Cirrus Aircraft Tug - The tug lifts the nosewheel off the ground via a clever system in which a U-shaped tow bar is attached to the nosewheel (with or without wheel fairing). A strap is attached to the tow bar and a winch on the handle of the tug is cranked to pull the nosewheel onto a platform on the front of the tug.
Another crank raises the platform above the ground. For more than five decades, active and dedicated aircraft owners and pilots have turned to AVIATION CONSUMER to answer their most important buying questions. This website contains many older reviews.
Cirrus Aircraft Tug
Unless otherwise noted, these reviews carry product pricing from the time of the original review. We've used tugs powered by gasoline engines as well as corded and cordless electric tugs. As battery technology has steadily improved, we've found ourselves leaning towards battery-powered electric tugs for their convenience and a dislike for dealing with long electrical cords.
Cirrus Sr Sr Aircraft Tug
We've also wished for an electric tug when we couldn't start a gasoline tug on a cold day. Toll Free: 877-477-7823 Customer Service: 800-861-3192 Fax: 800-329-3020 Most tug manufacturers will sell you tire chains for winter operation.
They sound like a good idea; however, if your hangar floor is relatively smooth concrete, tire chains can turn your tug into a pig on ice—not to mention tearing up the pavement. We lean towards the inexpensive method of handling ice recommended to us by Aero-Tow's Terry Railing: Keep a bag of kitty litter in the hangar and sprinkle it on the ice and snow for instant traction.
The Cirrus aircraft nose tug shown here provides the perfect solution to your need for an easy method of moving your airplane in and out of its hangar. This Cirrus SR20, SR22 plane tug is built specifically for handling your plane model, and when you've used it once, you'll be convinced of its value.
This is a drill-powered Cirrus tug that uses a durable Dewalt 60-volt power system, efficiently transferring power by way of high strength steel alloy gears to the drive wheels. This Cirrus tug offers a rheostat trigger speed control.
Battery Life
The joystick has forward, back, right and left positions, which move the tug in any of those directions. There's an on/off switch, plus a three-position speed switch for slow, medium and fast. There's also a release button, for releasing the airplane out of the cradle.
There's no bending down to strap/unstrap the nosewheel (or tailwheel) from the cradle. It auto-loads and auto-releases. If the tug has optional LED lighting, there's a switch for turning them on or off. The lights (there are two of them mounted to the front of the tug) aren't so much for use as headlights, but instead as a way to spot the tug in the dark.
Like the rest of the tug, the lighting is high quality. This factory-installed option is $250. The $3000 Lil Sherman puts out about three HP and has adapters that allow it to tow most general aviation airplanes up to 6000 pounds.
It is described as allowing one person to easily move a single or twin. To maximize traction, its frame swivels to keep both driving wheels on the ground during turns. Not surprisingly, gasoline-powered tug makers are very sensitive to the need for reliability and ease of starting in cold weather and they have worked like mad to ensure cold starts—but they candidly admitted that they can't make them as reliable in the cold
Ac Air’s Remote-Control Tugs
as an electric tug. On a dry, level surface the nosewheel drive works a little better because of the mechanical advantage. If the ramp is contaminated by rain, snow or ice, performance drops off significantly. Both drive systems have some difficulty with sloping ramps and hangar door lips.
We saw prices ranging from $1400 to $1700. There are a number of options including spare batteries and traction tape for smooth hangar floors. In business for over 50 years and currently offering battery-powered and corded electric towbars, Robotow (www.robotow.com).
units are designed for nosewheel airplanes without wheel pants. All models use a knurled wheel that presses against and drives the nosewheel—it is advertised as non-slip, something important when the tire is wet. The ThunderVolt is PowerTow's first electric tug in its single-wheel line.
For $2399, it includes a 12-volt DC motor, battery and battery charger/minder. As with the 40 EZ and Key EZ, it is advertised for airplanes up to 6000 pounds. The $6750 TrackTech T1.5 can tug airplanes up to 10,000 pounds and with a tire diameter up to 21 inches.
