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Portable tug

togaflyer

Well Known Member
Is there anything out there that is a portable type tug that can handle hard pack dirt and grass. It does not need to fit in the plane. If I can keep it in the bed of my truck under a bed cover that will work. It’s a chore pushing the plane back with the Bogart bar across uneven surface. One option is a tow bar to hook onto the tow ball of my truck, but trying to back it in with a full size truck may be a challenge.
 
winch on back wall??

An alternative for getting the plane back into the hangar: if you have electricity, you could use a winch mounted in the center on the back wall of the hangar.

For our shared hangar, we installed a HFT one with extended control cable (on/off switch in handle) so that on the rare occasions when ice on the ramp disabled the wheeled walk-along tugs, a solo pilot could pull their plane in by attaching to the tail tiedown. Then steering/controlling from the nosewheel end while pulling the plane into the hangar. The heavier plane (Cirrus/Bonanza/big Piper) guys liked it. Once inside the hangar, they disconnected the winch cable and did final turns and placement manually.

When not in use, the 65 foot control cable and the extension cord are spooled up and hang on the wall adjacent to the winch mounting point.
 
Unfortunately we keep her outside at FD51 (Summerland Key Airport). We basically got forced out of Marathon when Million Air took over. They are wiping out GA there so needed to relocate to Summerland. We now park in the dirt. Thought about a 12 volt winch and hooking it to the tie down tail ring cemented in the ground. And then to the tail ring, but trying to look for a tug that I can store in my truck bed.
 
I've tried a couple of tug solutions, including trying to make one. Also tried the winch-from-the-tail solution but was persuaded away from that as I was told that that tie-down ring wasn't a good place to tow from....mean more for vertical loads that horizontal. Closest I came to "cheap" solution was this thing...$900 on Amazon. It has the power (on concrete), but I question its ability to work on uneven ground like grass/dirt. In the end, converting it to an airplane tug was more effort than I wanted. If you love to tinker, you may have better luck.

I just bit the bullet and bought an A2 Best Tug. $3000 + $500 shipping. It was worth it. The A2 does 2600 lbs of airplane...my guess is that if you went that way for dirt and grass, it would be smarter to get the Alpha 3


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A lot of trucks around here have winches, some with remote control units. Could you use a truck mounted winch and route the cable through the tie down ring that is cemented in the ground and then to the ring on your airplane?
 
consider

If you are considering the winch version, make sure you consider where you would attach that winch cable to the aircraft...

You may be in for a nasty surprise if you hook it to the tail tie down ring...
 
Personally, I think you could make a spreader bar or harness to clip to the tow bar, then use a winch to move the airplane while you steer it with the tow bar. BUT you’d better have a kill switch or other means of stopping the winch just in case a jackknife type situation gets started.
 
It's a long way from you, But, there is a gas powered PowerTow Model 35 Aircraft Tug listed on Craigslist "Portland Oregon" Just posted $600.00
It is in Battle Ground WA. 98604 only a few miles from me.
Maybe you want a long cross country shopping trip.
Art
 
Weight

Not sure how much you want to lift nto your truckbed, but most wheeled tugs are really heavy, some over 150 pounds. The smallest Powertow (since the 35 is no longer in production nor is info listed on their site) has a shipping weight of 115 pounds. I am not prepared to lift that into the bed of my truck.

There are one or two that use a design that used a big battery operated drill for a motor and drives a wheel that rubs on the nosewheel to drive the plane forward and back. One Bonanza pilot uses that at our airport with reasonable success. And the drill motor comes off the movement mechanism for two pieces that dont weigh much and will go into a car as well as a truck.

(Pulling a plane backwards on level ground via the tail tiedown has zero risk to the plane. Compare that to the stresses of erratic, gusty winds at 40 to 50 (or more) MPH when it is tied down. I think it is an old wive's tale, but welcome a source showing otherwise.)

Sad to hear that about Summerland Key.
 
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I've tried a couple of tug solutions, including trying to make one. Also tried the winch-from-the-tail solution but was persuaded away from that as I was told that that tie-down ring wasn't a good place to tow from....mean more for vertical loads that horizontal. Closest I came to "cheap" solution was this thing...$900 on Amazon. It has the power (on concrete), but I question its ability to work on uneven ground like grass/dirt. In the end, converting it to an airplane tug was more effort than I wanted. If you love to tinker, you may have better luck.

I just bit the bullet and bought an A2 Best Tug. $3000 + $500 shipping. It was worth it. The A2 does 2600 lbs of airplane...my guess is that if you went that way for dirt and grass, it would be smarter to get the Alpha 3


.
I bought one of the $900 trailer tugs off Amazon. Since my plane isn't done yet, I have been trying to push the heavy hangar doors open but that doesn't work just like it comes. It is a very nice unit with more than enough power but it doesn't have good traction and because it has a differential, if one wheel slips, you are out of luck. What it needs is probably another 100 pound of weight to push a plane. Should be doable but then it's a pain to get it onto a truck bed.
 
