Building a Remote Control Airplane Tug... Any ideas?

I was about to start building a Airplane Tug for a buddy of mine. He wants to be able to pull the plane in the hanger with a remote control tug. I have I pretty well though out plan already, but any ideas from all the smart minds on here might real help. The plane is around 1600-1800 lbs, I think. I want it to go really slow, of course.

I'm thinking sensored outrunners running on 6s nano-techs (for safety and QC) because it will be brought on the plane with him. So I'll have to make a safe box for the lipo's, to vent towards, in case of any crazy lipo event. It needs to be light as possible with as much torque as possible.

http://www.tracetowbots.com/
http://itowbot.com/

Fu** that!!!!

I'm going to build on for around 500$ at the most!!!

"TRACE TowBots has announced an introductory price of $7,499.00 for the complete standard iTowBot, ready for operation."

Staton-inc makes motorized wheelbarrows with 4 wheels using gasoline engines. They use the exact same 3 engine choices in their bicycle kits, and the bike kits have an electric option, so the interface should be a drop-in to convert the wheelbarrow frame to electric.
http://www.staton-inc.com/store/catalog/1_Motorized_Wheelbarrow-18-1.html


Just under the $600 wheelbarrow page link is a page for the parts. I'm sure they would sell you a new kit without an engine ($400-$500?)

Find out what the college battle-bot builders are using, they have experience with large reversable RC bots.

I know RC car ESCs have a reverse, but make sure all of the components are compatible before buying any of them. 1/5 scale RC cars/trucks/buggies/truggies are pretty big. Since you don't need speed, they could be geared down to have more torque? (changing the gears on them is common) Or, you could simply use two of the 1/8 scale...they would be pretty much plug-and-play (although, more expensive than the battle-bot or RC-car).

Redneck fix...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3AM88sfDuc&feature=related

Hillhater said:

Redneck fix...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3AM88sfDuc&feature=related

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Lol... Ghetto

I'm thinking sensored outrunners running on 6s nano-techs (for safety and QC) because it will be brought on the plane with him

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for reliability , low speed control and torque, i would go with a brushed motor & controller..lower cost too.
Infact , for a low speed unit , you could probably get away with no controller on a dc brushed motor.

screw the tug motor, put a hub motor in the front wheel of the airplane. then you'll have steering via nose/tail wheel, powered/charged via airplane battery and no remote system hassles.

xlyte 5305 or 5306 on low voltage or maybe an e-scooter hub motor.

plus it works everywhere, not just the home field.

will_newton said:

screw the tug motor, put a hub motor in the front wheel of the airplane. then you'll have steering via nose/tail wheel, powered/charged via airplane battery and no remote system hassles.

xlyte 5305 or 5306 on low voltage or maybe an e-scooter hub motor.

plus it works everywhere, not just the home field.

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I was thinking the same thing, but I rekon there will be more airworthiness hurdles that way. A tug may have no such constraints.

That wouldn't work.... You need to have it remote controlled so you can be outside the plane and watch the wings and tail. It is for when you pulling your plane in and out of your hanger.

Also I'm going to make it light enough to bring with you on the plane, so you could use it where ever you land.

We have an annual tug race at our airfield.

The rules are pretty loose. Last year the air ambulance crew made a good showing with something loosely based on their helicopter towbar. The winner rode a motorised armchair. I entered a hovercraft.

Nothing electric has entered yet, but I'm thinking one of the e-bikes might get too close to the welding gear.

I do have a machine for moving my plane around on the ground, and it does fold up and go in the back of the plane. Lot's of us have these things. You only need a motorised mover if you have a big plane or a slope. Basically, if you can't move a small plane by hand, that's a hint that either it's not going to fly or the pilot needs a new medical exam.

Nick

Tiberius said:

We have an annual tug race at our airfield.

The rules are pretty loose. Last year the air ambulance crew made a good showing with something loosely based on their helicopter towbar. The winner rode a motorised armchair. I entered a hovercraft.

Nothing electric has entered yet, but I'm thinking one of the e-bikes might get too close to the welding gear.

I do have a machine for moving my plane around on the ground, and it does fold up and go in the back of the plane. Lot's of us have these things. You only need a motorised mover if you have a big plane or a slope. Basically, if you can't move a small plane by hand, that's a hint that either it's not going to fly or the pilot needs a new medical exam.

Nick

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Or your rich and lazy and don't want to get sweaty in 100 degree heat. :lol:

HumboldtRc said:

Or your rich and lazy and don't want to get sweaty in 100 degree heat. :lol:

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Or you could get your manservant to do it. After all, he can't be spending all the time polishing.

Seriously though, we do have some peeps using motorised tugs on fairly small planes. It doesn't take much of a ramp into the hangar to make it worthwhile. Of course, what makes a plane really difficult to move is soft ground, but I don't suppose the average tug would be much use on that.

Nick

All joking aside, that redneck trailer E-dolly by using a 1/2" drill as a friction drive is brilliant. It would not be difficult to to make an adapter mount that clamps onto the front landing gear, and is easily removable before takeoff, or for airworthiness inspection. If you feared that you might forget and then take off with it on the nosewheel, you could attach two limit switches and two RF senders, coupled with two LEDs in the cockpit that flash red the entire time the drive is mounted. This would also help you to remember to remove it after parking, to prevent theft.

Why two? if its not important, you don't need any, if its important, you need two independent parts because its aircraft. Raising a retractable nosewheel with the friction-drive on it may not cause a crash, but any damage to the aircraft skin can be expensive to fix well enough to maintain airworthiness, as sheetmetal cracks can spread rapidly from the vibration, and MUST be fixed in a timely manner.

Since the dolly thats shown in the second post is several thousand dollars, its not crazy to spend a couple hundred on a quality 24V/36V cordless drill. The drill doesn't have to be ruined by the adaptation, you could make a friction-drive out of it that can still be used as a cordless drill...drills can also be found with a short snout and a 90-degree head.

Also consider making the roller a separate piece that is belt-driven, and that would open up a wide range of performance and speed options. The roller could be covered with truck brush-on bedliner with very coarse sand mixed in.

I make friction drive rollers with one-way clutch bearings in them for $40. The roller stays in contact with the tire at all times with almost no drag at all, and when the motor is engaged, the moving-frame drive is pulled into the tread deeper to increase traction (designed by EVTodd).

If someone decided they wanted to make a DIY dolly similar to the production unit in the second post. A brushed motor and controller from TNC-scooters are very appropriate due to low miles anticipated. And rather than independently battery-operated, they can be corded to the planes battery via a socket in the aircraft skin under the engine. The controller could also be corded...piece of cake to design.