Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Does anyone have the dimensions and/or tips for trailering a T-18 down the road? Aircraft is currently assembled. I saw a T-18 disassembled and loaded into a toy hauler many years ago but can't recall the size of the trailer. I don't want to pull the engine unless absolutely necessary but prop and flight controls are fair game.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Depending on how far you plan to haul it , you might consider a U-Haul truck . About 25 feet long ? Roll in the fus . Cushion the wing against a wall and strap it down . Close the door and lock it . BADA BING , BADA BOOM ! . A car trailer might also work ? Flat bed type with ramps . If you plan to RON during this road trip I will use an enclosed truck . .

RB

I had mine moved on a flat bed, and with the outer wing panels off, it was just a little bit too wide to be hauled from Washington state to the east coast.....so we dropped the inner wing panel off too. The rest of the plane was completely assembled.

I bet if you had a big enough flat bed you could just take off the outer wing panels, wench the plane up on the trailer, and then strap it down with the nose/tail turned as side ways as you can get them on the trailer. That way you stay inside DOT highway width laws. I think its 8 feet or so. I cant imagine you would need to pull the engine under many circumstances. I just hired a hotshot to haul this trip for me.

Later, I had it trailered from the east coast down to Louisiana inside an enclosed trailer. The inner and outer wings were still in their crates from the previous move, so it all fit in the trailer just fine. Partain Transport did this second move for me.

When I first bought my Thorp, it had more road miles than air miles!

I had the following typed up then decided check to see how my initial query fared. I see some good info above but am going to post what I had typed up anyway even though it is mostly just personal curiosity at this point....

It's a 6 hour drive. The door width on a U-haul truck is shown as 7'3". The spec sheet on the main website says the horizontal is about 7 feet wide. If my terminology is correct, it gives gear track width but not overall gear width. Is overall gear width about the same as the stab or is the gear narrower (I am guessing narrower if the track is 62 inches then overall might be less than 6 foot)? How wide is the aircraft if I just remove the outer wing panels? Would the outer wing panels fit in the 6.5 foot bed of a 1/2 ton pickup? It doesn't look like I can save space by removing the tail feathers unless I remove the tail landing gear components too but maybe a foot or more for the prop (Sterba) and spinner?


I would prefer an enclosed trailer but I have "free" access to 2 open trailers. One is a tandem axle 16 foot utility trailer. I am not sure of the width but the deck should be close to 7 foot. The other is a triple axle 20'+ flat bed with little tires. The deck on that one is closer to 8 foot because it is over the wheels (I borrowed it a few years back to haul an old jeep and had lots of extra room).
Thanks,
Jeff

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

I believe the legal road width is 102". Many semi trucks have trailers with doors close to this width, think moving van. You may want to to check around for the few hundred bucks it would cost to have it moved in a moving van as a back haul.

Phil

The T-18 width is in the range of 11 1/2' with the outer panels off (think mailbox clipper), while the S-18 is roughly 8 1/2'. The tread on an extended gear model is 73" A long haul with the engine on can result in a cracked motor mount if you don't use a soft ride trailer. Removing a constant speed prop can help here.

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Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

I have moved several Ts with the wing off on a 16' car hauler. Works just fine and is legal. I looked around for enclosed trailers, but you will be hard pressed to get it in one without further disassembly.
Cubes

Thanks for the info. I may have found an alternate way to get the aircraft home. The real issue I was having was finding someone willing to drop me off at a towered airport so I could fly the aircraft home. For some reason no one around here wants to talk to a controller but I found a young ATP building time to get into jets willing to fly me up there in a borrowed Skyhawk if we can get weather and schedules to cooperate in the near future otherwise I am back to hauling it.

For a short 6 hour drive it sure is hard to get there by any other method. 2 day bus ride with no local terminals, trains are even less convenient and commercial air, while more convenient, costs in excess of $1,000 AND takes just as long. I can greatly reduce the airfare by driving 3 hours in the wrong direction.

_________________
Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson