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Bogert tow bar

Ron B.

Well Known Member
Had a serious crack develope on our Bogert RV-10 tow bar. It cracked at the begining of the fork at the attachment weld. We only have 50 hrs on our RV-10. My hangar is smooth concrete as is the apron. There is less than one inch sloop anywhere. We have only once pulled the ac on smooth grass that I know of. My point is I doubt it was abused.
Anyone else have a problem with theirs?
Ron
 
tow bar use

I have found no cracks in mine. However, I have a pretty good incline into my hanger. While trying to push the plane in the forks flexed enough to come off the hardware and tear a 4 inch hole in the wheel pant. I now have a heavy duty tow bar and a golf cart. The bogert will travel with me should i need it off site, but it is not going to see regular use.

Eric Kallio
N518RV
Flying...5 hours left on phase 1
 
Had a serious crack develope on our Bogert RV-10 tow bar. It cracked at the begining of the fork at the attachment weld. We only have 50 hrs on our RV-10. My hangar is smooth concrete as is the apron. There is less than one inch sloop anywhere. We have only once pulled the ac on smooth grass that I know of. My point is I doubt it was abused.
Anyone else have a problem with theirs?
Ron
Ron,
I had the same problem. They replaced the bar at no charge.
 
I have had my Bogert Bar for almost three years. No cracks or other problems. As Eric noted, it is not really meant to be a tow bar. It is really just to steer the nosewheel while you push or pull the airplane from the wings/prop/tail etc.
I always have mine in the luggage compartment, but only use it occasionally away from home. I have the 12 Volt Powertow for moving in and out of my hangar.
 
Eric, sorry to hear that you learned the hard way that nosewheel towbars are not towbars. They are steering bars. You "tow" with your hand on the prop, pushing and pulling, and only turn the wheel with the towbar (and only then when the aircraft is moving).

I've seen at least a dozen Cessnas with scratched or cracked wheelpants due to someone yarding on the towbar as if it were welded to the nosegear. It's just not designed for that kind of load.

In contrast, your prop and crankshaft are designed to pull the entire weight of the aircraft. You can't hurt them by pushing or pulling on them at the root of the propellor blade.
 
I plan on speaking with Bogert if they are at Sun n Fun next week. We did not know the tow bar was not for anything other than steering. As I posted with help a few days ago, we now have a powered tow bar that I modified so we can use it on three different aircraft, with little change over time. It works great this way.
Ron
 
bogie-bar

okay, I have a -9a, and have tied a rope around my bogie-bar, warpped around my waist, and pulled it a mile or so to my tie-down, over grass, paved incline ramp etc. ..so it is capable of towing, push, pull etc. if well seated on the yoke.
(I thought you weren't supposed to push & pull on the prop? :)

the bogie has slipped off the nuts once, and chafed the holes in my pant, but that's not really a fault...just force being applied greater than the clamping pressure.

I feel the bar is made of pretty thin-wall tubing, and could be improved, my nuts have come loose a few times.(hahahahahha)
The little foam grips also come off in warm weather...(so could stand to be replaced with bicycle grips, but the tubing is not typical handlebar diameter)
Last item, would be much easier to stow if the handle stopped at full extension and retraction, as it's near impossible to line up the little holes in poor lighting.

Overall, I'm happy with it for the money....but I'd also like a more skookum version.
 
Tow bar

Eric, sorry to hear that you learned the hard way that nosewheel towbars are not towbars. They are steering bars. You "tow" with your hand on the prop, pushing and pulling, and only turn the wheel with the towbar (and only then when the aircraft is moving).

I actually had help pushing on the prop (me) and a leading edge of a wing (buddy). I was just using it to turn the nosewheel, but even that proved to be too much.
 
Interesting. I will pay closer attention to mine, as I actually attach it to the 4-wheeler and tow the 10 across and down a grass runway for fueling, with no problems, and then up a slight incline to my hangar.

