Custom Trike Tow Bar

[GaryK]

Didn't see a good fit for standard tow bar designs for the Nose Gear axle on my Yukon so I made custom design to hook over O.D. of axle nut.

Main square tube is 2x2x.125 wall 6061-T6 with 2" ball Receiver.

The Tow Hook is riveted of 2 layers of 1/8" flat stock plus one wall of the square tubing. The center layer is slightly narrow to allow a slot for a pivoting bottom clip for locking on.

[Elite583]

Gary

Thanks for sharing, I've been eyeing the NG fork on our Elite & thinking about how to connect a tow bar.

The Elite is a little different with a smaller through bolt but I could easily put a boss under the head and nut to pick up on like you've done.

BTW, nice mill, I've been on the lookout for something like that.

Dave
Elite 583

[snowyriver]

Another one of those jerks with a mill!

[WWhunter]

LOL!! Yes, and he's probably got a lathe too!!! His shop is spotless also!!
The audacity of some people!! Oh well, I guess being jealous won't do me any good. :)

[GaryK]

Yeah, some builders are proud they built an airplane only with hand tools and not even a drill press. I must be lazy or more demanding of precision. I am glad I have Lathe, Mill , Gas and TIG Welders. I am a rare Mechanical Engineer that likes to learn trade skills. After College instead of buying furniture , I bought a Table Saw, Drill Press and Router. Later Jointers and Planers. When finished with furniture and many house upgrades I moved on to metalworking with a small 6" metal lather, later moved up to 10" Logan with thread cutting and Gear change capability, built a bunch of tools for lathe and mill and also a RF controlled Robot. The airplane has given me an excuse to add sheetmetal tools such as the Shear/Brake. Nice to have the tools and capability when the factory parts don't fit like the Nose Gear pivot being 0.005" larger than the bushing ID or the option to build a cable tension gage instead of the high priced ones.

My goal now is to train my 12year old twin boys to be able to use all my tools along with learning to fly.

They do help but still a struggle to get them off video games. I wish I had their options when I was their age.

[Elite583]

I don't think you're quite as rare as you might think, I don't quite have as many toys - oops - tools as you have for wood or metal but I'm working on it as the need arises. I'm on the hunt for a Bridgeport or something like it to complement my Myford lathe which keeps hitting above its weight. With the quick change box it does metric & imperial threads and It doubles as a small mill for now and has helped re-make some of those parts that don't just fit right.

Hands on is a great way to relax after a day at the office!

Dave