Priceless Aviation
Example applications include the Cessna Mustang light jet, Cessna Caravan turboprop single and Socata TBM series. The T1.5 has a Lazy Susan platform. This enables you to rotate the tug underneath the tire—a safeguard against exceeding the steering limits of the nosewheel.
The tire rolls up onto the platform and the weight locks it in place. It won't move until you press the release button on the controller, enabling the platform to rotate 360 degrees underneath the wheel.
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With an 8.75-HP engine, the $2799 model 65 EZ is designed to move airplanes up to 7000 pounds. It has a larger frame and longer arms than its smaller siblings and casters to ease movement are standard.
In speaking with PowerTow's Gilbert May, he pointed out that he recommends the 65 EZ for light twins with longer noses, such as the Aerostar, because the smaller tugs, with shorter arms, require the user to stoop under the aircraft nose.
He said the 65 EZ gets rid of that problem, letting the user stand upright where he or she can more clearly see the wingtips and tail—plus the extra power helps on sloping and contaminated ramps.
If you have electricity in your hangar, leaving most of the battery-powered tugs plugged in to their smart chargers should ensure no shortage of power, even when you want to move the airplane a few hundred yards to the fuel pump.
First, the tech. AC Air's tugs work with a transmitter/control box (shown in the inset to the right) on the 2.4 GHz radio spectrum. Naturally, there's a concern of interference—and uncommanded control inputs to the tug—but AC Air says its FHSS, for frequency hopping spread spectrum, operates 100 percent interference free.
With over 800 tugs in the field, the company says there has never been a signal intercepted or a runaway tug. If the tug loses the signal from the remote, it shuts down. The second-generation TrackTech T1X2 for non-wheel fairing and fairing-equipped airplanes with a max gross weight of 8000 pounds has a 24-volt rechargeable LiFe P04 lithium-ion battery.
Charge time is two hours for continuous 30-minute usage. That's a long time to be moving an airplane—plenty of endurance. It's a strong battery, powering the tug's dual high-torque motors. The battery should last from five to seven years.
The electronics, batteries and motors on the TrackTech tugs are easy to get to, housed underneath a hood on the front of the tug. The Dragger (www.dragger.com). series of electric and gasoline tugs are for lighter aircraft on relatively flat ramps and hangars with minimal lips or door tracks.
All have two drive wheels and are designed either for nosewheel or tailwheel airplanes—one size does not fit all. We were told a battery for an electric tug (other than the "power drill" tugs) should last for five to seven years although Terry Railing, proprietor of battery-powered tug maker Aero-Tow, told us that he has customers who reported battery
life in excess of 11 years. The 24-volt system moves the airplane via an electric transaxle with differential driving two wheels. Speed is controlled using a thumb throttle. A rear caster balances the unit, so there is no lifting or sliding it sideways when maneuvering an airplane.
The system includes two batteries and an onboard smart charger. In the aircraft tug business for 40 years, with some 30,000 tugs in the field, Northwest Manufacturing (www.powertow.com). seems to be expanding its product line on a regular basis.
Long known for its Briggs & Stratton piston-powered tugs capable of burning avgas or mogas, the company has aggressively moved into the electric tug world. As sales manager Gilbert May put it when we spoke with him, "It's the wave of the future.
The electric motor puts out more torque, there are fewer parts to break and it's quiet so you can hear when someone yells that you're about to hit a wingtip." Nevertheless, May said that the company wasn't
Each Minimax Cirrus aircraft tug has plenty of add-on options available, such as snow tires, tire chains, a handle extension and a speedy mover. You can also get a spare 60-volt Dewalt battery so you're never left powerless.
These are all listed under PRODUCT OPTIONS. This Cirrus tow bar, weighing in at 56 pounds, easily knocks down for transport. Most of the tugs we looked at are actually powered tow bars, so they attach to the nose (or tail) wheel.
