On Monday, January 23, 2017 at 11:19:32 PM UTC-8, 2G wrote:
On Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 7:52:22 PM UTC-8, wrote:
There are a few Avionic (and Cobra and Komet) trailers at my club. Mine was the first. I bought it new in late 2004 to replace the disintegrating wooden trailer my ASW-15 came with. Two years later another club member bought one to replace his old trailer. More recently a LAK-17B-FES and an Apis were purchased by two of our pilots and they came with Avionic trailers. There have been some changes to the details over the years but the basic trailers are very similar. We all rig our gliders from the trailers for every flight so we've got a lot of collective experience with the trailers. Fittings have been very good. The "over center" lifting mechanism for the ramp is an improvement on the double scissors jack that mine has as it's a lot quicker to use. Ours are all fiberglass top models and the nicest thing about them compared to the Cobras and Komets is the amount of room inside. I think they made the mold for the top rather large to be sure the trailer could hold older ships with thicker and/or broader chord wings. It makes it really easy to store all the assorted glider accessories up front. They are very good trailers really and I don't think you can go wrong with one. I've never had a problem with the wing root dollies coming out unintentionally or a problem with protruding hardware on mine or the others.

It's probably worth looking around for a used Cobra or Komet if buying a new trailer isn't an urgent necessity as it was in my case. You would probably have to do some refurbishing and adjusting or replacing of fittings but it might be worth your time and money to do so if you can find a good used trailer.

The lack of a fuse jack makes one man rigging more complicated. I use the jack on my Cobra trailer to fine tune the dihedral angle of the wings to the fuse. Also, the angle needs to be changed somewhat during derigging to unload the main pins, all done with the jack. Without a jack I would be making multiple trips to the wing dolly and, worse, the opposite wing stand. There is no way I would buy such a trailer.

Also the ramp tracks are much less robust than the Cobra, and I see no extension for the tail wheel (believe me, you don't want to carry the tail of a Schleicher motorglider any distance, not even a foot - if my back goes out so does my flying).

Tom

Well, I've assembled my ASW-15 with an Udo Rumpf one man rigger over 400 times out of my 2004 Avionic trailer and have never once used the fuselage ramp double scissors jack to fine tune the fuselage height. I just set the wingstand height correctly, set the rigger height correctly and everything goes smoothly. I haven't ever needed to go to the wingstand to adjust it after the initial setting when I transfer the first wing from the rigger to the stand and have only occasionally (once in every 25 riggings or so) had to adjust the rigger height once after the initial setting. That's why in my case I think the over-center jack would be fine - I only use the ramp jack to get the gear up and down. Scissors and hydraulic jacks are available as an option as are tailwheel ramps if your glider has a heavy tail. I've yet to have any problem with a lack of "robustness" of the ramp rails too. Since buying the trailer new in 2004 I've had to replace the tires and the plastic vent louvers on the front side and tail housing. A few light bulbs have burnt out and I've had to adjust the brakes once. That's the sum total of all the work I've had to do to the trailer to date. The gel-coat still looks pretty good too.

I wouldn't be surprised if the glass top Avionic is considerably heavier than an aluminium top Cobras or the older Komets though. The thick glass top is probably better for the temperate coastal rain forest climate I live in as early or late in the year I have a lot fewer problems with condensation than the guys with aluminium top trailers even though I don't have a powered vent.

Cobra does have fantastic customer service when you need parts. The fuselage ramp jack on our DG-505's trailer failed and when we needed new hitch and surge brake damper parts for our DG-300 trailer (both aluminium top Cobras) they got them to us fast and the price was pretty good too. This also would make it pretty painless to change the fittings on a used Cobra trailer if you have a different glider to the one that it was built for. If you go the used Cobra route be sure to measure the trailer dimensions though. We have a couple of 80's aluminium top Cobras that are only a few serial numbers apart but one has significantly more room inside than the other and the Libelle owner who bought it used to replace his wretched old home built trailer had to be a little creative to fit his ship into it.