Tow bar for the long haul...

[astjp2]

I towed my airplane back to the airport, check out my home made tow bar....
Its just 2" 1/4 wall square tubing....Tim

[Doc]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

I like this better than a John Boat! Doc

[mhorowit]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Innovative!
What are the considerations for the towbar length?
- MikeH

[astjp2]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Longer than the horizontal is wide! That way you can do sharp turns. Tim

[N96337]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Just make sure your doors are shut real well and secured, or even better yet, removed completely. I saw a guy tow a homebuilt like that one time and at about 20mph, the door came open when he hit a little bump....sure didn't make his day!! Good to see yours headed to the airport, Tim!
John

[astjp2]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Well I have a rudder to cover, finish the repairs on the Lt. wing and some last clean up items then its a test flight and rigging adjustments to get her to fly straigh and level. When I get'r done, I will post some pics. Tim

[mhorowit]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

If you're on the open highway, did you need a permit of sorts? - MIke

[astjp2]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Probably an oversize load sign but I was only going 3 miles and to get a permit was probably 360 miles away, so I risked it....we dont have a local government here, no county/bourough, and no city police or taxes....Tim

[flylo]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

I saw a guy tow a Tcraft this way from Michigan to Georgia. I would have bet money he'd have burned up the wheel bearings,but everything worked fine. He duct taped the doors shut,loaded the wings on a home made rack made out of 2x2s & away he went. I bet he got a lot of stares going down the highway.

[Pearson]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

Tim,

Congratulations on reaching a major milestone. What kind of exhaust system do you have? It looks like the angles on the end of the pipes are facing forward. You didn't put them on the wrong side did you? There was a Taylorcraft at the Columbia Fly-In LAST year that had Luscomb exhaust that were installed on the wrong side. The angles faced forward like yours in the picture.

[astjp2]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

I have Chief mufflers. and they are supposed to point foreward. If you look at ano older 170/172 with the O-300, they also point foreward. It has to do with the power pulse pushing the exhaust out farther from the airframe. Now I just have to get my wings figured out, they keep getting busted up from the wind storms around here. Hopefully about 2-3 weeks to flying. Thanks Tim

[VictorBravo]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

I have Chief mufflers. and they are supposed to point foreward.

It has to do with the power pulse pushing the exhaust out farther from the airframe.

I'm not sure this makes sense. If you want to get the exhaust away from the airframe, you can have a longer pipe, but I can't imagine that 95 mph of ram air opposing the exhaust flow is a good thing. Where did you hear that the exhaust needed to be farther away from the airframe?

[astjp2]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

A&P school, and at an IA refresher. Tim

[VictorBravo]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

OK, point taken on the IA matter.

But their reasoning for saying that probably had more to do with the occupants not breathing exhaust fumes than the engine performing properly.

If you look at the overwhelming majority of certified airplanes, including the T-craft, the exhaust exit faces downward and/or rearward to improve exhaust scavenging. There has to be some reason for that.

Has anyone else here, IA, aero engineer, or rank amateur (like me) seen an airplane where the exhaust intentionally points forward? Terry, what say you?

I'm not arguing against you as a person or as an IA, I'm arguing against the logic behind pointing an exhaust forward.

[N74DV]

Re: Tow bar for the long haul...

we towed ours this way this morning. Only had to drive about 1.5 miles. Used a 5' long 1/4" wall steel tube. No need to remove the tail feathers. plenty of turn radius room.

Had my 14yr old son sit in the plane during the ride to keep the doors from flying open. he liked that.