Flatbed Towing

About to have a sailplane shipped Via Uship from the Northeast to the Rockies. I have two options so far One contractor who uses a flatbed trailer and a few bidders who are just going to tow the sailplane behind a truck. A soaring buddy advised against the flatbed due to ride concerns. Seems that this might be a bit unfounded because there would actually be two sets of suspension working (If the glider trailer were secured by its axles and tongue). Ive seen cars on flatbed tow trucks jump around a bit but not on a flatbed trailer. Anyone have comments or experience with this?
Thanks

On Sep 7, 5:59*pm, K wrote:
About to have a sailplane shipped Via Uship from the Northeast to the Rockies. I have two options so far One contractor who uses a flatbed trailer and a few bidders who are just going to tow the sailplane behind a truck. A soaring buddy advised against the flatbed due to ride concerns. Seems that this might be a bit unfounded because there would actually be two sets of suspension working (If the glider trailer were secured by its axles and tongue). Ive seen cars on flatbed tow trucks jump around a bit but not on a flatbed trailer. Anyone have comments or experience with this?
Thanks

How is he going to get the trailer on the flatbed? I would like to see
that.

The suspension on a flatbed truck will likely be much stiffer since it is likely designed to carry a much heavier load than a glider in a trailer.

I would choose the bidder who will tow it behind a truck due to this. The suspension on a good glider trailer is designed to carry the weight of your glider without undue stress to your glider.

I would also like the person towing the trailer to make at least a couple stops along the way and open the trailer to make sure all is well. Don't ask me
how I know this!

How is he going to get the trailer on the flatbed? I would like to see

that.
Ramps. Just like pulling a car onto one of these trailers.

On Sep 7, 3:51*pm, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Sep 7, 5:59*pm, K wrote:

About to have a sailplane shipped Via Uship from the Northeast to the Rockies. I have two options so far One contractor who uses a flatbed trailer and a few bidders who are just going to tow the sailplane behind a truck. A soaring buddy advised against the flatbed due to ride concerns. Seems that this might be a bit unfounded because there would actually be two sets of suspension working (If the glider trailer were secured by its axles and tongue). Ive seen cars on flatbed tow trucks jump around a bit but not on a flatbed trailer. Anyone have comments or experience with this?
Thanks

How is he going to get the trailer on the flatbed? I would like to see
that.

I recenly shipped a glider across the US in its trailer on a flatbed
trailer.
We used a tow truck with a tilt bed to get the glider trailer up off
the gorund then backed the flatbed trailer up to the tow truck and
rolled onto the flatbed trailer.
I found the transport company on Barnstormers.
It worked great.

Dan
WO

On Friday, September 7, 2012 6:56:12 PM UTC-4, K wrote:


How is he going to get the trailer on the flatbed? I would like to see

Ramps. Just like pulling a car onto one of these trailers.

With a car, the wheel is within a few feet of the bumper. With a glider trailer, the wheel is in the middle of the trailer. So you will need a very long and gradual ramp to keep the back of the trailer from hitting the ground before it gets onto the ramp.

A loading dock would work just fine.

At 06:06 08 September 2012, Waveguru wrote:
I had a trailer with a broken back on a motorway' recovery company used a
artic unit to take it to my gliding club 160 miles .glider was ok when
unloaded.