Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

[N96337]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

what kind of speeds did you drive with this configuration? Also, I am a bit unclear as to how you hooked the wings together with the tubing and bolts, do you have any photos of this?
thanks.

The tubing between strut fittings was just square tubing about 6" long, with a hole drilled in each end, that slipped in just like the strut on each wing, with the strut bolt on each end of the tube. This holds the 2 wings about 8" apart, both bottoms facing eachother. When you put the square tubing through the spar attach fittings, it holds the wings apart the same way.

I ran normal freeway speeds at the time (65-70) with no problems whatsoever once I got it all adjusted for tiedown tension, and I got in some pretty good wind in Eastern WA. It rode very well... and I've since then moved other aircraft the same way.

I've hauled a few with leading edge down, which is my least favorite way, as I've seen damage from that. If I can't do it like described above, I try to lay them down on the floor of the trailer, and stack them by overlapping the trailing edges, after the fuselage is loaded and ready to go.
JH

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

South Louisana in the summer. Hmmmmmm.
Mosquito repellant?

Well, it isn't much different than here in middle Georgia... I was there last Friday to look at Yellow Duck and it wasn't too bad but I think that was a cool day.

I used to fly out of Patterson all over the south of Louisiana but I was a lot younger and tougher then.

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Since the landing gear is bent anyway, remove the bent side landing gear, leave the good landing gear on it, and transport the fuselage at a 45 degree "roll" angle. This allows you to not have to remove the tail wires, the stabilizer, the elevator, etc etc.

Remove the cowlings and put them in boxes inside the car. This will allow you to use the engine mount/firewall junction as a tiedown for your straps. It also allows you to raise the tail a few feet, so the tail (and fuselage) can be rotated 45 degrees for trailer width, and also allow the wings to be laid down on the floor with LOTS of padding, blankets, etc.

That sounds like a great idea! Glad I tapped into this forum for suggestions.
Thanks!

[Armstrong]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

I bought my first T-craft in PA and drove it back to CA. I rented an enclosed U-haul, a 23' or 24' ft truck.
All I had to do was take off the wings and prop. I was able to leave on the rudder ,elevators and gear/ wheels. It had wood floors and walls, so it made screwing down wood blocks for wheel chocks easy.I put large screw eyes in wood blocks screwed to the floor and used ratchet straps wraped around the gear and tail to keep it from moving( never budged an inch during the whole trip).
I used ratchet straps cushiond by old carpet strips and soft foam to hang the wings on the walls. When I unloaded the plane in CA there had been no movement of the wings or fuse in the 3000 mile trip, and no damage either.
A enclosed truck is nice because your protected from everything(weather, losing parts and theft).
Prices for a truck differ alot from place to place and time of year. I got a diesel too, which saved alot in fuel costs.

[birdlegs]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Did anyone mention to be very careful while removing the lift struts, @ the fusalage attach bracket? Minimize up and down moves for removal,and never move them forward or aft.if they spread you,ve got trouble.

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

At least two other people - MIke

[Tom G]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

You'll need some drifts, a set of sockets and some nails to put through the attach fittings to hold the wings in place while you remove the other attach bolts. That way the wing will be held on with the nails and when everyone is in place you can knock them out and remove the wing. I disassembled my airplane last week with the help of three other people and within 6 hours had the wings off, the engine out and the landing gear removed. Its really not all that difficult and the parts are not that heavy, just clumsy. The best advice I could give you is to have at least 4 people, many hands make light work.

good luck

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Got the plane disassembled and loaded on a day near 100 degrees. We had everything we needed including many hands (eight persons total for removing the wings and about 10 for putting the crippled fuselage on the trailer) The disassembly and loading process had no abnormalities but the time was more extensive than hoped at 16 hours. We finished with flashlights. The Louisiana roads were undulating and we had to stop and adjust things several times. New Orleans is still an absolute mess with huge areas still completely decimated. Once we got back to I-10 near the Mississippi border the roads smoothed out and we cruised at about 70 mph with no additional troubles other than the occasional check of the load. Ok, not too occasional. We wanted to make sure we were not creating junk along the way. We arrived here in Concord, GA at about 11pm and backed the trailer into the hangar and unhooked it and drove off. I haven't been back yet in the daylight to look it over but I need to get it unloaded as I will be using the trailer to go get a tractor in Missouri next week. Thanks again for all the input. I carried the wings with the bottoms facing each other bolted with angle and tubing to each other and the fuselage was on top of that. The struts were lashed to the stake rack and miscellaneous parts were in the plane or in the truck. If I ever recover physically from this adventure and cutting up trees today I will post some photos.

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Ok, not a TCraft, but you guys might still find this interesting.......

My Dad, Brother-In Law and I just drove up to Minneappolis and picked up a Mooney M20A (parts plane). Drove up, stayed overnight and started taking the plane apart and building a jig on the trailer at 8am. 12:30am we finished and started driving home. (Luckily two airport bums were hanging out and lent a hand!!!) Did 55mph at 7gph all the way home. Took 26 hours (back).

Am I nuts? After this trip. YES.

On a side note, my Truck impressed the heck out of me! Also, transporting a Tcraft would be cake to this!

Richard Boyer

[N96337]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

That's quite the rack, Richard!!! Glad ya made it ok... thanks for the story!!
JH

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Here are some photos of Yellow Duck in transit process. I haven't posted photos to this site before so if it screws up that's why.

[crispy critter]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Ok, not a TCraft, but you guys might still find this interesting.......

My Dad, Brother-In Law and I just drove up to Minneappolis and picked up a Mooney M20A (parts plane). Drove up, stayed overnight and started taking the plane apart and building a jig on the trailer at 8am. 12:30am we finished and started driving home. (Luckily two airport bums were hanging out and lent a hand!!!) Did 55mph at 7gph all the way home. Took 26 hours (back).

Am I nuts? After this trip. YES.

On a side note, my Truck impressed the heck out of me! Also, transporting a Tcraft would be cake to this!

Richard Boyer

Richard,which cost more..the rack or the mooney????LOL,kidding

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

second photo attempt. Ok, guess I need to go to computer school since I can't seem to figure this out. Sorry.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Take a look at this thread for some hints & tips on attaching photos.

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

I figured out how to attach the photos but after an interminal time for them to upload on my turtle speed dial up it rejected them because they were too big. What I don't know how to do is reduce the JPEG images down to a size the website will accept. Right now in the "my pictures" file they are all high res photos of about a meg each. Any insight on this would be appreciated. Thanks.