Cessna Tow Bar Wanted
 

The tow bar for my 73 Cessna 177RG Cardinal has gone missing during maintenance and it is impossible to move her single handed on the grass without one:sad:. Does anyone have a suitable spare or know where I can get one quickly. I don't mind if it is Cessna original or a propriety after market model so long as it does the job.

I am in the Wiltshire/ Berkshire area but happy to collect or pay for shipping

Try

Stapleford Flight Centre - Servicing, Parts And Maintenance - Aircraft Parts And Servicing

always been quick with me when getting parts or

Cessna Towbars/Tugs from Aircraft Spruce

Make one. The Cessna ones are crap.
DO.

Well, not quite... Have you ever seen damaged nosewheel mounting structure, or steering mechanizm on a Cessna, because someone used an indestructable behemouth tow bar? I certainly have, a number of times - both in the fore aft direction, and the steering directions. (Recently a Rockwell 114 - $3500 damage, broken casting - by HAND!)

As the aircraft for the intended use is an RG, I would be extra vigilent to assure that a "crap" towbar is used. You would far rather pay to replace a tow bar than to repair nosewheel damage which resulted from the towbar not braking first when too much load was applied.

Consider this: you're pushing the aircraft backward on the grass, and things are going well. Then, a main wheel hits a bump. The plane pivots around that wheel, and because you were really pushing hard, before you can stop pushing, the plane has jack-knifed the nose wheel/towbar, you've over steered, and the steering stop tab on the nosewheel strut is sheared off.

I own crap Cessna towbars, and will not permit the use of anything else on my plane.

Pilot DAR

I suspect DO may have had a similar failure to his Cessna towbar as I've had, and landed somewhat ignomeously on his back/face whilst heaving on the bloody thing :ouch:

The good news it that they can be repaired and beefed up a bit if need be, just as one does a pre-flight on the a/c it doesn't hurt to check the towbars for cracking and belling occasionally.

Anyway this doesn't help if you haven't got one! Personally I'd build one too but then again I'm engineer enough to know what I'm doing so if you need to ask then nutloose's post looks like the go :ok: