Ladies/Gents, I'm Commander Mark Mhley from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. In an effort to inspire more interest in Naval Aviation among our midshipmen students, we are planning to move an F-14 Tomcat and EA-6B Prowler to Annapolis for display. The EA-6B is located 34mi away at Andrews AFB, parked in a hangar for 3 years since it was decommissioned/demilitarized (engines, hydraulics, computers, entire cockpit removed) and weighs about 21,000lbs. To save precious taxpayer dollars, we want to move it ourselves and not contract out the move, and we have everything lined up from end-to-end. We have access to a 2005 XLT SuperDuty F-350 with hitch. My question is if this vehicle is sufficient to pull a 20,000 aircraft on it's own landing gear, via a tow bar which attaches from the truck hitch to the nose gear. There are no significant hills between start and stop, and we intend to drive 5-10mph max on brand new aircraft tires. The aircraft has no brakes of course, so over to the truck to control the speed. I've attached pics of the truck and the vehicle rating sticker inside the driver side door for reference. Also attached a stock pic of a similar jet with wings folded as ours will be for the move. I believe the truck is sufficient to do this safely, but would like to know this august group's opinion, and would like to know if I should contact Ford directly to ask. Thanks everyone! Your Navy appreciates your help.

 

Ford is going to tell you no. It's over the rated towing capacity of the truck.

I think it can be done. The truck looks like a 4x4. I think you'll need a 4x4.

Tow the load in 4x4 low range, but the front hubs MUST be unlocked. If they are manual hubs just leave them in the unlocked position. If they are automatic hubs you'll need someone that knows how they work to make them unlocked. It's not hard, but I don't know it well enough to tell you how to do it.

If the truck is not 4x4 and you attempt this I expect that the transmission will overheat at those speeds and loads. Towing in low range adds a 2.7:1 ratio that reduces the load on the transmission by2.7:1. That's critical for towing heavy at 5-10 MPH.

 

IAP is a contracting company out of Florida. Looks like the taxpayer will be footing the bill for this one anyways. It's only a drop in the bucket!


I do think it's cool that the planes are being moved. Good luck.

 

Yes Olds64, it's an IAP truck. Gov doesn't have a 350 that we can find...yet. IAP is hesitant to allow it to be used for this (liability), so we're looking for a similar F-350.

 

Sir, although I was in the Army, my suggestion is for you to find a CPO for this task.

 

Will you be towing on black top or concrete the whole way? Can someone ride in the airplane and apply brakes as needed? If there is no way to have brakes on the airplane then I would add around 3000 lbs directly over the rear axle of the pickup. Applying truck brakes alone on even the least bit of a hill will cause the airplane to push the rear of the truck until it's in front of the truck. Also, might use a drop hitch so the airplane is connected low as possible to hitch on truck. Don't forget the slow moving vehicle sign along with spotter drivers ahead and behind to warn others on the road. Might check with the local law folks ahead of time. I'd think they'd help or at least let you pass considering your purpose.

Just to reiterate, you won't be able to stop on gravelly hills, wet grass, etc. You'll be riding it out until you get to the bottom of the hill. Black top or concrete yes but I'd want the truck's rear tires nicely weighted.

I've seen enough of Kovalsky's advice to trust what he says about pickup trannies. But dang what a poorly designed tranny that can't tow at slow speed for 34 miles. With no big hills around, a 40hp farm tractor can pull 21,000 lbs at 5 mph. No hope of stopping it on a hill but pulling it on somewhat flat ground would be no sweat.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A large tractor may be a much better tow vehicle.

 

With no cockpit controls, read no aircraft brakes, the truck will have a difficult time stopping the combination. Just one old man's opinion, one old man who has done a bit of towing.
Edit: And found himself with trailer brake failure when he needed brakes. A change my shorts situation, for sure. And I was not towing nearly the load to truck ratio this will be.

 

Definitely...or a large dump truck or similar. Something designed to crawl and heavy enough to not get pushed around....literally pushed with back tires sliding sideways.

 

How well can that tractor tow even 10,000 pounds at 70 MPH? It's not looking so good now. The difference is gearing. That's why I suggested using the low range so that the truck is more like a tractor.

 

You're missing the point...pulling 20,000 lbs at 5-10 mph is a very low power demand. I hope Ford allowed for the occasional in-town rush hour traffic or freeway crawl when determining tow ratings. Any manual pickup made in the last 50 years could pull this weight at this low speed and never worry about over heating. Auto's, on the other hand are valued for their convenience in slow traffic but from what you're saying they struggle with overheating. It's something that's good to know though I doubt many Superduty owners would realize this inherent weakness.

 

I don't think pulling 20,000 pounds is very low power demand. If it is, then there will be no heating problems at all. Airplanes are not easy to move around.

At low speed there isn't a lot of air going through the coolers, plus there is a lot of slip in the torque converter, which creates A LOT of heat. Putting the transfer case in low range reduces the load on the converter by 2.7:1.

 

I'd suggest contacting FoMoCo and see if they'd be willing to provide a truck suitable for towing these jets.

When the space shuttle Endeavor was towed from LAX to the LA Science Center in Exposition Park, one of the tow vehicles was a Tundra (!) pickup, furnished by Toyota (probably as a publicity stunt).

 

Not trying to contrary you; I'm glad you pointed out the issue of pulling slow with an auto tranny.

Low speed on relatively level ground I still say it's low power demand. For example, when I hook our 10,000 lb fifth wheel to my '65 F250 I can start it rolling and move it forward/backward in the grass (level ground mind you) and never touch the gas pedal...just let the engine idle. To me, that's low power demand. Same truck with it's 4 speed stick will move that load up any interstate east of the Mississippi at 70mph and have throttle to spare on any hill. I just can't imagine moving 20,000 lbs at 5-10mph takes much effort for a modern Superduty.

The weird thing is that trucks/tractors can move a given load up a hill but have absolutely no chance of stopping it going down that same hill without brakes on the wagon, trailer, etc.

 

I would seek out a medium duty or heavy duty truck to pull those aircraft. You're just asking for trouble towing them with a light duty truck.

You should be able to rent a medium to heavy duty truck to tow those with.