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Aircraft Moving Companies

TXFlyGuy

Well Known Member
The quote to truck my plane from Ohio to Texas -
$14,000
About $11.78 / mile.

Does anyone have experience with moving aircraft via trailer-transport?
 
It's not that hard to rent a truck and put the plane in the back of it. Lotsa details I won't go into here (In other words, I don't remember all that we did...)

But when you rent a truck, double check on insurance. Many companies only give you the minimum for each state, and your auto insurance likely won't cover you.

Ed
 
I have moved an RV-6 in a 21' Ryder truck from Kansas to Texas. Plenty of room but not much extra. Really glad they didn't have the 19' we requested!

Gasoline, not diesel. Roughly 8 mpg.

Just be sure to have lots of quilts/blankets/mattress pads, etc.
 
I’m looking into getting a car hauler. Some friends have done that with good results.

Only thing about a car hauler is that they are usually "open", subject to weather and cross winds. And every little part must be well secured.
 
Three days out of my life to go pick it up and bring it back home home. About $600 expended includes two nights lodging. One day to drive there, one day to pack and load, and one day to bring it all home. I wrapped it to protect from road rash. The plane did not budge an inch.
 

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I have moved an RV-6 in a 21' Ryder truck from Kansas to Texas. Plenty of room but not much extra. Really glad they didn't have the 19' we requested!

Beware, When I requested the truck from UHaul I did not realize the length they quoted for their truck included the over cab length. Picked up the truck and had it home before realizing it was not long enough. Had to find another UHaul location that had a longer truck.
 
My goal is to disassemble the plane and load it up on a trailer of some sort. The deck needs to be at least 102" wide.

Then make the 1,200 mile drive back to Texas.

If we can't find a way to do this with a high degree of comfort with the airplane being safe and protected, plan B is to finish the Phase One in Ohio.
 
The quote to truck my plane from Ohio to Texas -
$14,000
About $11.78 / mile.

Does anyone have experience with moving aircraft via trailer-transport?

In 2015 I paid closer to $3000 to have Tony Partain move my mostly-complete RV from Kansas to Oregon. Maybe I just got lucky and got the "empty truck heading west to pick up more QB kits anyway" rate, but $14k seems awfully steep to me.
 
In 2015 I paid closer to $3000 to have Tony Partain move my mostly-complete RV from Kansas to Oregon. Maybe I just got lucky and got the "empty truck heading west to pick up more QB kits anyway" rate, but $14k seems awfully steep to me.

Do you have his contact info?

Found it, thanks!
 
Partain is no longer in business. He sold out to Stewart Transport several years ago.

You may find that they are quite busy and backed up. I understand they are doing a lot of QB kit returns to Van's.
 
Partain is no longer in business. He sold out to Stewart Transport several years ago.

You may find that they are quite busy and backed up. I understand they are doing a lot of QB kit returns to Van's.
+1 For Stewart’s

Just utilized Stewart’s last month to transport the sale of a project WA to FL.
Excellent service and very reasonable rate, and if that isn’t enough, Van’s uses Stewart’s for QB shipping (I’m guessing they use more than one).

And if you end up with Eric as the driver, you score extra points.
Can’t say enough about his care and professionalism.
 
+1 for Stewart.

It as less expensive then renting a truck and doing it myself and so much easier.

But if you need the project on a specific date you may be disappointed. I made arrangements with them to move my project form NJ to FL and it was picked up in less than 3 weeks. Recently a move from Mass to GA took 3 months or more to get the move scheduled.

They do an excellent job, but they are very busy.
 
The aircraft is assembled, with the outboard wing sections pulled off.
Wheelbase is 108", so need a wide deck.
 
Stewart Transport shipped my ‘new’ RV6 from Oregon to Ohio for $2K. No need to crate anything. Wings go in fixtures on the sidewalls of the trailer. A hoist running the length of the trailer picks up the big pieces and sets them outside at the back. There were 4 airplanes - two RV14’s, an RV 10, my RV6, and a dune buggy on the truck when it left the west coast. Highly recommended.

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There is an RV14 and the dune buggy behind my airplane in the pic.
 
+1 for Stewart...

...Recently a move from Mass to GA took 3 months or more to get the move scheduled.

They do an excellent job, but they are very busy.

The MA to GA was my aircraft. I highly recommend Stewart. My driver was Kelly and he was experienced and very conscientious. He's also a great communicator.

