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Tug fabrication tips/bracket ideas?

RickWoodall

Well Known Member
I have been reading through various threads on rolling your own Tug fab.

Plan on using a large snowblower to push plane up a ramp into my hangar. I have come across some good ideas, reading on here and google searching.

Just looking for any more current experience or tips. The blower is plenty powerful, easy to turn, steer and already on site.

Ideally I will fab up a bracket that would mount on front of blower and either hold the front section of a bogey bar (slide in and pin), or make up a new one with a little more meat. Looking for tips on height, angles, and brewing your own secure clamp to nose wheel so that something doesnt go wrong or not turn nicely or snowblower is too close to prop etc.

Any tips/war stories or experience/comments?

Already have the machine, just looking for a little help pushing it back in when tired or ramp is slick as the push up hill is a bit much some days. cheers
 
Thanks

Appreciate that Dave.

Found some beauties on line and some uglies. Some good reports, some disasters. Figured Vaf crews would have this dialed in. Cheers R
 
I am sending you a PM with a drawing.
Dave

This is a winter project for me as well. Already have the donor snowblower. Would you mind sharing your drawing with me as well?

The 10 is much harder to push in than the 6 was.

Thanks,

Larry
 
Rick - Just a quick comment... Be careful of the relative "arms" of the snowblower handles versus the linkage going forward to the aircraft. You as the fellow behind the blower want to be the dog that wags the tail, not the other way around. Give much consideration to the effect of one main wheel coming up against a stationary object and the torque which may result from that one wheel being blocked.

I'm not saying building your own tug is a bad idea... in fact I'd say exactly the opposite. BUT you do want to ensure you have an adequate margin of control. This also means one should ensure the snow blower handles are well fastened to its frame as the operator may end up applying a fairly significant amount of force to those handles.

Once you have a working tug you'll wonder what on earth you ever did without one. They make life so much easier.
 
Ideas

Thanks. I know a snowblower isnt ideal, but when i have an 11hp blower sitting with lots of weight, good traction.. seems like its worth a try.

In looking on line seems the angle of the linkage and the way it pivots/turns is the critical stuff to think through properly.

The way my hangar is, i expect to line plane up for the push in so its straight before i hook up the power push. So, i wont be spinning her around or doing many turns, just straight back up a bit of a slope with just minor adjustments to stay on lines.

Keep tips coming. Would be a bummer making version 1.0 and finding out someone could have moved me to version 4.0 before i cut steel. Cheers.
 
I was just about to make one of these for my RV10, but have been struggling with the design. Would appreciate a copy of the print if you are willing to share.
 
One last comment... If you find the old dinosaur-fueled engine gives you trouble, these machines are fairly easy to convert to electric operation. Use a 24V motor and speed controller plus a pair of the biggest batteries you can afford (or have handy) and you'll have all the power and weight you need.

(My tug is 24V electric - I really like having it ready to go with just the flick of a switch - it makes me feel VERY spoiled.)
 
I provided a couple people with a drawing I made to fabricate the arms and connecting tubing. If anyone wants the pdf, please pm me with your email address and I’ll send it to you. I was very happy with the converted snowblower tug on my RV-10. Traction is good in snow but chains or studs better on ice. Hook up is quick and EZ. Turning is not an issue by lifting and turning the unit. The fulcrum point at the pins makes it very manageable. All for under $500 if you buy the blower on sale.
 
Without pics of your tug, we dont believe it exists.. :)

I'll admit to not fabricating mine but rather to having customized it to my application.

It's an older AeroTow unit, substantially oversized for the application. This thing is an absolute tank and I couldn't recommend it highly enough to other nose-dragger owners.

Getting the weight of the nose wheel up on the tug makes all the difference in the world, especially in snow and ice. Sprinkle a bit of grit on glare ice and this tug easily pushes the airplane uphill, over a big hump and into the hangar.

https://ibb.co/VxLWrPF
https://ibb.co/bRx0qfd

(Let's hope my linking of photos works...)
 
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