The wheel itself is the pivot point so most tugs have to be lifted or pulled sideways to make a turn—and care needs to be taken to avoid exceeding nosewheel turn limits. If your airplane has nosewheel turn limits, disclose them when you speak with the tug manufacturer.
Some tugs have optional casters to ease moving the tug when making a turn. Priceless Aviation Products 701 and 701L and Aero-Tow's Lil Sherman have a swivel arrangement so it's not necessary to lift or slide the tug to turn.
The electric Tail-Dragger Dragger, model TDE-1, has the same differential for its two-wheel drive system as the electric Nose-Dragger Dragger. It is priced at $2195. Both versions are rated for airplanes up to 5000 pounds "on a flat surface or a rain grade surface with a grade of no more than 1 to 2 percent."
Please note, Aircraft Spruce's personnel are not certified aircraft mechanics and can only provide general support and ideas, which should not be relied upon or implemented in lieu of consulting an A&P or other qualified technician.
Aircraft Spruce assumes no responsibility or liability for any issue or problem which may arise from any repair, modification or other work done from this knowledge base. Any product eligibility information provided here is based on general application guides and we recommend always referring to your specific aircraft parts manual, the parts manufacturer or consulting with a qualified mechanic.
Choosing the right TrackTech model depends partly on the weight of the airplane. Its lower-end model can tow up to 2500 pounds, while the flagship model can tow 20,000-pound aircraft. AC Air owns a patent on the rubber track technology built into the tug, making it perhaps the only production tug you'll see on tracks.
Pricing ranges from $2750 to $10,000. It may have been that moment—after our feet had shot upward from the icy ramp while we were trying to pull the Cheetah out of the hangar and we lay there, watching the nosewheel roll toward our nether regions—that we came to like aircraft tugs
. We think that an easily maneuverable tug that quickly hooks onto an airplane and can move it without strain reduces the risk not only of injury to the pilot but hangar rash to the airplane.
The Nose-Dragger Dragger tugs have a distinct method of attaching to the aircraft—avoiding metal-to-metal contact. The tug is snugged up against the front of the nosewheel and then, by leaning over and moving a lever, a roller is snapped into place against the rear of the nose tire.
This effectively cradles the nose tire, although it is not lifted off the ground. The system accommodates wheel pants as long as there is at least a three-inch clearance from the ground. We'll run through what to consider when making a tug purchase and then outline what's on the market.
We'll say up front that if you want the highest level of reliability, live where it gets cold in the winter and have electricity in your hangar, spending the extra money for a battery-powered electric tug makes sense.
If you don't mind taking care of the routine maintenance requirements of a gasoline engine and aren't too worried about cold-weather starting, the internal combustion tugs are less expensive to buy. AC Air says that much of the typical maintenance (not much more than battery changes, really) can be performed right on site.
Other repairs require crating and shipping the tug to AC Air's facilities in California. When it comes time to select the right tug for your airplane, we recommend a conversation with the tug manufacturers to discuss your specific needs.
Just because an advertisement says a tug will pull a 4000-pound airplane doesn't mean it will do so up a sloping ramp, over a lip or break in pavement or across sliding door tracks. The company still notes that hangar door sills can be a problem although our review of videos on the company's website caused us to believe that the door sill issue is less of a problem for the Tail-Dragger tugs.
PowerTow's website indicates that a ThunderVolt was hooked up to an 8000-pound load and tested on a 10-degree F day. Pushing, it generated 500 pounds of wheel force and 350 pounds when pulling. They were unable to stall the motor;
the tire would start to slide first. The $1500 model E200 (all prices for Aero-Tow were given to us as "ballpark" numbers) weighs 135 pounds, can be configured to tow just about any general aviation airplane—nosewheel or tailwheel—and puts out about one HP.
The company describes its capabilities as "equal to the power of one person, struggling, to move the aircraft."
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