The Trailer! Part 10 - Damn that cradle!

Back last fall, I loaded the trailer with the glider after two years, and I found that after I corrected the cradle, it was just a bit too wide and the wings were resting too close to the sides of it.. Also, I found out the all of that expensive welding to modify the frame for the cradle was totally unnecessary.

Robert showed me how to make cart trucks for the cradle, which lowered the storage profile of the glider in the trailer. This was a design used back in the day, and today, with the all metal cradles.

Here is a sample of the simple caster wheel cradle truck.

....  verses my over worked metal one.

This design might correct the problem of the short nosecone holder that was screwed up when the frame was shortened against my instruction by the welder.

After a bit of rework to the cradle, here is the finished product!

 New caster wheels,









 ......   shortened sides, plenty of room on the side to keep the wings from hitting them.

Let's compare .

........ the old style

........and the new style ...

I know that I will be discarding the original rail, which will need to be refabricated to accommodate the narrow wheel base. But I also found that I needed to get the glider further out of the trailer.

Why is it that I get help after I did the work?

I hope those reading this are learning from my mistakes!  ;-)

This could save you from wasting a lot of time and money..

So!,... what's next... Oh yeah, time to bob the top of the trailer.

The Trailer! Part 9 - Those pesky mid-wing supports!

Like a bad penny, I just cannot get this trailer thing done and done right.... the first time.

With the trailer back home, I was able to work on replacing the mid wing supports.

The original supports were nasty.

The fiberglass had holes drilled in them for no reason.

The carpet padding was cruddy. 

I tried to cleanup the old ones, but the carpet could not be separated from the glass.

So I made a pattern from foam, and made replacements wing supports.

The foam was covered with foil tape, 

waxed, and then glassed up.

After the glass layers were finished, I mounted matching new caster wheel hardware.

I cleaned up the shape, and prepped it for painting and new carpet padding.

After I painted the supports with DCC Red paint, I glued the carpet in and trimmed off the excess.

They are now being used on the wings.

Back to another modification..... the fuselage cradle.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

What's wrong with this picture! My home is looking like a glider repair station!

So, for the last month, the glider is back home, pending a break in the work schedule at the airport so mine can get back on  to be completed.

While the trailer has been sitting here, I decided to continue with the trailer work based on some issues I discovered since the glide has been able to be stored in it again.

The first problem discovered was when we tried loading the glider back in the trailer. The tongue Jockey wheel jack cannot be adjusted to lower the tail of the trailer. I bought a Jockey wheel from the UK and get the old one off. This turned out to be a waste of money with all of the welding and placing and replacing of this part.

Next, After the fairings were finally mated to the plane, I found the the trailer top was about 8 inches higher than I needed to be. Due to the extreme height issue, making wing supports for the top would end up being too long. Screw it, I will just cut the top down to lower the profile.

I know they will be a need to re-weld the steel hoops, more waste, more expense... Jeez!

So, stay tuned for more of my loony tunes!

BTW.

The trailer on the left is a broken PIK-20B project I bought. The trailer is a prototype, but better than the other one. The only down side is that it is really low for the profile of the PIK. The trailer on the right (hidden in the tree) is Roberts PIK-20B that I will be using to make molds for to repair mine

Damn, I'm one sick puppy!