Bungee Cord Installation Tool

[Frank Green]

Photos show my way to do cords safely, evenly and with out rolling them. Years ago I modified my shop press with a double acting hydraulic cylinder like you would find on a wood splitter to use for broaching. Got to thinking about it and it will pull just as well as push so I bolted the table to the uprights and bolted a plate with a 7/8 hole to the table. My lift is self explanatory in the pictures. Put the hydro thru the plate and pin it. Catch the cord with the hooks and spread them with the threaded rod. Stretch the cords above the lugs. Tighten the threaded rod to position the cords over the lugs and gently lower the cord on to the hydro. The one in the picture is a PA18 hydro with double 1280HDs on large ears. No problem. There are many ways to do it, this is mine. Any body want them done I'll do em for $5 a cord plus UPS back to you.

[captbill1956]

Cool looking rig. That's the deal of the century for changing bungees. If you haven't already, you need to post that over at the supercub site too. You may have more buisness than you know what to do with. Im out of the bungee business for now, presently converting my tripacer with theTrimmer gear mod that uses Maule shock struts. I'm really impressed with your set up though.
Bill Meredith
N7749D
Kingsland, TX

[Ed Brown]

Frank, Nice set-up. I like the hooks you used to hold the bungees. I also made a tool that used hydraulics and after using it decided to modify it to incorporate hooks next time. There was a lot of friction getting the bungees off those tubes and on to the cabane. The hooks would help with that.

I've attached photos of us putting bungees on my Vagabond struts.

That's my IA Gary in the photo.

As you can see, my tool is way overbuilt. You could probably pick up the corner of the hangar with it. John W had me so skittish about how scary this job was, I really took every precaution. No one got hurt, so Thanks John.

Ed

[Frank Green]

My tool was similar but was not happy with rolling the cord and one side at a time was scary. This makes a nice even stretch and a gentle unrolled placement. Note the covering on the finished shot how straight the wrap is. The hooks were made out of 5/16 grade 8 bolts tried 1/4 first but they bent. There is a lot of force here.

[nicka]

Hey Captbill1956 would you mind starting a new thread and post some pics and info of the Trimmer gear mod, when I get to my fuelage here with my project I am going to incorporate this mod om my airplane and any info or problems yoou run into would be helpful.

[SuperPacer]

Here is "Our Version" of the Sturat "Bungie Buddy", that I built up one size bigger that their's. This unit will fit bungies onto Short wing hydro Sorbes up to the Pawnee version, with Three 1280HD's. The units shown in the photos we for a "Experimental" Streached Pacer with slotted cub wings & 540 with C/S prop. He needed the extra cords to hold the extra weight.

Frank, Your way does the job better in the context of not twisting or rolling the cords. I get even stretch, but looking at the photos, I did get some twist!

The Trimmer Gear STC looks like the "way to go". How much does the Maul Shock Struts cost compaired to our Hydro Sorbes??

Enjoy the day,

john

[Frank Green]

I don't know if the rolling makes any difference in the life of the cord. My set up used to be similar but I didn't like rolling one side at a time and the snap when they drop in so I came up with the hook setup and it works real well. I'm sure it could be copied in other manual setups like yours. Wouldn't even charge for my "intellectual property copyright" Oops that is in another thread.

[Larry Huntley]

Nice job Frank. I have my own system ,but yours looks like a much better ,safer way to go. Thanks for posting the pics. I will probably try it.
Larry Huntley

[airbusflyboy]

Hi Frank ! I would be interested to have you do this for my Piper Colt hydrasorbs. Can you e-mail me your business address and I will get these coming up to you soon as we are ready to remove from aircraft. I will cut the old cord off as we need to clean up and repaint the hydrasorbs.
This appears to be a brilliant idea that you came up with ! Thanks in advance ........................... Mark Casillas, Memphis,TN 901-413-8692

[Steve Pierce]

While in Alaska Eddie Trimmer showed me this heavy duty bungee tool down the taxiway from him. I am planning on building one like this.