tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
this is going to be cross posted all over the place. My trailer needs attention and I have to decide the best way to approach the problem. After posting this on rec.aviation.soaring i got an offer from a local to buy the trailer to be used for storage only. that could free up some more cash to build/buy a new trailer for my glider. not sure that it would free up enough though. Heres my dillemma:
The trailer for the Cherokee has always been so-so. Its an old
Gehrlein (sp?) that was probably purchased new when the glider was
built in 1965. Its the EXACT same type of trailer that Glub
Djerjinksi used for his Open Cirrus in the Sunship Games. its heavy,
really long, and pretty old. I had the door hinge rebuilt a couple
years ago which caused a smoldering fire in the plywood floorboards.
they werent burnt completely but the inside of them is gone. then the
hitch got jackknifed by someone somehow. The hitch has always been
kind of bogus anyway. a few broken welds and some cracks have never
given me a lot of faith in it.
I loaned it to my college flying club this last weekend to transport
some tables and chairs for their fly in. the hitch had a catastrophic
failure, but held together long enough for them to limp to the
airport. No worries, they didnt destroy my trailer, the glider wasn't
in the trailer when the failure occurred, and now I am forced to
address an issue that i had putting off for too long, definitely a
good thing.
So now the question is what to do? Ive got some money coming in my
tax return and will have a small budget, 1000-1500ish to spend on
getting my car and trailer ready to go for the XC season. Im sorta
hesitant to dump a lot of money into this old trailer, considering
that the rest of the frame is fairly well rusted. I have pretty real
concerns that if I start to fix one thing it will lead to another and
pretty soon I will have essentially done a complete rebuild.
My car is a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero with the V6. Not the worlds best
tow vehicle but it has lugged this monster trailer around the state of
Iowa for the last few years with few complaints.
I would love to see if the Cherokee would fit in a Cobra trailer. I
think it would. That would be riding in style! I can imagine a lot
of ways to rebuild or build from scratch a much better trailer.
Current trailer is too narrow so it also has to be too long, as the
fuselage and wings have to be staggered to fit. tongue weight is not
enough so the thing bounces around a lot during transport. Id love to
have some time with some fabrication tools to develop really good
mounting in there. The list goes on and on.
So the question to POA is: What are my best options? Anyone have any
good ideas on how to build a glider trailer for cheap? I could
probably make a 4 or 5 foot wide and 22 foot long trailer work. I
understand steel prices are pretty high nowdays. Is anyone building
their own trailers anymore or just buying factory built? Thanks!
The trailer for the Cherokee has always been so-so. Its an old
Gehrlein (sp?) that was probably purchased new when the glider was
built in 1965. Its the EXACT same type of trailer that Glub
Djerjinksi used for his Open Cirrus in the Sunship Games. its heavy,
really long, and pretty old. I had the door hinge rebuilt a couple
years ago which caused a smoldering fire in the plywood floorboards.
they werent burnt completely but the inside of them is gone. then the
hitch got jackknifed by someone somehow. The hitch has always been
kind of bogus anyway. a few broken welds and some cracks have never
given me a lot of faith in it.
I loaned it to my college flying club this last weekend to transport
some tables and chairs for their fly in. the hitch had a catastrophic
failure, but held together long enough for them to limp to the
airport. No worries, they didnt destroy my trailer, the glider wasn't
in the trailer when the failure occurred, and now I am forced to
address an issue that i had putting off for too long, definitely a
good thing.
So now the question is what to do? Ive got some money coming in my
tax return and will have a small budget, 1000-1500ish to spend on
getting my car and trailer ready to go for the XC season. Im sorta
hesitant to dump a lot of money into this old trailer, considering
that the rest of the frame is fairly well rusted. I have pretty real
concerns that if I start to fix one thing it will lead to another and
pretty soon I will have essentially done a complete rebuild.
My car is a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero with the V6. Not the worlds best
tow vehicle but it has lugged this monster trailer around the state of
Iowa for the last few years with few complaints.
I would love to see if the Cherokee would fit in a Cobra trailer. I
think it would. That would be riding in style! I can imagine a lot
of ways to rebuild or build from scratch a much better trailer.
Current trailer is too narrow so it also has to be too long, as the
fuselage and wings have to be staggered to fit. tongue weight is not
enough so the thing bounces around a lot during transport. Id love to
have some time with some fabrication tools to develop really good
mounting in there. The list goes on and on.
So the question to POA is: What are my best options? Anyone have any
good ideas on how to build a glider trailer for cheap? I could
probably make a 4 or 5 foot wide and 22 foot long trailer work. I
understand steel prices are pretty high nowdays. Is anyone building
their own trailers anymore or just buying factory built? Thanks!
