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The Inevitable Happened...

cderk

Well Known Member
Cross-posted on the RV10 Facebook page...

Whelp, i had a bad feeling going into this and my worst fear came true. I got the plane up on its gear on Saturday. Doesn’t fit through the opening of my garage door. My opening is about 94” wide and 77” tall.

Looking for anyone who may have had a similar situation and figured out a way around it. The best suggestion I think I have thus far is using some kind of low profile dolly, mounting the gears and leaving the wheels off.

Has anyone else done this? I’m trying to determine how viable it is before enlisting the help of a bunch of guys to lift this thing back up onto my bench to try again.

Thanks!
Charlie
 
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I assume your problem is garage door height. Is the actual door frame too low, or does the last section of the garage door get in the way? If it is the last section of the door, you may be able to retract it further by pulling the manual release lever and raising the door further.

If not, a set of dollies is your answer.

Oh, and you should resize or delete the pic. It is huge and messes up the page's format. Besides, it doesn't tell us anything about the problem..
 
The opening is too small - has nothing to do with the door itself. You?re right, the door can be pushed up further. I?m off on the height and width by about 2? each dimension

I assume your problem is garage door height. Is the actual door frame too low, or does the last section of the garage door get in the way? If it is the last section of the door, you may be able to retract it further by pulling the manual release lever and raising the door further.

If not, a set of dollies is your answer.

Oh, and you should resize or delete the pic. It is huge and messes up the page's format. Besides, it doesn't tell us anything about the problem..
 
For height: can you remove the wheels?
For width: I assume it's the gear itself that's too wide? Can you use a ratchet strap to pull them in a couple inches?
 
Can't help

Can't help you if we don't know the problem.
Is it the width or the height of the opening or both...

I put my 10 in an enclosed trailer that was both not tall enough and not wide enough to fit the plane. and the trailer was too short, but we got it in.
 
Have you let most of the air out of the tires?

Thinking out the box here. What about removing the tires from the rim, laying down a strip of 3/8" thick rubber conveyor material and rolling the aircraft on these? As stated before, you could ratchet strap in the wheels to narrow the width.

You also could replace the tires on the rim with a solid rubber tire off of a tricycle or other donor vehicle loosely installed. To clarify, find the appropriate sized rubber and remove from the tricycle wheel and install your rim through it. It would carry the load with your rim maybe an inch off of the floor.
 
Just throwing spaghetti at the ceiling...

Cut a couple of discs out of plywood or hardwood & drill the center slightly larger than the axle dia.

Or, sit gear legs on 1/4" plate (or even a length of 2x4), plate/2x4 on a series of small dia dowels or pipe, forming a roller conveyor. Takes 2 or 3 people to move the dowels from back to front as you roll. If it works for multi-ton machine tools, it should work for the plane.

Or, three cheap Harbor Freight 4 wheel furniture dollies, with recessed pockets almost touching the floor for the legs w/o the wheels.

Or, remove one leg & rest that side of the fuselage on a furniture dolly.
 
Can't help you if we don't know the problem.
Is it the width or the height of the opening or both...

I put my 10 in an enclosed trailer that was both not tall enough and not wide enough to fit the plane. and the trailer was too short, but we got it in.

As I mentioned above - the height and the width is off by about 2 inches in each dimension. in otherwords, the opening height is about 2" too short and the opening width is 2" too narrow.
 
Going through at an angle will take care of the width issue, lowering the air pressure may take care of the height or if not, remove wheels and put the axle on a dolly.

The Harbor Freight dolly will roll any direction, so the angle/skew track is easy to do.
 
As I mentioned above - the height and the width is off by about 2 inches in each dimension. in otherwords, the opening height is about 2" too short and the opening width is 2" too narrow.

You're making me want to go remeasure my doors tonight when I get home.
 
Angle it out. Removing the VS/ rudder will shorten the length and of course reduce the hight. only a few bolts and easier fix than the holes you would need to make in your garage opening.
 
Angle it out. Removing the VS/ rudder will shorten the length and of course reduce the hight. only a few bolts and easier fix than the holes you would need to make in your garage opening.

There is no rudder, VS or HS. This is just the fuse.
Width is an issue AND height is an issue.
 
I suspect that you have enough info from prior posts to get it out. If you only need 2" each way:

'Squeezing' the legs together with a come-along will easily solve the width problem; it's been done many times to fit various a/c gear widths into trucks, etc. This will slightly worsen your height problem.