Vic
 
Also use mine as a TOW bar, and push bar.

I did replace the el-cheepo hardware store screws with aircraft hardware, only issue I have seen so far.
 
I hook mine behind the lawn tractor to get fuel too. I never use it to push, but pulling seems to be fine. Might have to build a stronger one for the towing use. Sure would hate to bust up a wheel pant.
 
Tow Pins

I joined the forum because of a phone call that our office received this morning.

I have been building Bogi-bars for 25 years now. Hard to believe that we have been doing it that long. Anyway, along the way we have had a few problems with cracks in the wishbone tube right at the weld. This is caused if the bottom weld extends beyond the other welds. After we discovered what was occasionally happening, we put strict process controls and inspections into place. Less than 1% of our tow bars were effected and we always replaced them at no charge if it did happen. Bogi-bars are lifetime guaranteed as are most Bogert Aviation products.

One of the issues with the RVA Series and RV10 etc is that the pins to which the tow bar attaches to are very short. We solved that with our tow pin kit that provides for an extra half inch of engagement on each side. That pretty much takes care of any attachment issues. If anyone is having issues with one of our products, please contact us. You will find that our people will bend over backward to help you out.
 
Ron,
The Bogert Aviation Tow Bars ( Bogibars) have life time warranties. There is no need to fuss with it. Just call Bogert Aviation and they will fix you up. A very small number of the Bogert Tow bars for any model ever get cracks but a few did because of a welding issue that caused a stress point. It shouldn't happen again. Bogert builds tow bars for more than 30 types of aircraft, including planes as big as a King Air.
 
Welcome to VAF!!!!

I joined the forum

And I am glad you did:D

Good to have another vendor on board, thanks.

I have been building Bogi-bars for 25 years now. Hard to believe that we have been doing it that long.

Bogi-bars are lifetime guaranteed as are most Bogert Aviation products.

If anyone is having issues with one of our products, please contact us. You will find that our people will bend over backward to help you out.

Good info, and again, thanks.

I am quite happy with my BB.
 
Interesting. I will pay closer attention to mine, as I actually attach it to the 4-wheeler and tow the 10 across and down a grass runway for fueling, with no problems, and then up a slight incline to my hangar.

Vic

Thank you for using our Bogibar! I noticed that there have been a few people that have had issues with our tow bar. Over the years we have had a few issues that have come up having to do with the length of the welds and the heat settings. Our failure rate is less than 1% but that is still too high for me. During the last year, we made some changes to our fixtures and added strict controls on production including additional training for our welders. Of course, we back our Bogibars 100% and have always replaced broken tow bars.
Climbing on course,
Richard W. Bogert, Pres. Bogert Aviation
 
As received, the bar for my RV-7A had the
wrong geometry. One phone call was all
it took to have the correct link on its way.
Tom
 
And don't forget....Bogi bars work well for the tailwheel RVs also. Mine has been used at least once a week for the past 5 years to push the plane out of the hangar and to pull it back in. Just watch that tail light. :eek:
 
Big Bogi Bar

I purchased the big bogi and I now pull the RV10 with confidence behind the lawn tractor. It is such great value that it's not worth using the small one for anything but steering. No regrets.
 
Bogert warranty is outstanding!

The Bogert Aviation Tow Bars ( Bogibars) have life time warranties. There is no need to fuss with it. Just call Bogert Aviation and they will fix you up. A very small number of the Bogert Tow bars for any model ever get cracks but a few did because of a welding issue that caused a stress point. It shouldn't happen again. Bogert builds tow bars for more than 30 types of aircraft, including planes as big as a King Air.

Sure enough there was zero fuss when I called and explained I had a crack- 2 pictures is all they asked for and a replacement (same day) was sent with no charge to me. I love when a company honors warranties without making it difficult.
Bogert customer care is outstanding! Kudos to Richard for running a great company!
Pascal
RV-10
 
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