Having spent a few months with my Chore Warrior wheelbarrow-tug I thought I'd write a brief review for the backcountry world. $1,150 shipped but they may still be doing the promotional sale. I use this for my M5-235C with baby bushweel, empty 1300lbs gross 2500lbs.

Link to product - https://chorewarrior.com/product/chore-warrior-airplane-spotter.

Overall impressions- would buy again. Much easier to get the plane into my inclined hangar. Non conventional approach meets function with a few quirks, but justified in price comparison of other tugs.

Pros- price point, much easier ground movement, simple to use, customer service
Cons- modification needed for heavy loading, slightly awkward to bend over while using, heavy/bulky, pneumatic tires can sideload when turning

Assembly is needed on arrival. It took me about 1.5hrs to get it built after slight confusion on axle and motor orientation. The regular wheelbarrow and the tug share instructions (which I misinterpreted).

It's pretty easy to use but I did have to modify the tailwheel resting plate to take the heavier load of the Maule. The first one started to flex and bend, and the tailwheel started to slip off the platform when pushing forward. Customer service was quick to send me a new one which has had no issue after minor reinforcement. This may have been fixed at the factory by now, they seemed interested in improving the product and getting into the aviation world.

Since then, I've had no issues. The pneumatic tires can sideload if not fully inflated but when properly inflated work fine. Maybe an area for improvement in the future. It really beats muscling a heavy plane around in a hot hangar.

I absolutely love mine since I've had since January this year. I push around a Stinson 108-3 and enjoy the slow speed-when needed torque. I would buy again!

Those things look so home made, it's hard to justify $1200. Literally everything on it - including the lead acid batteries can be bought off the shelf from Amazon and assembled with light tools for 1/3rd the cost and a few hours of your time.

My biggest problem is the amount of space you need behind a wheelbarrow to maneuver. You can't really use it in a conventional T-hangar. Something like this would work much better. A friend of mine made a couple of these out of 8120 extrusions and they work great.

https://www.kitplanes.com/build-an-electric-tug-for-your-airplane/

That review got buzz killed.

I agree with Soy, that's a lot of money for a pretty simple tug. I built mine for about $300 using bits and pieces from the electric scooter world and some square tubes I welded together. My welds aren't pretty, but after globbing on a bunch of metal, it all grounds down smoothly. The net result works just fine and I don't have any trouble getting my Maule into a smallish T hangar.

I owned mine for 9 months, fly once per week and have only charged it twice, once new out of box and one time since. This tug is not home built and it’s at par w Best Tug and much easier to connect IMHO.

twofingers wrote:my M5-235C with baby bushweel, empty 1300lbs gross 2500lbs.

Your O-540 powered Maule really only weighs 1300 lbs?

Womp womp... I'm still pretty happy with it compared to tinker time and trial and error of homebuilt.

Zzz wrote:Your O-540 powered Maule really only weighs 1300 lbs?

1328 to be specific

I’ve been meaning to build one for years, finally broke down and bought a used power tow electric tug. It’s not beautiful or perfect but it works just fine and I can waste my time in other areas. Trying to learn to prioritise where I spend my time.

twofingers wrote:Womp womp... I'm still pretty happy with it compared to tinker time and trial and error of homebuilt.

Zzz wrote:Your O-540 powered Maule really only weighs 1300 lbs?

1328 to be specific

That's a really good empty weight! Low 1400s seems best case for Bearhawk 4-place.