Removing the wheels should get you at least 5" in height reduction. If push comes to shove, literal pushing/shoving will get it out. Go to Walmart, etc, and buy a handful of cutting board sheets; the ones that are not much thicker than paper. Sit the legs on the sheets, and tuck an additional sheet under the forward end of each sheet. With helpers, just 'walk' the fuselage forward, sliding on the sheets, moving the sheets from aft to front as each is freed up.
 
For height: can you remove the wheels?
For width: I assume it's the gear itself that's too wide? Can you use a ratchet strap to pull them in a couple inches?

I doubt that'll work. If you pull the pull the gear legs in, you're going to make the plane taller and OP says its already too high.
 
As I mentioned above - the height and the width is off by about 2 inches in each dimension. in otherwords, the opening height is about 2" too short and the opening width is 2" too narrow.

Is there trim around the door that can be removed? You can usually come up with an extra inch or two by pulling the trim pieces off.
 
Is there trim around the door that can be removed? You can usually come up with an extra inch or two by pulling the trim pieces off.

This is really easy to do ... worst case you may need to repaint some of the trim where you pulled it apart but it wouldn't take much effort (far less than trying to get your plane out sans wheels and tires).
 
This is really easy to do ... worst case you may need to repaint some of the trim where you pulled it apart but it wouldn't take much effort (far less than trying to get your plane out sans wheels and tires).

The trim isnt much - maybe 1/2"... but I agree, its easy to remove.

Maybe I should ask the question a little differently - has anyone every installed the engine PRIOR to installing the landing gear?
 
The trim isnt much - maybe 1/2"... but I agree, its easy to remove.

Maybe I should ask the question a little differently - has anyone every installed the engine PRIOR to installing the landing gear?

Is there fascia under the trim that can also come off?
 
moving it out

The trim isnt much - maybe 1/2"... but I agree, its easy to remove.

Maybe I should ask the question a little differently - has anyone every installed the engine PRIOR to installing the landing gear?

If it was me, I would remove the landing gear put the plane on a dolly and roll it out of the garage, than I would move it to a location that is wider. When you put that engine on the plane it will be very heavy.. I would encourage a call to Vans to ask that question. I suppose using the packing crate and putting a high weight dolly under it would work, you could put another couple under the wings beams. I would be desperate to do that, you can always raise the plane and install gear later, but it sounds like you want to get it out of the garage anyway, so move it before you put the engine on and get the gear installed so you can move forward with the brakes and the order of the plans.
 
If it was me, I would remove the landing gear put the plane on a dolly and roll it out of the garage, than I would move it to a location that is wider. When you put that engine on the plane it will be very heavy.. I would encourage a call to Vans to ask that question. I suppose using the packing crate and putting a high weight dolly under it would work, you could put another couple under the wings beams. I would be desperate to do that, you can always raise the plane and install gear later, but it sounds like you want to get it out of the garage anyway, so move it before you put the engine on and get the gear installed so you can move forward with the brakes and the order of the plans.

I?d rather not move it - its not ready. The minute it gets moved out of my garage, productivity will go down exponentially. I still have my engine to install, all my avionics and more fiberglassing work. Currently looking for garage space to rent in my town or neighboring towns.
 
I?d rather not move it - its not ready. The minute it gets moved out of my garage, productivity will go down exponentially.

Exactly. So, put it on low boy trollies or 2" diameter wheels and take care of everything else. Worry about the wheel pants in the driveway or at the airport.
 
Or put a 4" length of 2x4 bolted to the bottom of the main gear leg that puts the wood about 1" below the leg. The wood is on the ground, and the length is so short that it won't cause any trouble. To move it just put the stump on a dolly. When you want to install the wheel put a lift on the engine mount and lift it up with a block at the tail.
 
Never done any work at all on a -10, but if references to a -7 help at all:

I put my -7 fuselage (taildragger) on the gear, fitted the wheel pants & leg fairings, and then removed the gear & returned it to the low dolly. I did the entire engine installation, including all the cowl fitting work, and all my wiring/systems work, with it sitting on stub legs, sitting leveled on a low dolly. *Much* less climbing up and down on step ladders, walk boards, etc. I suspect that doing the engine work with it on the gear would have doubled my engine install time.

With the motor mount on, it's been a simple matter to pick the fuselage up with either an engine hoist or a hoist mounted to ceiling structure. Lifting with straps at the two firewall top mount point make mine quite stable, and I don't worry about damaging the engine or mount.

Don't know if you can apply any of that to a -10 (might need some weight on the tail when hanging the engine), but if I were building one, I'd certainly try to find a way to do it just for the time saving; never mind the dimensional issues of removal from the work space.

FWIW,

Charlie
 
how about just canting the plane sideways as much as space will allow and then moving it forward at an angle until one wheel is outside the door ?
 
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