Cozy project transport

[Upali]

First of all, I need to thank the seller and his wonderful friends for putting so much effort into prepping and loading the project.

I bought a cozy project located in NC (north of Charlotte) and have been working on transporting it for the last 1-2 months from Charlotte, NC area to Charleston WV (about 220 miles).  Yesterday I brought the fuselage. Thought I would post info on what I did for someone looking for it.

First, I brought back wings and the canard. Used the uhaul trailer

https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/5x8-Utility-Trailer-Rental/AO/ (not recommended)

 

I made the frame so that wings will stay above the rails. Had a tiny scratch in the finish of one winglet due to pushing the edge of the other wing against it.

The bad:

This is a solid axle basic trailer. It followed every imperfection on the road giving me a heart attack (well! almost!). Also, I had to make a taller structure because of the guard rails.

What I would do differently.

Use the uhaul car trailer (see below). It would compensate for all the problems I had with wings transport. Also make the frame a little sturdier.

 

 

 

Fuselage

I debated for a long time trying to decide whether to turn it 45 degrees and avoid going over the dimensions or tow it flat which makes it a wide load (136 inches). Finally decided to go with wide load.

Paperwork:

Needed to get oversize/wide load permits from 3 states (NC, VA and WV), about $20 each. Entertained the idea of not getting permits but had enough excitement without cops possibly giving me a hard time. However, for the record, I was never stopped. One note is, wide loads are permitted only Monday through Saturday and excludes major holidays in states I traveled. If you haul a wide load, make sure you check local regulations whether you get a permit or not.

If you go through any toll booths, traditionally you use the rightmost gate. Also be prepared to pay much more than for a car with a trailer. We paid 24 plus $5 admin fee since we didn't have cash at hand. Our ezpass transponder didn't work the way it was set up. Went through 3 of them! Ouch!!!

Rented a uhaul car trailer (Also in the hindsight, I would have used this for wings as well).

It has surge brake (what a difference!!) and shock absorbers (also, wow!!!). I hardly felt pulling it behind except for the sluggish acceleration.

https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/Auto-Transport-Rental/AT/

 

Cozy iv main wheel track width was about 1/4" extra wide but we squeezed it in. It wedged nicely between the small side rail.

 

There is a metal bar under the wood plank to which I tied the plank using a ratchet strap. You can see it in black

We wrapped the turtle back using industrial wraps similar to seranwrap sold online at walmart. Start from back to front and overlap each turn. Also tuck the ends under the canopy, specially the front. Doesn't matter what you do, it is hard to keep it intact if there is any opening in the front of the wrapping.

Unloading, I removed all the straps and slid the wooden plank on which the front wheel was resting, along the trailer. I made sure that front wheel is secured to the plank before doing it (didn't want the wheel slipping off!!). Worked out pretty nicely. Needed two people. One person holding to a strap attached to the top of the front gear leg and the second person controlling the wooden plank. In a sloped driveway, plank provided enough resistance and mostly I had to push the cozy to move it.

Well! that's all the let me know if you plan on moving and have any questions.

 

 

 

 

[A Bruce Hughes]

I moved a Longeze from California to Maui in a box that I built with one other guy.   If you need to do that contact me; the box was broken during loading because the shipper used strong flexible straps to hold the box down.   So some parts fell on other parts.   The insurance payment just about covered the charge for shipping so the shipping was almost free.   HOWEVER I had a damaged Longeze.   The right strake had about 2" x 2" smashed end so I learned how really sturdy the strakes are.  After cutting back to obviously undamaged strake, I rebuilt.   The entire part that I built has NO stress when in flight IMHO so it was just practice.   

Some years later I got into a divorce (building an airplane was a large part of the reason) so I met another woman and SHIPPED IT BACK to Tacoma.   By then the Longeze was ready to fly but I had no test pilot so it never flew in HI.    Having had a broken box problem, I shipped it in an ordinary container (but a high one: there are different sizes).    I have a lot of useful information to tell on that shipping if you have to go that way; just contact me.

BTW   I had a friend who was stationed in Alaska, then moved to HI.   I think he used a commercial service to bring his Cozy.   A few years later he retired from the Coast Guard and planned to fly it back.   He was afraid of running it low on oil so he set up a system to add oil.   He did not use the add-oil system as one cylinder lost a valve through the head!   He was 100 miles east/northeast of Maui in the MIDDLE of the NIGHT so his landing was rough enough to tear a wing off.   So the Coast Guard guys that he trained picked him up and took him to Maui.   He was OK but he lost his Cozy.   Beware of flying over water at night.   I had flown that Cozy partway from Maui to Kauai but not at night.

 

[jdubner]

3 hours ago, Upali said:

... Thought I would post info on what I did for someone looking for it. ...

Interesting and informative; thanks for posting.

And good luck with your new project.

[Marc Zeitlin]

8 hours ago, Upali said:

First of all, I need to thank the seller and his wonderful friends for putting so much effort into prepping and loading the project.

I bought a cozy project located in NC (north of Charlotte) and have been working on transporting it for the last 1-2 months from Charlotte, NC area to Charleston WV (about 220 miles).

Just out of curiosity, who's project did you purchase?

[Upali]

18 minutes ago, Marc Zeitlin said:

Just out of curiosity, who's project did you purchase?

It was Kenneth Larson's project. He advertised it on cozy email list a little while ago.

 

[Upali]

5 hours ago, jdubner said:

And good luck with your new project.

Thanks!