DIY Aircraft Tug Cradle Design Help

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GS_C152

Filing Flight Plan
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Jun 17, 2023
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GS_C152
Hi all,

The flying club I'm a part of is currently looking to buy a new aircraft tug to replace the series of handheld towbars we've been using for the last few years as several of our members are no longer able to use them as easily as they once did.

Having scoured the internet for a tug that works across all of the different aircraft our club owns, we can't justify spending several thousand on one. As I'm quite into DIY, and having taken a look at how they're built, they seem relatively straight forward and I've almost designed one that we can use.

However, as our fleet consists of taildraggers, and conventional nose gear single and twin pistons, a "conventional" pin system doesn't make sense. I've come across a series of tugs that use a sort of "tailcatcher" or cradle system and think that is the way to go. My question, however, is, what is the best way to go about this? I've seen some cradle designs that use a linear actuator, others that use electromagnets and others that use a hydraulic lift of sorts.

I was hoping that someone on here who had built their own cradle tug could tell me about how they did it and whether they think it worked better than the other options for the cradle design.

Thanks!
Gary
 
I’d look at the Best Tug stuff, they might have one that will work for all?
Might give you some ideas?

If they do I’d buy it verse’s building something. Since many members will be using it.
 
Hi Gary,

I'm not based in the US - I'm based in the UK. Since Brexit, the price of powered tugs have skyrocketed, and as I said earlier, we can't justify such huge expenditures; not only is there the physical price of the tug, but also exorbitant shipping and taxes (but hey, we showed the Europeans who was boss :mad:). This goes for buying tugs from Europe or the US. It's because of this huge price that I had elected to build one.

I have heard of Best Tugs, and actually got the pleasure of using one in person when I went to the States a few years ago to see a friend. It was their cradle tug design that gave me the idea for ours.

When I was struggling to work out the design for the cradle initially, I discovered an old thread (from 2013-ish) discussing their building their own tugs and hoped one of them would stumble across this thread and be able to help, given that most of the cradle tugs in the UK cost upwards of £8000 (which is like $10,000 USD)!

Thanks in advance!
Gary
 
Best tug is essentially a reassembled mobility scooter. Since you’re using 12-24V power for that I would vote for the electric linear actuator, keep it simple.
 
Gary, do you have cheap used riding lawn mowers or four wheelers?

DSC02739.JPG
 
These are the best and they are so cool to use. If any of your planes have wheel fairings, get that model and it will work with the non-wheel fairings as well. You will not need adapters for the individual models.
https://acairtechnology.com/
 
Klaus M said:
Gary, do you have cheap used riding lawn mowers or four wheelers?
Click to expand...

That's what I did. However, it takes a while to get the hang of moving it forwards and backwards with a pivot on the hitch and another one on the nosewheel, so I'm not sure that's the best alternative for an assortment of operators. It's easy to create hangar rash if you're not skilled at doing it.

It can be done inexpensively, however.
 
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