Dolly

[Bob Morrow]

Hey Jim.....that is great, making me laugh with that .............I guess I should have been more specific with the title I used and said Sailplane Dolly Information ????

[Bob Morrow]

Had a couple people ask about wheels for the sailplane dolly. Here are a couple links to sources I have used. Wheels are avaiable in a variety of sizes, both smaller and larger that what I have used. I found the 125mm to be pretty good, but I am certain that there are probably many applications where a different wheel size or mix of wheel sizes for the sailplane dolly may be the best.

Here are a couple sources:

http://www.razor-scooters.com/browse.htm

http://www.electricscooterparts.com/wheels.html

Hope this may be of help.

Bob

[cpdude]

Here are a couple of pictures of my modified dolly. I made it a little lower and a lot longer so It will work with my 4.1 meter Horten III. I'm waiting on my wheels.

Brian

[Len]

That looks pretty good Brian

[Kookaburra]

What happens if the tow plane veers off line before the glider is airborne? Won't the dolly want to track straight and topple?

[cpdude]

If the towplane veers enough I guess the dolly could topple. I would think it might be more likely that a glider launched from the ground (without a dolly) would catch a wingtip on the ground.

Brian

[Bob Morrow]

Well, summer is just about here and I should be back in the shop again in the next couple weeks.

I will be making the completed and kit forms of the dollies available again. I also found some larger wheels to try that are 140mm, a bit larger than the 125mm wheels I have been using.

There have been some slight design changes to the dollies also. I have found by using a high quality 3/8" ply that has 7-10 laminations that I don't need to use the doublers. It is very durable in this configuration.

I will be keeping the pricing the same as previously, but in the next month or so I might have to up the pricing some to keep up with the cost of the materials............sorry about that. Shipping in the continental US will still be included in the price..............this would be standard shipping, not overnight or other more expensive options.

Let me know if you are interested and I can get information out and get a kit or a completed dolly made.

Bob

Edited to note pricing: Kits will remain at $95, but the finished dollies will be $175. This includes standard shipping via USPS in the continental US.

[cpdude]

Hey Bob,

I used the 140mm wheels and I like them so far.

Brian

[Cryoflyer]

I have been continuing to search for other wheel options and found that the Razor Scooter wheels are also avaiable, at about $15 per pair:

http://www.razor-scooters.com/_Pair-...RZR324-125.htm

These might also be an option. These are about 4 7/8" diameter instead of the 150mm (5 7/8") or the 180mm (7 1/16") wheels.

I am not sure which would be best, but I am thinking around the 5" diameter (125mm) size should work with the majority of field conditions, giving a large enough wheel to roll through the grass, yet have a narrow enough cross section to reduce the possible resistance as the dolly rolls.

Bob

Edit: I looked through teh site a bit more where I found the Razor wheels and they also have other colors in 125mm......tranparent, and transparent blue.........you can color coordinate your dolly colors and you sailplanes !

Bob, I could not find a 'report' on how well the 180 mm wheels worked. Did the dolly perform any better with these 6" wheels?

Jim

[Bob Morrow]

I have not used wheels larger than 125mm myself, so not sure about the bigger ones yet. I am now making the kits and finished dollies available with either the 125mm or 140mm wheels at this point.

Bob