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RV-12 Trailer Size

The trailer seems perfect. Would like more info (especially cost and blueprints) and pictures. LOTS of pictures.
 
Me too!

Nice article but only one picture that gave us a hint of what the trailer looks like. Did the dimensions and other pictures end up on the editing room floor?

I too would have like to at least see a picture or two of the trailer. Specs would be nice too. Hope to see more details later - like an article about the trailer - come on EAA, give us some detail please.
 
I sent an email this morning to the contact address in the article, with a request to post details of his trailer here. He may or may not respond.
 
Reply from David K...

Just received this reply and have responded with instructions for posting photos in this thread.

Hi Robert

At the present time we are away from our main computer which has all of our trailer photos stored on it. We should be back by May, at which time we'll be able to send pictures to your web site. We are not familiar with posting pictures to the web. Could you please tell us how. We have a CD of trailer details.
The first thing people will need to do is select a trailer which has a rear door opening 7 feet tall and 98 inches wide. They will probably have to special order it. We chose a 24 foot Pace America trailer. The trailer will need to be ordered with tie down rings pre placed and extra strengthening in the front to accommodate a winch. Also, they will need to find someone willing to cut the wheel wells and make them removable. This will accommodate for the wide wheel stance of the RV-12. We used welded nut plates to refasten the wheel wells during travel.

David & Jane Kroner
 
I have to say that David sounds like one great guy and so willing to share his knowledge with others. That is the sign of a real gentleman. Im not even building a 12, but I can see one in my future. The idea of trailering it around the country and then flying it where we wanted to has great appeal.

I look forward to seeing the trailer plans.
 
Very Interested

Hope that David will post the details of his trailer. I really want to trailer my 12 after it is finished. Trailer may cost me about one years hanger fees around here in Taxyafornia. I'm willing to pay that for a trailer. David???
 
Back from our trip

We just got back from our trip last night. We will work on getting pictures of our trailer posted in a few days. I need to mow the runway first.
 
Link To Trailer Photos

Here is the link to detailed pictures of my trailer design and loading procedure. I hope this gives you builders some ideas. My wife, Jane and I can load or unload the plane and ready to fly in less than 20 minutes. To date we have driven over 4,000 miles with this system - without a scratch on the plane! Having a portable hangar opens up a world of possibilities.


http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/hemlockfield/library/
 
Some excellent design ideas for sure, thanks for sharing all that. I would think you could sell a dozen or so instantly if you were to produce them as a finished product.
Here is the link to detailed pictures of my trailer design and loading procedure. I hope this gives you builders some ideas. My wife, Jane and I can load or unload the plane and ready to fly in less than 20 minutes. To date we have driven over 4,000 miles with this system - without a scratch on the plane! Having a portable hangar opens up a world of possibilities.


http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/hemlockfield/library/
 
Text To Trailer Photos

Just decided to add these explanitory notes.



BASIC TRAILER REQUIRMENTS

The first thing you will need to do is select a trailer which has a rear door opening, 7 feet tall and 98 inches wide. You will probably have to special order it. We chose a 24 foot Pace America trailer. Your trailer will need to be ordered with tie down rings pre-placed and extra strengthening in the front to accommodate a winch. Also, you will need to find someone willing to cut your wheel wells and make them removable. This will accommodate for the wide wheel stance of the RV-12. We used welded nut plates to refasten the wheel wells during travel.


SUPPORT WHILE TRAVELING

We support our RV-12 fuselage in the following ways: The nose wheel is elevated on a ramp and captured in a slot, keeping the nose wheel from castering and the plane in a nose high attitude. This places more of the weight on the main landing gear and less on the nose gear. The plane is ratcheted down moderately by using a front tire tie down; main wheels are chocked and secured with tire nets. The tail section is secured using the rear tie down and a rubber block fastened to a two by four that is secured to the trailer walls. This allows for a mild for and aft pivoting action dampened by rubber on each end to reduce fuselage longitudinal stress. I do not believe any part should be rigidly fastened. The tail and stabilator are then supported and cushioned by use of a second two by four to create a shelf that holds two cushions fashioned out of pillow back support wedges from a pharmacy. We have noted no damage whatsoever in over 4000 miles of hauling with this method.


THE LOADING PROCEDURE

The plane is positioned near the lowered trailer door. Gust locks are installed on the flapperons and foam protectors are put in place on the stabilator. The rudder is then secured in the cockpit with a short spring loaded curtain rod. A guiding strap is then clipped to the rear tiedown ring.

The wings are then removed and loaded into the trailer. The wings rest on shelves, cushioned with 4" of foam covered with a soft cloth. The left wing shelf has a notch cut out of the foam to allow plenty of room for the stall warning vane. The wings are then attached to the wall. The spars are pinned between two short shelves using two wooden dowels and the wing tips are secured using cushioned PVC pipe fittings and snap rings.

