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Q-talk 115 - Tri-Q Wheel Lift

The accompanying photos and diagram depict the wheel lift that I developed after being frustrated with the awkwardness of lifting the main gear of the Tri-Q off the ground for servicing tires and brakes. I wanted something simple and cheap, so I had to design it myself.

While I was at it, I also made provisions to allow the same lift to be used for lifting the nose wheel off the ground for servicing it as well. I will explain this thing by referencing the photos.

It is made of 1"x1/16" wall square tubing. Refer to the "Wheel Lift" diagram below for the basic dimensions of the device.

The second photo shows a side view of the end that lifts the gear. You can see the upward stem is at a slight rearward angle. This is so that once the gear is lifted, gravity will keep the weight over on the handle rather than allowing it to go back over center. This keeps the handle from coming back up. There is a 3/8" hex head bolt welded to the top end of each side of the top member. These are positioned under the inside of either end of the gear leg for lifting. The one hex bolt is used when lifting the right side while, the other bolt is the one used for the left side gear.

Simply position the jack with the handle facing rearward and tip up the handle so as to make the hex bolt tilt towards the ground far enough to fit under the bottom of the gear. Once under the gear, tip the handle back down to the ground until the weight over-centers the jack and wha-la......go to work on your brakes.

There is also a small piece of flat metal you can see welded to the top of the top member. This is what is used when lifting the nose gear up. The third photo is taken from above, showing things from a different angle.

The last photo shows the lift as if looking at it from the front. In this photo, you can see a piece of pipe setting on the top of the upright piece of flat. This is what I center under the front nose fork stem when lifting the front nose gear. The pipe just has a little "V" groove notched in it so it can pivot on the piece of flat while you tilt the handle down to the ground during lifting.

You can also see another little attachment laying on the ground. That is actually used when lifting the main gear. Sometimes the hex head bolt does not grip the gear leg enough after it has been tilted up and it will slip off the bolt. This little attachment is very hard to explain, but it is a small piece of 1/8" flat with two 8/32 allen head bolts screwed through it leaving about 3/16" of each bolt poking out the other side. I then drilled two small holes up into the bottom of each end of the gear leg that these bolt ends will fit up into. Then, between the head of the two allen screws on the other side of the piece is where the hex head bolt shank will go while lifting. Insert this piece into the gear leg holes to provide a kind of notch, if you will, for the hex bolt position between and allow it to pivot so the gear will not slip off the jack bolt.

I have intentionally left this description somewhat vague so that the user will need to use their imagination in order to understand it, but mostly because of my lack of time to properly figure out how to explain it in a sensible manner.

If you have questions I would be glad to help on an individual basis.



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