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Easiest way to jack-up a 3

Chris Cooper

Active Member
I have to remove my wheels to tighten the spat support bracket. What?s the easiest way to do this without having to build tie-down point jacks?
 
There was a jacking device made for the tapered rod gears called the RV Hi-Jack that hoisted via a cable around the axle end of the gear.

That may be hard to find as I don't think they are still being made.

One alternative is to remove the top cowl and hoist using the engine lifting loop.
That does put extra weight on the tail wheel, but I've not seen any problems arising.

You should chock and weigh down the opposite wheel while you remove the other wheel.
 
Be careful with the engine hoisting hook. They are engineered for the weight of an outfitted engine by itself and not the weight of an assembled aircraft. That being said, an RV-3 is not as heavy as most Lycoming 4 banger airplanes.

The engine mount attach points at the firewall are designed for the full and much higher load and so my preference is to use a cargo strap wrapped around the engine mount as close to the firewall as practical when hoisting a whole bird with a cherry picker.

Jim
 
Hose clamp

Just put a hose clamp on the rod gear down by the brake caliper with the screw section facing down. A floor jack will lift on the screw portion of the clamp just like a jack point. Easy and cheap.
 
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