For the fuselage we fashioned a ramp out of a 4 X6 with quarter round on the edges to help guild the nose wheel. At the top of the ramp, boards lined with Teflon cutting boards form a trap to keep the wheel from castoring. We also used a strap winch to help keep the plane tracking straight. As the main wheels get past the trailer door cables a board is then used to spread the door cables, adding additional clearance for the tail section.

The fuselage is carefully guided into the trailer. I control the winch with the string control in one hand and help guide the fuselage with the guide strap in the other. My wife uses a tow bar on the nose wheel to help keep us on a steady course.

Once the fuselage is load we secure it, stow our gear and go.
 
Here is the link to detailed pictures of my trailer design and loading procedure. I hope this gives you builders some ideas. My wife, Jane and I can load or unload the plane and ready to fly in less than 20 minutes. To date we have driven over 4,000 miles with this system - without a scratch on the plane! Having a portable hangar opens up a world of possibilities.


http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/hemlockfield/library/

Thanks David for the well thought out design....a must have for us snow birds
 
Here is the link to detailed pictures of my trailer design and loading procedure. I hope this gives you builders some ideas. My wife, Jane and I can load or unload the plane and ready to fly in less than 20 minutes. To date we have driven over 4,000 miles with this system - without a scratch on the plane! Having a portable hangar opens up a world of possibilities.


http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/hemlockfield/library/

David produced a wonderfully designed and crafted trailer for RV-12. With this accomplishment he brings "experimental" in the trailer world. There is nothing in this trailer outside the skills of an RV-12 builder, thanks to the details provided by David... But after a few years of kit plane building it may be a challenge to dive into the kit trailer building. The hope I have is to convince a few local RV-12 fellows to build and share the trailer which would just complement the hangar. After some practice using it we might feel more comfortable making the big jump (and save a few hundreds a month!).
Great contribution, David, thank you!
 
Paid a commercial tow service to put it on the back of a flatbed tow truck. It cost under 300 plus the 20 tip I gave the guy for taking such extra care. Worth the price and easier than finding a trailer wide enough to accommodate the RV-7 main gear.
 
David Kroner designed and built the ultimate RV-12 travel trailer. He has proved the effectiveness of his design by taking his RV-12 on the road over long distances safely and without damage. There may be, however a different need for an RV-12 trailer that would be simpler to build and operate and which would fulfill the following objectives:

- Use as a mobile hangar, not for long trips with possibility if allowed to be left inside the airport perimeter, close to the tie down area (this is allowed at my airport for glider trailers)
- Allow solo operation with minimum time required to go from storage to airworthy condition and vice-versa.
- May require more time to stow the plane safely for longer trips but unnecessary for use as a hangar.

It is my belief that this kind of trailer could answer the need of people who do not want to pay for (or cannot get) an airport based hangar.

The critical part is "solo operation", which mostly refers to the wings removal/attachment. I have solved this problem for airport hangar based operation with two contraptions I built (I documented this 2 years ago with a couple of poorly made Youtube videos at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9MnJzHHnDM). I used recently these "wing racks with a twist" during my annual to take the wings off and back on without any help. Something similar would need to be designed that would also be used as a stowing device inside the trailer, not an easy thing to do!
If all these design requirements could be solved the great RV-12 feature of easily removable wings would reach it's ultimate benefit.
 
- Use as a mobile hangar, not for long trips with possibility if allowed to be left inside the airport perimeter, close to the tie down area (this is allowed at my airport for glider trailers)
- Allow solo operation with minimum time required to go from storage to airworthy condition and vice-versa.
- May require more time to stow the plane safely for longer trips but unnecessary for use as a hangar.

Sounds like you might be describing an enclosed car trailer (the ones used for taking race cars to the track). A used one might work.
 
RV12 Trailer

I recently purchased a used snowmobile trailer in Wisconsin. Light wt. alum. tilt bed 8x10. Hard to find one in Georgia. Installed HF winch with remote. Designed one man wing removable that can be rolled to and installed on trailer. This is designed to keep plane at home and haul to local airport to fly. Airport said OK. Liked idea and even gave me a pad to install wings . Ron Russ
RV12 Viking
 
FYI - what we did not show in the pictures were that you can use wing racks on the sides of the fuselage to haul the entire plane. We just didn't bother since we only use the trailer occasionally (to paint the plane, for example) and just hauled the wings separately on our storage wing rack. What we liked about this trailer was that it required very few accommodations to accommodate the fuselage and wings if we do need to haul the entire plane.

See photos at
http://s1347.photobucket.com/user/ikovarik1/library/RV 12 Trailer?sort=3&page=1
 
Has anyone found an enclosed trailer with a 98" wide rear opening besides David K? I've asked around at several trailer dealers with no success. I asked a Wells Cargo dealer about a special order and they refused because the said it couldn't be done without compromising the structural integrity of the trailer.
 
