HowTo: Easy method to slide rear tire in RV or on garage floor

[pauly1]

Here's another real McGyver on moving the back end of our Spyders around in an RV garage with rubber floor; also works on cement.

It's easy to get the front end in place when loading our Spyders in a trailer or RV garage, but then the rear wheel often needs to be moved side-to-side for that perfect alignment. That's not easy with a rubber tire on a rubber floor, perhaps a bit easier on cement. Solution: use two pieces of cardboard!

I used a heavily printed carton for the pieces. Cut one longer piece as the 'slide' and a shorter piece as the 'slider'. Align in back (or front) of the rear tire. Roll the Spyder onto the slider. As we have tight space, I reapply the parking brake. The back end will easily slide, via the slider moving on the slide, to the desired position. Disengage parking brake and roll the rear tire off of the slider/slide cardboard. Voilà!

Tip: I get the front end to where I want it, then apply the parking brake. Place the slider/slide. Disengage the parking brake, roll the rear tire onto the slider, reapply brake, then nudge the rear of the Spyder to desired location. When rolling the rear wheel back off of the slider, the front end should return to its target location.

 

[cptjam]

Great idea! I’ll try it. Joe

 

[safecracker]

A great, very low cost idea...

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Here's another real McGyver on moving the back end of our Spyders around in an RV garage with rubber floor; also works on cement.

It's easy to get the front end in place when loading our Spyders in a trailer or RV garage, but then the rear wheel often needs to be moved side-to-side for that perfect alignment. That's not easy with a rubber tire on a rubber floor, perhaps a bit easier on cement. Solution: use two pieces of cardboard!

I used a heavily printed carton for the pieces. Cut one longer piece as the 'slide' and a shorter piece as the 'slider'. Align in back (or front) of the rear tire. Roll the Spyder onto the slider. As we have tight space, I reapply the parking brake. The back end will easily slide, via the slider moving on the slide, to the desired position. Disengage parking brake and roll the rear tire off of the slider/slide cardboard. Voilà!

Tip: I get the front end to where I want it, then apply the parking brake. Place the slider/slide. Disengage the parking brake, roll the rear tire onto the slider, reapply brake, then nudge the rear of the Spyder to desired location. When rolling the rear wheel back off of the slider, the front end should return to its target location.

I learned your trick many moons ago ..... only I used a couple of pieces of galvanized sheet metal .... a trick to make this work even better is to paint the top of the small sheet and drizzle some sand on it before it dries ..... when placed on the larger sheet - it will add grip to the bottom of the tire ..... thanks for up-dating ..... Mike :thumbup:

 

[PMK]

In the past before I had turn plates, and even now when lowering some spring steel landing gear aircraft, I take plastic garbage bags, thicker is better, fold it a couple times and place under the tire that needs to be slid.

Doing car alignment, this allowed turning the wheels effortlessly. On the aircraft, as they are lowered on jacks, the main gear spreads apart. On gear like this, I use only one plastic bag.