Dolly Helps HimPut Plane In Shop
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When Bob Ellis put up a new shop a few years ago, he decided to convert his old shop into a hangar for his restored 1946 Aeronca Champ airplane. The problem was, the old shop had a 24-ft. wide door and the plane had a 36-ft. wingspan.
"The only way the plane would fit through the door was sideways and landing gear wheels don't turn sideways," says the Dana, Ind., farmer.
So Ellis built a ramp/dolly system out of odds and ends that allows him to roll the plane in through the door with ease.
It consists of a main frame made of two 8-ft. lengths of 3-in. dia. steel pipe. Ramps made from a 6-ft. International truck bumper cut in half, weld to each end, as do four dolly wheels which came off a Deere cultivator. The wheels on one end of the dolly pivot on a pin like a fifth wheel hitch. That's so the airplane can be finessed into place once it's inside the hangar.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Ellis, 460 S. State Road 71, Dana, Ind. 47847 (ph 217 666-3557).
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Dolly Helps HimPut Plane In Shop FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 22-1-19 When Bob Ellis put up a new shop a few years ago, he decided to convert his old shop into a hangar for his restored 1946 Aeronca Champ airplane. The problem was, the old shop had a 24-ft. wide door and the plane had a 36-ft. wingspan.
"The only way the plane would fit through the door was sideways and landing gear wheels don't turn sideways," says the Dana, Ind., farmer.
So Ellis built a ramp/dolly system out of odds and ends that allows him to roll the plane in through the door with ease.
It consists of a main frame made of two 8-ft. lengths of 3-in. dia. steel pipe. Ramps made from a 6-ft. International truck bumper cut in half, weld to each end, as do four dolly wheels which came off a Deere cultivator. The wheels on one end of the dolly pivot on a pin like a fifth wheel hitch. That's so the airplane can be finessed into place once it's inside the hangar.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Ellis, 460 S. State Road 71, Dana, Ind. 47847 (ph 217 666-3557).
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