Portland Area Tow Truck Referral

Has anyone used a flatbed tow truck service in the Portland area for moving their plane? Just looking for a possible solution for my move to the airport in the near future.

I rented one from a place that rents construction equipment. Make sure you ckeck it out with a tape measure. They had two nearly identical trucks, but only one had a bed wide enough for a 10's gear, and then just barely. Plan to tie it down well.

You are better off doing it yourself as Bob mentions. Tow trucks tend to not carry wratchet straps. You do not want them chaining the thing down and yanking on it, which is what they will do.
I have straps you may borrow. Most trailer beds are wood, so you can nail down blocks fore and aft of the wheels.

I rented a Uhaul box truck with a lift gate when we transferred my 6 from Hillsboro to Parkside. Unfortuneatley, I do not believe you can get the 10's gear on the lift gate.

CharlieWaffles said:

Has anyone used a flatbed tow truck service in the Portland area for moving their plane? Just looking for a possible solution for my move to the airport in the near future.

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Good luck on finding one! I just went through that fire drill here. Most tow truck operators freaked out as soon as I mentioned an aircraft. I got smarter and just started telling them I have a vehicle that has a 8' wheel base, is about 18' long, and about 5' high. Very few asked for more details.

I don't know what rates are in your area, but here it was $125/hr from their shop until they returned to their shop. That guaranteed an extra hour or so than you needed.

I ended up finding a tool rental place that tossed me the keys to their truck(for a small fee) as long as I used the truck during their off hours.

bob

Try Hillsboro Towing.
I haven't used them for a plane, but did have them move a large pallet from the shipping company to my garage a few months ago. I just explained what I wanted and they made it work. The driver spent a lot of time getting things secured well and positioning it exactly where I wanted it dropped.
Talked to the driver for a long time and he said they move all kinds of crazy things.

JonJay said:

I rented a Uhaul box truck with a lift gate when we transferred my 6 from Hillsboro to Parkside. Unfortuneatley, I do not believe you can get the 10's gear on the lift gate.

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How did you manage to get the gear onto the lift gate? I am considering this for my 7 but i dont think the lift gate will extend out to allow clearance from the crankshaft to where the gear is located :/

Flyguytki said:

How did you manage to get the gear onto the lift gate? I am considering this for my 7 but i dont think the lift gate will extend out to allow clearance from the crankshaft to where the gear is located :/

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The engine was not on, only the mount and gear. Sorry, should have noted that.

I used a local tow company where I live in St. Helens that worked out well. That's probably too far for you though. It was a truck with a tilt flatbed. He simply connected the winch cable to the top of the nose gear where it attaches to engine mount and pulled it right up. Once the back wheels were on the bed he tilted it flat. We strapped it down and drove 10 miles to the airport. The only thing that bothered me was watching the landing gear sway around when he hit the bumps. I asked him to take it really easy on the bumps after about the first few blocks. He did get a lot of weird looks on the way.

I actually have a flatbed car trailer but the wheelbase was too wide to us it. I suppose I could have spent a lot of time and money constructing some way to attach to the flatbed but it was easier to just call the towing company and be done with it in about an hour total for load, travel and unload.

Tilt bed equipment trailer

I have a large dump truck with a pintal hook, and every time that I have moved my planes or friends planes, I just barrow a tilt bed equipment trailer 96" or 102" wide deck (the fee is a couple bottles of Korbel) You can nail or screw chocks in to the wooden deck and all sorts of tie down options are available. Just check your list of friends in the construction business.

Steve

Cool thanks Bruce. I'll give him a call if my contact with a trailer isn't available.

I used a flatbed trailer

I rented a flatbed trailer from they guy south of Sherwood (right hand side of 99, before you get to the YMCA when headed towards Newberg) to move my Christen Eagle a few years back. It was low to the ground and a quickie ramp out of a couple 2x4's allowed me to push it right on and ratchet strap the gear down. Piece of cake, only used the trailer for a couple hours and I think it was around $50. Took backroads to the airport. Good Luck!

Mark - let us know if you need help and we will rally the troops.

Thanks. I should be ready by the end of the month or mid February, so checking out my options ahead of time.