Heading to the airport

[bob888]

I am about ready to take the contents of my garage, including the RV10, to the airport. This will involve some freeway travel. Right now I'm thinking I'll hire one of those flatbed tow trucks for the fuselage. What about the wings? They are in a cradle, hanging vertically with leading edges down. I'm not comfortable having them driven at freeway speeds on a flatbed the way they are. I would like to hear from any 'voice of experience' on this topic; what works best?

 

[BobTurner]

I rented a flat tilt-bed truck for the move, drove it myself, including 15 miles on the interstate.
1. Measure the flat bed carefully. The rental place only had one wide enough for the -10's wheelbase.
2. I took the wings, in their cradle, on a second trip.
3. Tie down everything, the roads are horrible. I lost one set of wheel chocks along the way.

 

[rleffler]

I did the same as Bob. I've also moved the wings in the back of a pickup truck as well as on a trailer. The common denominator of all the moves, they were in the wing stands and well secured. When you strapped them down, just make sure you don't stress areas that may bend, like the top skin trailing edge.


My wings:

Geoff Comb's wings:

 

[Bill.Peyton]

I used a towing service with a flatbed truck. Very few of these trucks have a bed wide enough for the -10 wheel base. I rented a Uhaul for the rest of the stuff. I screwed the wing stands and benches to the floor and sides of the inside of the truck. Everything was inside for the trip.

 

[Low Pass]

If you can, do the move at sun-up Sunday morning. Take the back roads. And drive slow. The big problem is most trailers or trucks that can handle the plane size-wise will be way under loaded weight-wise. They'll transfer every bit of rough road into your plane. So go slow.

 

[sglynn]

Wing Move

Also when I moved my wings I modified the cradle so that weight rested on the spar on the in board and on a 6 inch PVC tube that I stock way instead the rib holes on the outboard end. I didn't want the leading edge taking the bounces.

 

[YellowJacket RV9]

I had my fuselage moved on a flatbed towtruck. The wings I moved in the back of a rented box truck along with the rest of my garage. They were in their cradle and well supported and had no issues.

Chris