Straight Skis Transport

[SuberAvid 617]

With the huge performance difference between straight skis and wheel penetration skis (I got to experience an unplanned overnight stuck in rotten snow on wheel skis) I vowed never to use wheel skis again. But the fickle snow situation we have here in Palmer means that more often than not our snow is blown off or melted between my hangar and the lake. Wolf Lake stayes frozen through the winter put I had to come up with a good solution to transport the plane down the taxiway to the other side of the runway, across a street and through the gate to the float plane slips. Fortunately it does not require me to fold the wings. After building two different designs of taxi wheels with a cam over design and a stirrup design; neither worked very well for such a long transport. I looked at my Avid tow bar that was seeing very little use and thought that a tilt trailer was the solution! Using the tow bar for a tongue, I welding a couple of angles on a wide stance axle and drilled through the angles and the forks to create the hinge point, and used 1/2" steel pins for the pivot. This allows the tow bar to be easily disconnected for it's original use or for compact storage of the trailer. I built a bed with 1x2 steel tube frame and bolted 2' x 8' press treated plywood to each side and left the center open, and screwed UHMW plastic to the plywood where the skis contact. I welded a reciever for a 2x3 channel near the hitch and mounted a hand boat winch on a 2' length of channel that plugs into it. I angled the bed frame at the front so the skis stop in contact and then welded a 1x2 tube on the tongue and a extended fork on the front of the bed to be able to pin it down or up.

With the tail wheel on the Avid skis it makes it easy to push the tilted trailer bed under the tips of the skis, hook a strap between each axle with a center loop strap for the boat winch and hand winch the plane up on the trailer. I made the ski stops so that axles are over the trailer axle so it tilts itselt flat when it is in place. Put in the pin and tow it to the lake with the tailwheel on the ground. Unloading is eaven easier; reverse the winch and unpin it, ease it off or just slowly drive out from under it. It even makes it easy to unload it back in the hanger.

Here are a couple of pics in case anone else is in the same situation.

[akflyer 1427]

Thats a pretty darn slick idea!