I bought one of the $900 trailer tugs off Amazon. Since my plane isn't done yet, I have been trying to push the heavy hangar doors open but that doesn't work just like it comes. It is a very nice unit with more than enough power but it doesn't have good traction and because it has a differential, if one wheel slips, you are out of luck. What it needs is probably another 100 pound of weight to push a plane. Should be doable but then it's a pain to get it onto a truck bed.

What I found is that it isn't the weight...it's the same weight as the Best Tug A2 that I ended up buying...it's the fact that when pushing the plane with it, the angles from the tow bar push the wheels up off the ground and it loses traction. With the Best Tug design, it pushes from below the wheel axle, and the rigid front arms allow you to lever down to add as much traction as you need.
 
What I found is that it isn't the weight...it's the same weight as the Best Tug A2 that I ended up buying...it's the fact that when pushing the plane with it, the angles from the tow bar push the wheels up off the ground and it loses traction. With the Best Tug design, it pushes from below the wheel axle, and the rigid front arms allow you to lever down to add as much traction as you need.

I don't intend to push from the ball on the top but add a way to hook up the tow bar as low as possible. I recall from my mechanical engineering classes that the force is only a function of weight and friction coefficient which is something like 0.7 for a rubber wheel on dry road. Weight on the wheels is the only thing that helps and the tow bar attachment geometry can either assist or be decremental for weight on wheels. Smart tugs of course will try to get under the nose wheel and scavenge part of the airplane's weight to increase the weight on its own wheels.
 
I don't intend to push from the ball on the top but add a way to hook up the tow bar as low as possible. I recall from my mechanical engineering classes that the force is only a function of weight and friction coefficient which is something like 0.7 for a rubber wheel on dry road. Weight on the wheels is the only thing that helps and the tow bar attachment geometry can either assist or be decremental for weight on wheels. Smart tugs of course will try to get under the nose wheel and scavenge part of the airplane's weight to increase the weight on its own wheels.

You don't need external weight on the wheels....I tried that with about 180 lbs of tractor weights. If you're pushing the plane with arms that are below the axle line it will add effective weight to the wheels when you go forward. But the key to the Best Tug is that the arms are below the thrust line, as well as the ability to push down on the handle and lever a large amount of weight on the wheels. Those arms on the BT tug are very beefy, as is the frame they mount to. You could do the same thing with the Amazon tug by taking some heavy gauge square steel tubing as arms and bolt them between the drive motor and the frame. Some 5/8 tubing welded on the end to engage the axle and you're good to go.
 
I've had success winching mine backwards into the hangar using a HF 12V winch with a wireless remote, retired Odyssey battery for power, and a tow rope yoke with loops that slip over the steps right against the fuselage sides and attach to the winch cable after passing through a carabiner on the tail tie down ring. Steering is via Bogart Bar.

Since I poured a pad in front of the hangar large enough to taxi up onto, I no longer have to back the plane across turf, and the Bogart Bar and my shoulders are enough to overcome the slight drainage grade and the ramp slope, but in winter/wet conditions I may need to break out the winch again. If I had it to do over, I'd get a 120V winch model, but couldn't find one with a wireless remote at Harbor Freight at the time. When the battery gets weak, it's slo-o-o-w.
 
You don't need external weight on the wheels....I tried that with about 180 lbs of tractor weights. If you're pushing the plane with arms that are below the axle line it will add effective weight to the wheels when you go forward. But the key to the Best Tug is that the arms are below the thrust line, as well as the ability to push down on the handle and lever a large amount of weight on the wheels. Those arms on the BT tug are very beefy, as is the frame they mount to. You could do the same thing with the Amazon tug by taking some heavy gauge square steel tubing as arms and bolt them between the drive motor and the frame. Some 5/8 tubing welded on the end to engage the axle and you're good to go.

That's very good input. Thanks for the hint. I'll try to make a rigid extension all the way out to the nose wheel attachment.
 
Good info from everyone and thank you. I was favoring the winch and tail ring set up, but then started thinking about having to do it on an uneven gravel surface and possible ring failure as Bob mentioned. I think best option is to install a front end receiver on the truck and buy a Bracket tow bar. I figure more of a basic tug configuration without lifting something heavy out of the truck bed. Should be steerable enough to maneuver the plane comfortably.
 
We build airplanes....

Shirley, someone has plans for a home made tug that uses a wheelchair or golf buggy drive train ?

Sell the plans at $25 a pop....

Hurry up :D:D:D:D
 
We build airplanes....

Shirley, someone has plans for a home made tug that uses a wheelchair or golf buggy drive train ?

Sell the plans at $25 a pop....

Hurry up :D:D:D:D

...and then wait for all the comments about how it would never work.....just sayin'...... ;)
 
The safe way to pull the airplane by the tail tie down is to incorporate a weak link between the cable and the tiedown ring. Try a plastic zip-tie, starting small, and moving bigger, until you find a size that will produce a failure at about 400 lbs tension. Using two of them, one with a larger loop than the other, will allow a failure of the weak-link, without experiencing a full disconnect.
 
Ac tug

I have been using a garden tractor for 10 years. Stays hooked to ac in the hanger . Older ford 10 garden tractor .Add about 200 pounds of weight tractor when we first started using to move piper ac .put tow hook on front and rear. Rv 8 ac much lighter than piper.
 
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