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Towing an RV6A

N

N29945

Active Member
Problem: Maturing Person towing an RV6A up the hangar ramp.
Condition: I have the front wheel cover removed, so I can attach a toe-bar to the front wheel fork so I can tow plane up ramp with lawn tractor, this works really well but it is ugly.
Question: Are there any options or a system to tow this aircraft with the wheel cover in place except the $5K remote tug that goes under the tire?

N29945
Exempt but donate
RV6 Sold
RV6A
.
 
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Why not fabricate a loop in carbon fibre with a SS insert attached to the front gear. It will look great. No speed penalty.

Good luck
 
Most tricycle gear airplanes with wheel pants that I've seen have holes in the nose gear pant directly overlying the nose gear axle bolts so that a tow bar or tug can be attached. I might be missing something in this post or misunderstanding the question, as this seems the most common and most obvious way to tow a tricycle plane...certainly more so than removing the nose gear pant each time the plane needs to be towed or pushed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQl9ubKROR0

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I’m also a senior who occasionally uses a lawn tractor to pull his RV7A out of the hangar but as you know pushing it back in with the tail end of the mower doesn’t work so well. I use a universal tow bar purchased from Aircraft Spruce several years ago modified to fit my RV nose wheel pins. Put your nose wheel fairing back on.

Solution: put an additional hitch on the “front” of the lawn tractor (welding shop). This approach works well for putting it back in the hangar. Just go slow, small corrections, and line up early.

Good luck.
 
I helped my neighbor with this to tow his RV with his gator that had a hitch ball on the front.
Took his std RV tow bar from spruce. One of these Below. Then took a piece of flat aluminum bar and bolted it to the tow bar and a 1/4" pin to keep it up. The bar is used to keep the tow bar up in the air as a kick stand when loading so you can see it when pulling up to it.
Then welded a simple loop ring to the T handle of the tow bar that would drop right over the ball. Loop is a snug fit when dropping over the ball to as to not come off when towing. When towing, aluminum fat bar pivots on bolt and pins to tow bar to keep it up and in line with tow bar when towing.
Sorry no direct picture of the tow bar as the plane was sold years ago. But you can see it in the attached picture. Id say the only downside to the method is that when the ring is on the ball, there is play in the system. Can be a little herky jerk when towing with a gator like machine that is touchy starting off. With a lawn mower, this would be pretty minimal.
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Kahuna said:
Id say the only downside to the method is that when the ring is on the ball, there is play in the system.
Click to expand...

How did this affect pushing the plane? I have a small incline (no problem for 2 but tuff for whimpy little me) so I'm looking for a pushing solution using my Golf Car

Meanwhile, I just make sure I have a helper... but there are times something like this would be awesome.

Thanks!
 
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Pushing or pulling, works great. My neighbor had an aggressive incline coming to and from his hangar. Steep enough that 3 people could not manually get the plane up the hill without a significant run at it.
Pushing, pulling, up or down hill, same good results with the gator and tow bar.
 
Towing RV6A

Mike I think as I assess my tow needs, the lugs will be the answer, thanks for the tip.
 
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