Has anyone found an enclosed trailer with a 98" wide rear opening besides David K? I've asked around at several trailer dealers with no success. I asked a Wells Cargo dealer about a special order and they refused because the said it couldn't be done without compromising the structural integrity of the trailer.
They are right there is no 98 inch wide trailer on the market unless they are custom made. However there are a few RV12 owners who are using a 96 inch trailer to tow their 12s with. See the links.
The Shadow Gt made by Pace American:
http://www.paceamerican.com/search?search-keywords=shadow+gt
At this link you can see pictures of the 12 loaded into the trailer, note the rear picture of the foam around the horizontal stab:
http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/hemlockfield/library/?sort=6&page=1

10_zps14aba38d.jpg
 
96" verses 98"

Our trailer is a Pace America Shadow GT and it is sold with a standard rear door opening of 96". We custom ordered ours with a 98" opening. The foam around the horizontal stabilator is for protection only, during loading and unloading. It does not touch the walls.
 
EXACTLY

David, you have exactly what I have envisioned for my 12. Please tell me more about your trailer - ie, how long it is from the front of the tongue to the end of the trailer - how were your dealings with the manufacturer ( did they give you any trouble about building a 98" trailer)- how many wheels (2 or 4) - weight of the trailer and cost of the trailer if you could divulge it. Also, how much towing have you done with it and how did that go. What vehicle do you tow it with?

Additional pictures of the trailer please.

As I said, this appears to be exactly the trailer that I will use. Thanks for posting the picture and source.
 
Tow Vehicle

Follow the links Jet Guy provided above for more pictures of our trailer and also the link for the trailer manufacturer's specifications.
Our tow vehicle is a 2011 Ford F150 with an EcoBoost engine. We have trailered our RV-12 over 4,000 miles with this rig without any problems. It has traveled twice from Ohio to Florida and back plus other stops. No damage whatsoever. The trailer was approximately $10,500 with several structural enhancements. See pictures for details. Feel free to email me at [email protected].
 
There's a picture of a very neat RV-12 trailer (Roger Russell) on today's Vans First Flights page: http://vansaircraft.com/public/first-flights.htm
Folding sides hold the wings and the plane is held tail-low, making for a very efficient and economical design. Great job Roger!

Yes, great job indeed. Roger was kind enough to provide a description of his trailer, as well as a few photos, and permission to post them for the benefit of the RV-12 community.

The trailer I built is to Australian (NSW) standards. The design was built to a maximum weight of 750 kg so as to avoid installing brakes. The trailer was then built of aluminium. The overall width was 2.5m.The main wheels were lower by 250mm than the nose wheel so to lower the tail so the overall height was no more than 2.4m. Towing tail first was done to minimize the tongue weight for my light tow vehicle. I used a trailer winch to pull the plane on to the trailer. I put a rigid tie down at the tail. I secured the rudder and the elevators. The wings were fitted on the side doors which let down and had props as seen in the photo.

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Roger's trailer rocks!

The first time I saw Roger's trailer I didn't really like the fact that the airplane was towed backwards. But, the more I looked at and thought about all the issues with the a/c forward the brilliance of Roger's solution was perfect for me. So Thursday I ordered the material to build my version of the "Roger" (this reference with the utmost respect). So I have been working since Friday afternoon and have the main frame done and tomorrow will start on the diamond plate decking. As an aside, l'm off to Dallas tomorrow for transition training and the trailer will hopefully be done for a first flight soon. I have pictures of the construction process but lack the computer savvy to post them here. Maybe I need to wait and see how it works before letting all y'all see my work. If it does work, I'll give dimensioned drawings and a material list. :)
 
New trailer

Doug - I'd happy to see your version of the trailer whenever you finish it or during construction. Of particular interest to me is how much does the trailer weigh and the total length from the front of the hitch to the rear. Thanks.
 
Roger's trailer rocks!

E D ,if you want you can PM me your phone number and I will text you some pictures. The main frame is 8'x16' from 2" x2" .083 tubing. Backbone is 1" x2" .083 and the deck is .080 aluminum diamond plate. This should weigh about 450#,hope to keep the whole thing under 750#........ Total length will be about 21-22'.
 
Posting Pictures

I have pictures of the construction process but lack the computer savvy to post them here. Maybe I need to wait and see how it works before letting all y'all see my work.

The trick is, your picture has to be posted somewhere else on the internet first; on a blog for example (if you don't have or manage your own web site). Hopefully you will have already shrunk the images to around 600-800 pixels wide (or less) first - a very low-res setting on a modern camera. Then posting the picture(s) here on a VAF forum is a snap. If you want you can email me your photos, and in return I'll send you image link URLs you can use in a VAF post. PM me for my email address.
 
trailer pictures

Thanks guys, I'll see what I can get going in the next day or two. Waiting now to fly to Dallas, do some transition training. I'll get my IT dept on it (the kid/the bride):D.
 
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