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Real aircraft jacks or RV Hijack from ACS or other suggestion

A

AFulmer

Active Member
Building an RV7 but recently purchased a flying RV4. Need to change the tires. Forum search yielded these suggestions:

Model 321 jacks at:
http://www.aircraftjacks.com/
Kind of pricey at $199.00 when you consider you will need 2 jacks plus the tail weight/stand at $149.00 Total $547.00

or

RV HI JACK CRANK UP WHEEL LIFT
for $233.95 from ACS:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/rvhijack.php

Question is: would I EVER need to jack up off the floor a tail wheel model RV7 or 4?
If not then does anyone have any experience with the RV Hi Jack device?

Learning all kinds of stuff from this 4. Figure it can't but help as I finish my 7.

Thanks,
 
I like the looks of the Spruce setup, but I bet I could make the same thing in an hour or two with about 10 bucks worth of pipe and assorted Home Depot stuff. I'd spend a bit extra on some aluminum tube and make it real light. The one pictured says it'll lift 500 lbs! This is way more than I need. It's nice they throw in the patch kit, but this should just be a couple of wrenches and some patches. I guess I'm just a tightwad.
 
More ideas

Been looking all around; Avery, Van's, Google, etc. But Van's has a little bracket that attaches to the landing gear on everything but the 8 with a u-bolt so regular hydraulic floor jack can be used. That appeals to me at this point. That will get the tires changed and I can worry about the fancy stuff when I am rich and famous! Plus I think I can duplicate it at the hardware store myself.

Allen
 
I bought one of those Vans gadgets

AFulmer said:
Been looking all around; Avery, Van's, Google, etc. But Van's has a little bracket that attaches to the landing gear on everything but the 8 with a u-bolt so regular hydraulic floor jack can be used. That appeals to me at this point. That will get the tires changed and I can worry about the fancy stuff when I am rich and famous! Plus I think I can duplicate it at the hardware store myself.

Allen
Click to expand...

And the first time I used it, the u-bolt slipped and ripped out the brake line.

The Spruce gadget looks interesting, but I'd be skeptical of how it attaches to the axle. If it's another u-bolt deal, I wouldn't have anything to do with it.

A wing jack is the correct way to jack a plane. You only need one. Vans sells some little buttons to screw into the tie down mounts. Plus, you can also use a wing jack under the firewall (cushioned by a 1x2) to lift the nose to work on the nose wheel. For holding the tail up, go to Home Depot and get one of those adjustable stands with a roller on top that they sell for feeding lumber into a table saw. You don't need a jack to lift the tail.

After spending $70 grand or more building your dream plane, why mess around with some micky mouse gadget for jacking it off the floor? The correct tool doesn't cost much more than a good torque wrench.
 
szicree said:
The one pictured says it'll lift 500 lbs!
Click to expand...
Don't we have more than 500 lbs on each wheel? If I recall correctly, my RV-6 weighed about 550-575 lbs on each main wheel!
 
Last edited:
My bad. I'm so used to scooting my engine-less 4 around the garage that I didn't really give it any thought. :p
 
Avery sells a jack attachment that goes inside the hollow gear leg on a -7. I don't know what will work on a -4 however.

Tom
 
Wood & Car jacks

For many years I have used stud quality 18" long 2X4s stacked in square log cabin fashion on a 3/4" plywood base and topped with another 3/4" plywood square as the adjustable base for a jack. I bought jacks from an autoparts store to put on top of the base and on top of that I put a small piece of 2X4 with a notch cut in it for mating with the wing tiedown ring. When not in use the 2X4s are stacked at the back of the hangar. It is surprising how ofted these pieces of 2X4 come in handy for other jobs.

Bob Axsom
 
Jacking RV-3

Should work as well on RV-4.

I bought the 3' of 3/16" cable and connectors from Walmart, $3.33, and scrounged the sign post from the FBO. Holes in the sign post worked good to pass the cable through and down around the bottom of the axle.

Pix tell the story better->

Barney
RV-3, N90516







 
I called to order a set of Model 321 floor jacks but they are having difficulty getting the hydraulic cylinders. My order is on hold for a month or two until they replenish their supply.
 
aircraft jack choices

I bought a motorcycle jack(Sears, most auto supply stores, around $60.00). It has a square(appx. 14"x 14") pad that raises up about 16". Build a simple wood box 15" high to sit atop the pad, and use a couple 4ft 2x4's across the top of the box, and find the balance point (just ahead of the center section spar), and lift the the plane all at once. It is very stable and makes tire changing and aligning the wheel and leg fairings a breeze.
 