To follow up on a few points made in this thread; yes, Stewart is extremely busy. My wait wasn't quite three months. I was ready to ship on April 21st and ultimately shipped on July 2nd. To be fair, Stewart did offer a pick up date of June 4th but I fly for a living and I was on a trip that week.

Stewart was very busy returning kits to Van's in Oregon because of the quick build primer corrosion issues. But my understanding is the bulk of those returns have been completed. Obviously, returning kits to Van's is not something they normally need to fit into their schedule.

Stewart is not inexpensive but $14K is simply ridiculous. To ship my nearly completed, disassembled RV-10 from MA to GA was about 25% of $14K.

Stewart is equipped for this type of shipping. They have two main clients; Factory Five kit cars and Van's. Their bread and butter is delivering kits from these two companies. Outside of those two primary clients, they have experience shipping disassembled GA aircraft. The trailers are equipped with a crane and (most of) the drivers have experience handling this type of load.

I'm not sure how wide the other RV models are but my RV-10 had just more than one inch to spare on either side after removing the wheel pant axle extensions. I don't know if a typical rental truck is as wide as these trailers and I have no idea how one would go about loading a completed fuselage, with the engine hung, into a rental truck without this type of crane system.


Shipping 3.jpg

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Shipping 9.jpg

Shipping 17.jpg

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Shipping 23.jpg
 
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Is Stewart equipped to handle loads that won't fit in a standard trailer and which require over-width permits in every state along the way? That's what's driving the cost on this job. The only workaround is to tilt the fuselage on the roll axis to bring it under the normal 8' width requirement.
 
The quote to truck my plane from Ohio to Texas -
$14,000
About $11.78 / mile.

Does anyone have experience with moving aircraft via trailer-transport?

Is Stewart equipped to handle loads that won't fit in a standard trailer and which require over-width permits in every state along the way? That's what's driving the cost on this job. The only workaround is to tilt the fuselage on the roll axis to bring it under the normal 8' width requirement.


I didn't realize the OP wasn't inquiring about shipping an RV. He simply wrote "my plane."

Feel free to reach out directly to Todd at Stewart Transport but my understating is that all of their rigs are the same as what's pictured above.
 
I didn't realize the OP wasn't inquiring about shipping an RV. He simply wrote "my plane."

The OP doesn't own an RV and I'd suggest to him when posting here on VAF that he say so when soliciting help on a topic so the mods can do as they wish then.

This site is for RV related stuff only. People go to some trouble and take time to post comments and photos thinking they will be helpful for RV owners. So OP, please respect the site intent and rules here on VAF and the members who might reply.

You did the same thing asking about props form your LS powered T51 a while back, confusing people and wasting a lot of time for folks replying to you, thinking you had an RV.
 
dad's rv-10 pics of the crane van brings back memories for me. looks like a ''north american van lines ''van. in the mid 70's n.a.v.l., allied van lines etc. were all into hauling electronics. a copy machine weighed 500 lbs., a computer system took up half a van. right out of college i drove on of these crane vans for 2 years. one thing i could count on...........the solenoids in the crane would always stick, leaving me with a valuable piece of equipment dangling.that was 45 years ago so i suppose they have been improved in 45 years.
the $14000 figure is probably ''exclusive use'' cost . the carrier takes cubic foot of van times the accepted weight per cubic foot [7 lbs/' in my day] times the appropiate rate per hundred weight.
 
The OP doesn't own an RV and I'd suggest to him when posting here on VAF that he say so when soliciting help on a topic so the mods can do as they wish then.

This site is for RV related stuff only. People go to some trouble and take time to post comments and photos thinking they will be helpful for RV owners. So OP, please respect the site intent and rules here on VAF and the members who might reply.

You did the same thing asking about props form your LS powered T51 a while back, confusing people and wasting a lot of time for folks replying to you, thinking you had an RV.


Wow...I am simply overwhelmed by the hospitable "aviator friendliness" of the above post!

1. This is a public forum.
2. My question pertains equally to RV owners.
3. We can all benefit from the dissemination of useful information.

To everyone else, a huge "Thank You". A solution has been found based on the positive input here.

We will go with Stewart. They have been in direct contact with us, and the fee is very reasonable.

Fly Safe!

edit: What makes Mr. RV6 so certain that I don't own an RV? Has he been to my hangar, or my garage lately? Has he contacted me?
 
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