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alpinelakespilot2000

Well Known Member
My wheel pants are all nicely mated and now I need to install them as well as the leg fairings. I've read through all the old threads I can find re: jacking the plane, but most are for ways with the wing on (mine are not) or some that recommend jacks that grip the leg (which won't work when trying to install the leg fairings). Thus, what would be the best way for me to do so?

I'm assuming that jacking the plane up under the center section would be most appropriate. This will require a saw horse or stand of some sort on top of which I could use a couple bottle-type jacks pushing up on a ~4-ft 2x6 under the center section carry through. Trying to make this all stable, which might be a bit difficult given that everything FWF is on, is what I'm concerned about.

Any suggestions or links to threads that I might have missed?

Thanks.
 
one time I used a...

padded mini sawhorse at the firewall to spread the load, then a floor jack to lift the whole thing. Once I had it high enough I used a padded 2x6 under the spar and my auto jackstands to stabilize everything. The moved the floor jack stuff out of the way.

another time I picked it up with my engine hoist and shoved a sawhorse under it.
 
This works well

RV-12JackSystem100_1456.jpg


This works very well. Auto scissor jack rated at 2000# I believe.

John Bender
 
I used a couple of jacks from Harbor Fright, cost $50 @, and some scrap 3/8" plate stock.

Plane sits on a couple of 2X6 pieces about a foot long, have a hole about a 1/4" deep to socket the jack ram into so it will not slip.

I tie down the tail with a ratchet strap to an anchor in the floor.

HF has the same jacks for $39 right now, IIRC.

P6250009.jpg
 
ideas

I built a nice saw horse type padded support for the tail with sides so no way could it move or slip.
I used a motorcycle jack with a nice 4x4 box I built under the wing spar. Works great very solid, no OH NO moments.

Pic can be emailed if you wish
 
RickWoodall said:
I built a nice saw horse type padded support for the tail with sides so no way could it move or slip.
I used a motorcycle jack with a nice 4x4 box I built under the wing spar. Works great very solid, no OH NO moments.

Pic can be emailed if you wish
Click to expand...

Can you e-mail a picture to me too or post it here?

Thanks
 
Jacking plane

I just recently went thru that with my 9A. I wish I could say I came up with this myself but I stole the idea from Mike Schipper's RV-9A web site. It used to come up on the Van's links pages but now it shifts you to his RV-10 construction site. You can still get to the old site thru goggle- at least I did a couple of times.

Basically, you build a box the same width as the fuse at the main spar. I think mine was about 20 inches in width (fore/aft dimension) and roughly 25 inches tall. You set that on a motorcycle lift with some foam padding (I used that cheap interlocking floor pad material seen in the post above) and jack away. You can use a saw horse under the tail to get the fuse perfectly level. It's rock solid. I would leave it up for days (mains barely touching the ground).
 
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