Seeking Ideas & Plans for Rotor Blade Hoist

[skyking]

I have a 14 Foot AL tilt trailer for my SparrowHawk I to travel but need to fabricate a blade hoist. The height of N8982C is 10 feet to the top of the rotor head and assume I will need a minimum of 12 foot vertical height in order to pick up the assembled blades and install the hub bar into the rotor head. I have a 30' disc using the original Sportcopter Hub Bar and Blades which weigh approximately 100 lbs. I know many members have great ideas on what works best. Thank you in advance for your suggestions and places to look. Semper fi.

petersandrew2011gmail.com

 

[JEFF TIPTON]

https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/rotor-hoist.1122278/

https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/installing-blades.1145958/

https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/trailer-mods.1145285/

These may help some.

 

[skyking]

Thanks, Jeff! I appreciate your assistance.

 

[Butch]

I have a 14 Foot AL tilt trailer for my SparrowHawk I to travel but need to fabricate a blade hoist. The height of N8982C is 10 feet to the top of the rotor head and assume I will need a minimum of 12 foot vertical height in order to pick up the assembled blades and install the hub bar into the rotor head. I have a 30' disc using the original Sportcopter Hub Bar and Blades which weigh approximately 100 lbs. I know many members have great ideas on what works best. Thank you in advance for your suggestions and places to look. Semper fi.

petersandrew2011gmail.com

Have you thought of fabricating a swinging boom, install pulleys on it and then use a winch that could mount to trailer or vehicle with long enough cable. You would thread the cable with no end on it through the pulleys then attach a hook or d ring on it. Your control cable should be long enough to each the boom so that you could lift blades and turn the boom at same time. I fabricated a set up like this for a friend and it works well.

 

[skyking]

Thank you.

 

[Sv.grainne]

I built an aframe that attaches to the side of my trailer. Block and tackle to lift blades and jam cleat to hold the line, then roll the gyro underneath. Can post a picture if it would help.

 

[All_In]

We built this to slide into a pickup pocket and ask Tom our welder to weld a pocket receiver to our trailer.
But then Tom instantly suggested we weld it to a tuck trailer receiver for use on any truck. = Version 2. Christine had suggested the same idea.
It worked like a charm and has a keychain remote control so one person could do a lift.

The hoist cost me $94 there are cheaper ones and hand crank models. I'm lazy.
The pole cost $10. the rest of the parts Tom and I had, including the 25' jumper cables that I hadn't used until now.

 

[All_In]

PS: Version 2 will have a telescoping pole.
Tom had to build this for me in less than 2 days. We needed it by then.
The next one will fit any trailer receiver even a car if needed. I towed the Genesis and Bruce's, Little Wing across the country to CA by car.
Just make a plate the car drives its front tires over and attach the boom support ratcheting straps to the plate.

 

[Kevin_Richey]

Tell more about the telescoping pole...something I've been interested in for some time.
Is it off the shelf or homemade?
How does it work?

 

[All_In]

Tell more about the telescoping pole...something I've been interested in for some time.
Is it off the shelf or homemade?
How does it work?

It will be homemade.
Just a simple larger diameter 7' long pole that allows the current pole to slide inside of it to collapse to seven feet.
We drill several holes 1' apart to allow it to become longer or shorter.
Then buy these 3/8" pins that are in our take-a-part scaffold. (see picture above of orange scaffold) They have clips that hold the pins in place to adjust the height in the same manner as needed for the telescoping pole.

 

[All_In]

PS: it is portable, V2 will mount to any vehicle with a trailer receiver, sets up in minutes, only has one pulley to cause binding, and it is fun to play with.
May use version one but mounted on the trailer receiver for destructive testing by lifting more and more weight until it fails?
It would cost 10 bucks for a new pole.
The hoist IIRC lifts 2500 lbs. Could be a gyro in the field hand test hoist? We have one for the hangar so this one will mostly be for others at fly-ins.
But flying first!
I suspect the board would approve shipping it to the chapters and all gyroplane fly-ins if they need one. I'd vote yes.

 

[Resasi]

Members ingenuity and various solutions are a never ending source of delighted entertainment.

 

[Brian Jackson]

Members ingenuity and various solutions are a never ending source of delighted entertainment.

Indeed we have some clever people on here.

 

[Tyger]

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
– George Patton

 

[skyking]

Thank you everyone! I will post my pics in the near future! Happy Veterans Day to ALL who served. Semper fi.

 

[Dominator Japan]

これは日本からの私の最初のポストマニュアルウィンチや電気ウィンチでローターを持ち上げるヒッチメンバーを使用してホイストです

 

[dunc]

I have a 12 ft open trailer and built simple collapsible crane with a remote controlled hoist. The main mast is about 10 ft tall and drops into a socket at the front corner of the trailer. There are two diagonal braces from the adjacent trailer corners. A simple braced boom juts out far enough to the side to place the gyro below the hoist when rotor lifted from the four sawhorses used to assemble the rotor. Hoist power comes from a small motorcycle battery kept charged from the 7 way trailer plug. Trailer also stores the sawhorses, 20 gallons of fuel, rotor blades, and a couple ladders. This can actually lift the gyro too.

 

[All_In]

After I'm flying the Genesis. The last thing I want/need is an enclosed trailer and I'll add a permanent lift to it.
The requirements are a pop-up top that allows the rotor head to be out in the open when you lay its box cover flat.
Need a side blade rack that allows you to carry the blades ASSEMBLED on the hub-bar supported every five feet of the blade box on the roof rack for transport.
Open the blade box, attach the blade hoist and swing the boom arm to position the blades so I can attach them from the inside of the trailer.
Inside the trailer, there is a swing-out latter with a scaffold to climb up and unlatch the rotor-head, box cover, and swing open the roof center, and put the bolt in the rotor head.
Next just push her out through the now open channel in the roof and she is ready to fly.

For now, I have an open low boy trailer that works and I can use our version 2 hoist with a car or truck with a trailer receiver.

 

[All_In]

これは日本からの私の最初のポストマニュアルウィンチや電気ウィンチでローターを持ち上げるヒッチメンバーを使用してホイストです View attachment 1153590

Click View Attachments in the post above to see the photo.

This is very similar to our new Version 2.

Tom has it or I would post pictures. I will as soon as he comes up to see and test it on the ARGON.

We are creating another trailer receiver pole that needs to be 90 degrees to the horizon and only supports about 10 lbs.
It is for our new off-grid portable Event Wifi Link.
Its main purpose is for streaming videos at Fly-in, and now adding a weather station, mainly used for wind speed and direction.
This is the one I bought the rest is built and waiting for a mounting system.

We are going to use it to video Dave Bacon's flight tests and to know the wind direction and speed... but willing to share and send it to any Chapter's fly-ins on request.
This is the mounting system I've been waiting for =
Just borrow any truck's trailer receiver and clip the AC inverter to the battery and know the winds and start streaming videos of your event.

 

[drjoe]

Hi there. Looking at the Lyft hoist “inquiring mind “created.
Does anyone know how to contact him for more information pictures etc.
I have a similar trailer and truck And would like to copy and paste what he did . Thank you.all