Ugly Trailer

Ok, time to change threads from 'Where are you from'
to 'Ugly trailer.

The trailer does not load over the tongue, but from
the back.

The idea of the trailer is quite sound, I believe.
The wing tips go in first. It has the heavy part
of the fuselage towards the front and the heavy part
of the wings towards the rear, rather than the roots,
thus the trailer is quite well balanced.

It tows extremely easily. I towed it behind my four
cylinder Honda for a few years until I was forced to
get a newer car. Now, I tow it behind a six cylinder
Honda and it tows even more easily.

To improve the design, I would have a professional
craftsman:

1. Build the trailer with brakes.
2. Put a cargo door up front.
3. Have the rigging tweaked.
4. Paint it!

I don't know the weight of the trailer, but it must
be light. Steel tube triangulated frame covered in
aluminum skin attached to a steel angle perimeter frame
and plywood floor.

It's not a Cobra or Komet, but it serves it's purpose
of storing my glider away from the elements and transporting
it whenever the needs arises.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
LS1-d 'W8'

I think that many people underestimate the value of a well designed
trailer. I have owned both a 1-26 (Open Trailer) and an HP16 (Schreder
Trailer). With some modifications to both of these trailers I was/am
able assemble these aircraft almost as fast and as easily as the ASW20,
LS6 and ASW27 that I typically fly with. I almost always disassemble
between each flight.

Here are the things I look for in a trailer.

1. you must be able to remove the fuselage from the trailer by your
self. The Cradle on wheels has proven itself to work well for this.

2. Avoid trailers that Tilt. It is much more convient to have the
trailer solidly attached to a vehical when rigging. A Ramp is best
either with a jack to raise the aircraft out of the dolley or just
designed to be the correct height to extend the gear and slide out of
the Dolly. A well designed back door that tilts down with the ramp on
it can work pretty well also.

3. Wing Root should be to the front of the trailer in most cases. since
you will roll the fuselage out to the back of the ramp, this will mean
when you pull the wing out the heavy part will be very near the
fuselage wing root. This way you should just lift the wing off of the
wing dolly and install it directly into the fuselage.

4. Avoid as much as possible dollies and trailer parts that physically
attach the glider parts. You want be able to just set in or lift out
the wings into the wing dollies.

The easier it is to load and unload you glider, the more likely you
will fly, the more likely you will venture away from you home airport
knowing that if you land out at an easily accessable place (like
another airport) you can load you glider in 15 minutes and be on your
way back home. Or like me take off work early head for the airport and
rig my glider while the other gliders are launching.

Take a look at how the Cobra's and other expensive trailers work, they
do things the way the do for a reason and it doesn't have the as fancy
or expensive to work.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

In article ,
Ray Lovinggood wrote:

Ok, time to change threads from 'Where are you from'
to 'Ugly trailer.



Well, let's make it "wierd" as well as ugly and I'm in.

Ray, I know you have seen my trailer. It's all fiberglass, looks like it
was made to haul marine mammals, or maybe someone left a PIK factory
trailer in the oven too long. It does load over the tongue, and the wing
tips go in first. At least my glider is a Libelle, so the wings are not
too heavy. The trailer itself is heavy, but has good brakes and is very
weatherproof. The worst "feature" is that the only wheels that I could
find to fit it were from late '60's VW vans. I see an axle change in my
future.

Wally,

I've seen your 'white whale' trailer and I must say,
it is quite unique.

I've also seen a completely cylindrical trailer with
an LS3 inside. It is amazing they could fit the odd
shaped disassembled glider in a tube, but they did.

I've also seen a trailer that was skinned with vinyl
siding you might find on a mobile home or a house.

I've seen a trailer that began life as an open trailer
for an HP-11 and then was enclosed with roofing/siding
metal. The HP's Vee tail did not fold, and provisions
were made in the trailer for their existance. From
the rear, the trailer looked somewhat like the head
of Mickey Mouse.

I really don't care how the trailer looks. It's all
how it protects the glider from the elements, from
a crash on the road, how easily it tows, and how easy
it make to rig and de-rig.

But of course, if it looks good, there is nothing wrong
with that!

Ray


At 16:06 19 December 2005, Wallace Berry wrote:
In article ,
Ray Lovinggood wrote:

Ok, time to change threads from 'Where are you from'
to 'Ugly trailer.



Well, let's make it 'wierd' as well as ugly and I'm
in.

Ray, I know you have seen my trailer. It's all fiberglass,
looks like it
was made to haul marine mammals, or maybe someone left
a PIK factory
trailer in the oven too long. It does load over the
tongue, and the wing
tips go in first. At least my glider is a Libelle,
so the wings are not
too heavy. The trailer itself is heavy, but has good
brakes and is very
weatherproof. The worst 'feature' is that the only
wheels that I could
find to fit it were from late '60's VW vans. I see
an axle change in my
future.

Ray Lovinggood wrote:
Wally,

I've seen your 'white whale' trailer and I must say,
it is quite unique.

I've also seen a completely cylindrical trailer with
an LS3 inside. It is amazing they could fit the odd
shaped disassembled glider in a tube, but they did.