I need to get a picture but

I used a hydraulic lifting table for $80 from HF.....A couple of blocks on the table and it will lift up the wing via the tie down eye.

The reason I went this way was because I made a wood frame so that the table would lift my James cowl up in the exact orientation to save me chipping the paint everytime I had to put the lower cowl on by myself.

So now I have a dual use tool.

HF also sell Hydraulic rams with flat bottoms for about $30 I believe. Make a steel frame and they look remarkably like proper airplane jacks.

My table can also be used to lift the nosewheel by adding an L bracket on the edge of the table.

Well this is all for Hangar maintenance...For the field I use the length of water pipe that I take with me and hopefully borrow a jack.

Frank
 
I purchased two 321 jacks and they are excellent jacks. I just used them again yesterday to lift both rear wheels to remove them. They are study as heck.

I simply place a Grade 8 bolt into each wing tie down and place the jacks under said bolts. The bolts nestle into a removable cup on the top of the jacks. I used grade 8 instead of 5 because while the jacks hoist perpendicular to the ground the bolts in the tie downs are at an angle perpendicular to the wing dihedral. Can't hurt to be overly cautious.

Takes just minutes to jack the plane. Very handy and you will use them at least once every year. For the $ I'm saving doing my own annuals I figured they are a good investment.
 
Geico266 said:
Anyone using this jack set up?

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/rvjack.php
Click to expand...

Yep, been using one on my RV-6 for several years. It works as advertised and hasn't caused any anxious moments. :)

The axle nuts on my plane are unmodified because you can carefully remove the nuts while the plane is still on the ground. The jack stand is then inserted into the axle and once the wheel is off the ground it is slid over onto the stand. A block then goes under the axle and the stand and wheel can be removed.

The only downside is that you can't spin the wheel while tightening the axle nut unless you modifiy the nut so it can be tightened while the stand is in place. I don't consider this a problem since I've learned how to torque the nuts by feel.

Last time I flipped the tires I made one of these:

http://www.averytools.com/p-913-the-handy-jack-eldorado-aviation.aspx

It works quite nicely and the wheels can be rotated while the axle nuts are tightened. I put a small u-bolt around the axle to prevent the cable sling from slipping up the axle.
 
A leg up on it...

I lifted my RV4 for 10 years with a engine hoist on the engine mount with a cable attachment. Pull the top cowling, wrap cable and lift, no worries. Not as cool as the jacks shown above but works great and I already had an engine lift...
For field flats (never had one as I use slime)I carry can of fix-a-flat from the wal mart aviation dept and a 12V cigarette lighter plug air pump from the same place. Got several buddies home using that combo.

Rob Ray
1500 hours RV4
 
Sam Buchanan said:
...Last time I flipped the tires I made one of these:

http://www.averytools.com/p-913-the-handy-jack-eldorado-aviation.aspx

It works quite nicely and the wheels can be rotated while the axle nuts are tightened. I put a small u-bolt around the axle to prevent the cable sling from slipping up the axle.
Click to expand...

Sam,

You are right, I just borrowed one from a friend and it worked great.

Here's a picture:
913.jpg


Next year I'll need to buy my own.
 
This above Aviation Tech product appears to work just fine, but I note it requires a separate floor jack to operate. If you already have the floor jack, you dont need to spend another $130 for the lifting contraption. Just cut a 4x4 to the appropriate length and secure a small (maybe 8x8" or so) piece of heavy duty plywood to the top and add some foam padding to it. Hack around the base of the 4x4 to shape it so it will fit within the cup of the floor jack. Place jack with stand carefully under the main spar under the fuselage and jack it up. Cheap, simple, and it works.

The other recommended product from ACS is nice if want to be self-sufficent and be able to jack the plane up away from home. Cant really argue with that, although you can usually scrounge up the necessary items to jack your plane up at an away-from-home airport if you have to.

Everyone's got their favorite method I guess

erich
 
No go on Hijack light...

Bill,
I also bought the Hi Jack "light". However, I am unable to get it on the axle without running into the brake lines. I have a solid line at the caliper. I may change over to flex lines this fall. If so, it might work out better.

But right now, it's an anchor :-(

John
 
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