Jacking up a Sonex

[Corby202]

Thankyou Peter, that jig looks neat to.

[Waiex 49]

I was able to jack up my Waiex today using some cinder blocks, 2x4's, and a couple of small floor jacks. It turned out to be fairly easy and straight forward, but I still wish Sonex could design an aircraft with built in jacking points.

[WaiexN143NM]

Hi all,
In researching best way to jack up our waiex, we bought a yellow half round cuff from bogert aviation . They make all kinds of jack products. It goes on top of a bottle jack. They sell a complete kit, but I think I bought a cheap plastic tool box at ace hardware, and a bottle jack from kragen /O'Rielly auto. I just ordered a bogert universal bottle jack pad to have a more stable base. 3 stainless hose clamps u will also need. One around the landing gear leg, so the cradle can't slide up, and 2 around the cuff around gear leg. Works good. The Tracy O ' Brien gear legs/ axles for sonex are very good quality. The nice thing is the axle protrudes inboard so you can use this as a jack point. They have a steel sleeve welded into backing plate that sticks outboard , this is set up for their C-90 brakes. To use for sonex drum you may have to trim down a little or use a shim as a few have against the backing plate. For sonex hyd brakes same, because the outer steel sleeve to hold the axle cannot go thru the red anodized sonex caliper, and you can't open up the caliper axle hole because wall thickness reference internal oil gallies. Tracy also sells stainless backing plates predrilled that mate to the original sonex axles that we had welded on, that mate up to the sonex hyd. brakes, at least to pick up three holes, instead of just the one tab.
WaiexN143NM
Michael Radtke

[gammaxy]

After ~140 hours I started consistently getting shimmy on landings. The axle bolt holes were elongated and I wanted a simple jack that would allow me to easily and safely work on both landing gear. The jacks are sold as a set of two for about $65 on Amazon.



These won't slowly settle over time. For convenience, I left the airplane on them for several days (the titanium legs were partially supported on blocks of 2x4s). They require a lot fewer twists than I expected. I think about 3 rotations get you an inch of lift. I can fit the entire assembly easily in the trunk of my Mazda 3 sedan along with all my usual tools.

With careful positioning, you can even set the toe-in (which I had to do). I was able to run a 2"x2" aluminum angle through both jacks.

Here's my blog post about them:
http://chrismadsen.org/2016/03/fuselage-jack/

[peter anson]

Here's an idea I'm messing around with. It's a quick lift jack intended for doing wheel changes. I usually carry a spare tube in my tool kit on trips but didn't have any way of jacking the wheel up.

It works OK. You just poke it under the (Tracy O'Brien) axle and push the handle down. It weighs less than 1 lb and the handle can be removed so it packs small. I'm not completely happy with it as is. It needs a grip on the handle and the lateral stability is not great so I'll remake it a bit wider, hopefully with a smaller parts count.

Peter
Sonex 894

[avee8r]

That's Neat Peter!
Please share this one when you get it worked out.
If you send it to hints for homebuilders at EAA (cbecker@eaa.org) you'll get a nice hat too!
Happy Landings
John
N50NX

[peter anson]

Here's my refined version of the quick lift jack.

It works fine if the tire is pumped up, but with a completely flat tire it needs a much longer lever - no longer a lightweight tool to toss in the toolkit. It's one of those "almost but not quite" ideas.

Peter

[peter anson]

As the old saying goes - If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Here's my third try at a quick-lift jack.

I've just changed the proportions a bit. It doesn't lift as high but it's much easier to operate.

It can be used to lift the wheel even with a completely flat tyre, although that takes a bit more effort. Mass is just over 0.5 Kg, a little over a pound, so it's light enough to carry in the tool kit. I've thought of a neater way to do it (just like witty come-backs, designs are always better later) so I'll jiggle the design yet again. If anyone's interested I'll make a batch for sale, but I'll also put the drawings on my web site so you can make your own if you like.

Peter
Sonex 894
247 hours

[avee8r]

That looks terrific!
Let me be first in line for one of these.
Happy Landings
John
N50NX

[Waiex 49]

Peter,

Does this jack work with the Sonex gear, or only with the Tracy O'Brien gear?

If it can work with the Sonex gear then I'd love to purchase one from you.

Don Bowen