What about using a truck intertube and a 12volt compressor ?
Or maybe one of those air bags the city slickers use to lift their 4x4 trucks(the ones that stay on the pavement).

Might be light enough and still get-r-done in a pinch.

My plan is to take some of the weight with my little scissor jack, then dig a big hole with my folding shovel. Luckily I havn't had to try it yet.

Savannah-Tom wrote:...............
My final solution was to modify a surplus military folding shovel. I put a longer handle on it and drilled a hole for the support string. With the blade set for 90 degrees, the blade will support the weight with soft ground. I also sharpened one side of the blade to use as an axe, and ground teeth on the other side for sawing. While this tool is definitely a compromise compared to real tools made for the purpose, it will serve in several different emergencies. ...........
tom

All you need to do now is modify the wooden handle to incorporate an over-under 22/20 gauge survival gin & you'll be set!

I opened the little port on the gunnysack bottle-jack thinking it needed refilling, but fluid began spewing out so I figgered it was still full. So I don't know what the f*** is wrong with it. Gonna investigate further one of these days..... (yeah, right).
Years ago I made a set of jackpoints that slide up onto the gear legs of my 170. The gear on my 150/150TD is slimmer, the jack point still fits but then it's inconveniently high so I tried to use 1x3 shims that I wedged in there. But now the jackpoint wants to pivot off the gearleg, so I used my clamp-style jackpoint instead. It works better and is lighter to boot, so that's the way I carry & use now.

Eric

Changeing tyres or wheel to ski on the Maules, in the field, I cut a branch of wood if no 2x is available, remove the front upper strut fairing, place a rag over top end of wood, place it outboard of wing strut attach with bottom end of wood angled outbound. I then tie the wood to strut attach point directly under the front spar, chock the opposite main wheel and tailwheel, then lift on the wood about a third up while dragging the bottom end towards the plane.
This lifts the wing and subsequently the wheel off the ground.
Never had a collapse or wing damage yet.
Jeremy

ccurrie wrote:Just fly with hydrolic wheel skis all year. seriously if you had the traler axle cam idea that went on the ski axles would work great as long as you have ski axles.

Carry enough tools to get the job done Whenever-wherever. I carry a "Apple
Box" - Strong enough to go under the wheel or landing gear.Stand on or use as a seat or whatever. I also carry one of those battery/airpump/light power supply's available at Sams or Costco. A`spare tube would be good. I carry enough tools (11 lbs) to take care of most repairs.

I've been reading "Bent Props and Blow Pots"- a Canadian air mechanic's account of field repairs in remote northern Canada in the 30's. Damn what those guys couldn't do with a log tripod and a chain fall, in any type of conditions. Seems like he mostly writes about skiplanes through lake ice, but there might be some wisdom on tire changing as well. A bit dry, but a fascinating chapter of aviation.

-DP

Splashpilot wrote Flying Kiwi, 12-15 normally unless I load up then 20 because its a bitch to move around otherwise

Thanks for that - for some reason [think the guy I bought it off told me] I've been using 23psi. Mine's a late model 180K with float kit so reasonably heavy I guess.

Ironically...After reading all this thread last night I arrived at the strip [isolated - no one else up there] for a big day out taking some RAF vets to a big function, and found one of the 8.5s completely flat.. s***!!...had a foot pump but of course the weight on the wheel was too much so managed to brace myself under the strut and use my back to l take some of the weight off the wheel [6'6" so was able to do that] and finally got some air in it.



Stayed up all day, six landings with 3 on the hard so all I can think off was the valve must had leaked somehow..

The other day I had to fly the 210 somewhere and on preflight noticed the nose wheel was a little low, so I put air in it, pushed out of the hangar and took off. On landing it was dead flat. The schrader valve core was slightly bent and stuck when I aired it up. Did you just air up that tire before you left?

You know on bicycles we use a CO2 cartridge to refill a flat tire. Quick, easy and light. How hard would it be to rig a paint gun CO2 cartridge to refill a tire?

The co2 cartridge idea is great. Since the pressure in a co2 cartridge is around 900psi, you would have to be careful not to overpressure.

I took all the plastic case crap off a cheapy 12 volt air compressor for my plane. It weighs less than a co2 paint pellet cartridge, and as long as I keep my fingers out of the gears, it works fine.

tom

a64pilot wroteThe other day I had to fly the 210 somewhere and on preflight noticed the nose wheel was a little low, so I put air in it, pushed out of the hangar and took off. On landing it was dead flat. The schrader valve core was slightly bent and stuck when I aired it up. Did you just air up that tire before you left?

yeah - I'd topped it up the night before so I think I could have stuffed the valve up somehow - seemed to be OK once I'd got some air in it again...luckily I didn't have to land it like that...

Below is a link to a very small 12v tire inflator marketed for motorcycles by Slime, the tire sealant company. The unit is hand-sized (see photo) and weighs about 2.75 lbs. I've used one several times on dualsport cycle tires and think it would do fine for most plane tires. The first link is to the Slime site and has a photo of the unit in someone's hand. The second link is to Cyclegear advertising the unit for under $30.

http://www.slime.com/product_111_Power_ ... tor_(40001).html

http://www.cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?item=SLI_40001

Mark

Oh yeah, I also carry a bottle of slime sealant, spare schraeder valves and a couple of the stainless steel valve caps that have rubber gaskets inside. Put a drop of slime in the cap then thread it on the valve stem and it will seal a leaking valve until you get somewhere civilized to change out the schraeder valve. The steel valve stem caps have a schraeder tool on the top. They are about $1 at the auto parts store.