8' and most closed trailers are narrower than that. I would be concerned that on a flatbed trailer for that distance it could be damaged. Any ideas or suggestions on how to move this project safely.

I rented an heavy duty trailer from Hertz--------dumb luck but it turned out to be the perfect size for a 10 on its gear.



Fourteen hour trip----all went just fine.

I rented a flat, tilt-bed truck. Yes, tight fit, make sure it is well tied down.

I actually had to move my plane once and actually put it on a snowmobile trailer. Check your measurement again if I recall you are not 8 feet wide, but I am not close to my plane but most trailers will work.

If it were me, I would remove the gear... Easy. I would rent a u-haul, penske, etc truck. I would move everything in the enclosed truck. Without the gear legs it will easily fit.

I moved mine once mid build from TX to WI. Used a 26' Penske van truck to move it and the wings in the cradle and other components. Worked great and protected from the elements.

I have moved my plane several times many hundreds of miles. I did take the engine off so it was easier to load and didnt put stress on the motor mount while traveling. PM me if you want specific info. Good luck on the move

This is a 5'x10' trailer and has the complete airframe including wings and empenage.

Thanks for the replies. It looks like others have done this with flatbed trailers with success. The Hertz heavy duty trailer looks very promising as it even has a winch on the front. I could take the gear off to fit it in a closed trailer but that would be a bit of a pain to have to do.

Bugs

mholck said:

Thanks for the replies. It looks like others have done this with flatbed trailers with success. The Hertz heavy duty trailer looks very promising as it even has a winch on the front. I could take the gear off to fit it in a closed trailer but that would be a bit of a pain to have to do.

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You can even have the joy of scrubbing off your first bugs

My RV-3B has a few thousand trailer miles (not including the salvage operation from Florida to Georgia then Georgia to Tennessee...) from Tennessee to Washington State then to Michigan and now back to Tennessee. It helps to have a tiny airplane. The first move, we put the fuselage inside our covered box trailer on the gear, no tail, with a wood wing rack "loft" built in the front of the trailer. (We owned the trailer, so mods were OK.) Then we packed our earthly possessions in around the plane. Here you can see the wing rack above the tail section. Throughout all those moves, we didn't get any "trailer rash," but I do recall temporarily renaming the plane "Trailer Trash" at one point.

Forklift skid



We manufactured a skid to set airplane on and loaded in van trailer. It was safe and easy to lock down once loaded.