I built one of these for the DG-101 we used to own. Now owned by the Central California Soaring Club.

Pretty simple build out of 3/8" plywood if I remember right. Maybe 1/2". I can't seem to find a photo of it unfortunately.

Definitely could have been better built, but it's lasted many years with only a few repairs.

The front "bulkhead" has the larger radius half circle cutout for the tailboom and a vertical notch for the horizontal to drop into.

The aft "bulkhead" has a smaller radius half circle for the tailboom and a full airfoil cutout for the horizontal to slide into.

The bulkheads I mocked up in cardboard to make a template, then dropped that onto plywood and cut it out.

I made something of a box frame to join the fore and aft bulkheads and it extends into a V type of fork that slips around the vertical stabilizer.

All surfaces of wood that touch fiberglass were wrapped with a soft boat carpet and I made some steel v cuffs from sheet metal to secure the horizontal and the rudder.

The whole thing just secures with bungees and is quite stable on the road.

Not the easiest thing to describe, but it wasn't too hard to build with wood and a jigsaw. Just get the cutouts for the fuselage close and then use thin foam and carpet to pad it.

I started with wood as a simple prototype. Of course, I never went back and made a new one.

One unanticipated downside is that it adds a fair bit of weight to the tail.. So if you've got to lift the tail out of the wheel cup or carry it out of the trailer over the ramp, you've got a fair bit more weight to deal with.. That's not surprising, but how much harder it can be to extract from a tube trailer due to the extra weight was. I added a third rail ramp to allow the glider to be rolled out until the tailwheel was on the ground. That helps a lot.

Morgan

On Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 7:14:01 AM UTC-7, wrote:
I have seen a glider trailer in which the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer is strapped to the glider's tail boom for storage and transport. I can't recall where I saw this, and a google image search did not yield any hits.

At any rate, strapping the horizontal stabilizer to the tail boom is one solution I am investigating as my partner and I work to retrofit a new tube trailer to our DG-101. It seems to me that this could be a storage configuration that would not require the awkward stooped climb-and-carry maneuver that is required if the stabilizer is attached to the roof of the trailer.

I am seeking advice on whether this is generally a good idea and if there is a commercial product we could use.

Matt