I've also seen a trailer that was skinned with vinyl
siding you might find on a mobile home or a house.

I've seen a trailer that began life as an open trailer
for an HP-11 and then was enclosed with roofing/siding
metal. The HP's Vee tail did not fold, and provisions
were made in the trailer for their existance. From
the rear, the trailer looked somewhat like the head
of Mickey Mouse.

I really don't care how the trailer looks. It's all
how it protects the glider from the elements, from
a crash on the road, how easily it tows, and how easy
it make to rig and de-rig.

But of course, if it looks good, there is nothing wrong
with that!

Ray


At 16:06 19 December 2005, Wallace Berry wrote:
In article ,
Ray Lovinggood wrote:

Ok, time to change threads from 'Where are you from'
to 'Ugly trailer.

Well, the elegant version of what you're describing is the Kuhn
trailer. It's made of wood, tapers wider from front to rear. Fuselage
goes in head first, wings tip first. On the road, nothing's better. An
old hand once told me if you ordered Johann's plans & bought materials
according to his parts list, you'd end up with nothing but a great
trailer & sawdust. I'm very fortunate to have a well built one for my
LS-4.



Well, let's make it 'wierd' as well as ugly and I'm
in.

Ray, I know you have seen my trailer. It's all fiberglass,
looks like it
was made to haul marine mammals, or maybe someone left
a PIK factory
trailer in the oven too long. It does load over the
tongue, and the wing
tips go in first. At least my glider is a Libelle,
so the wings are not
too heavy. The trailer itself is heavy, but has good
brakes and is very
weatherproof. The worst 'feature' is that the only
wheels that I could
find to fit it were from late '60's VW vans. I see
an axle change in my
future.

Ray,
You realize I was just jealous, so I hope you didn't take my "insulting
the tapeworm" comment too personally, I don't know if you remember the
elegant piece of engineering and aesthetics that was my trailer for the
K-6 I had a couple of years ago at Harnett county, don't you? The
epitome of trailer design!

Ryan Wubben
Madison, WI

I really don't care how the trailer looks. It's all
how it protects the glider from the elements, from
a crash on the road, how easily it tows, and how easy
it make to rig and de-rig.

But of course, if it looks good, there is nothing wrong
with that!

Ray


I agree absolutely! The latest and greatest 55:1, multispan,
bewingletted, electronics festooned wonderflugel is just a big, white,
plastic turd in the absence of a good trailer. If the trailer tries to
drive the car, or doesn't protect the glider well, or if the glider is
too difficult to rig out of the trailer, then the bird just won't get
flown.

My flaky looking trailer does pretty much everything well - for what is
essentially a tube trailer. However, full clamshell trailers are almost
always superior to tube trailers when it comes to assemby/disassembly of
the ship. I can't think of a single instance where I have found a tube
trailer design to be substantially superior except in ease of
manufacturing. Now, the half clamshell trailers, such as the old Libelle
factory trailers, Eberle, I believe, effectively combined all the worst
features of the tube and clamshell trailers. Leaky, heavy to raise the
clamshell, not very convenient for rigging, and with the one I had, I
was constantly banging my head on the low hanging rim of the trailer. I
suspect the Eberle company's other products consisted of a line of
particularly vicious moustraps.

Well, if nothing else, that "mousetrap line" gave me a good laugh!

Thanks,

bumper
Cobra - full clamshell, LED rear lights, never bitten yet.
"Wallace Berry" wrote in message
...


I really don't care how the trailer looks. It's all
how it protects the glider from the elements, from
a crash on the road, how easily it tows, and how easy
it make to rig and de-rig.

But of course, if it looks good, there is nothing wrong
with that!

Ray


I agree absolutely! The latest and greatest 55:1, multispan,
bewingletted, electronics festooned wonderflugel is just a big, white,
plastic turd in the absence of a good trailer. If the trailer tries to
drive the car, or doesn't protect the glider well, or if the glider is
too difficult to rig out of the trailer, then the bird just won't get
flown.

My flaky looking trailer does pretty much everything well - for what is
essentially a tube trailer. However, full clamshell trailers are almost
always superior to tube trailers when it comes to assemby/disassembly of
the ship. I can't think of a single instance where I have found a tube
trailer design to be substantially superior except in ease of
manufacturing. Now, the half clamshell trailers, such as the old Libelle
factory trailers, Eberle, I believe, effectively combined all the worst
features of the tube and clamshell trailers. Leaky, heavy to raise the
clamshell, not very convenient for rigging, and with the one I had, I
was constantly banging my head on the low hanging rim of the trailer. I
suspect the Eberle company's other products consisted of a line of
particularly vicious moustraps.

Wallace Berry wrote:
Leaky, heavy to raise the
clamshell, not very convenient for rigging, and with the one I had, I
was constantly banging my head on the low hanging rim of the trailer. I
suspect the Eberle company's other products consisted of a line of
particularly vicious moustraps.

I didn't become a victim, but the fellow that bought my Std Cirrus lost
a canopy when the trailer chomped down on the fuselage as it was being
pulled from the trailer.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA