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Hi Folks. Tim here, up in KCON, NH. SN 104.

Has anyone purchased a trailer or had a custom one done? I've been trying to buy one but Icon can't seem to get their act together. They won't mass produce the amphib they have now, and a supposed enclosed under development is no where in site. Any info would be helpful.

THANKS

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Please be careful with "rolling your own" if not supported and designed properly a custom trailer can and will damage the aircraft. When I was employed there we spent years developing and testing the trailer first with a fuselage shape then moved on to a strain gauge and accelerometer instrumented experimental aircraft. We also spent a lot of time developing the tie down system as if done improperly can in itself damage the aircraft. There was one owner that built his own trailer and didn't tie down his aircraft correctly and cracked the fuselage near the step. I realize this isn't the most helpful info for your cause and leaves you with little to no options as the company isn't selling its current design.

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Hi Brett. Thanks for the feedback. For a concept and product in development for well over 10years and in production for 4years, its a little disappointing that a trailer option is still a mystery. Thanks.

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Go to Giving Wings Aviation’s Facebook page for a video of my plane being loaded The final fitting tweaks are being made and then shipped to the factory for road testing. Looks tight but very functional.

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Did you have a custom trailer built?

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I checked out the video and would love to speak to you about it when you have a minute. Thanks

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No, this trailer is being made for Icon and we were close for the manufacturer’s factory.

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Email me and I’ll send you my phone number. [email protected]

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I keep my 20' aluminum tilt car-hauler trailer handy in case I need to transport my A5 in a dire situation with no other options. I have purchased aluminum angle to make detachable tracks for the gear wheels to make loading easier but haven't gotten around welding the aluminum.

Still seems strange that this aircraft can not be trailered sitting on the landing gear. I would think the landing gear and aircraft G loads encountered on the road would be less that those it receives every time I land on a paved runway! I have looked at also fabricating a hydraulically lifted cradle to lift the airplane off the trailer (much like Icon's early trailers did) in order to retract the gear - but it just seems like without the proper cushioning in the cradle I would be inviting cracks in the hull.

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Hi Michael,
Thanks for the information. Icon has told me for over a year that an enclosed trailer was in the works. Apparently, there is some progress towards that effort. Mr. Denton, above in this thread, provided some encouraging details in that regard. I guess Icon will clue us all in at the appropriate time.

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My A5 sitting on its "dire situation" trailer.

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Michael, Its not a good thing to tie down the nose and the tail at the same time. When going over bumps the gear flex putting shock loads into the tie down straps and therefore loading the tail boom. If you read up a bit I talk about how an owner did this and ended up cracking the tail boom at the base of the step. There is a good reason that NONE of the trailering designs have the tail and nose tied down simultaneously.

Go out and measure road bumps and shock loads using a peak hold G-meter. You will find that going down a road the shock loading put into your aircraft can be on the order of 6-10 g's and this can happen many times during a road trip. If the aircraft isn't secured to take this load it will damage it. This is one of the reasons the aircraft is secured the way it is on the ICON trailer and also why its on bunks and why the ICON engineering team approached this problem carefully with instrumentation and non customer experimental aircraft. For what its worth there are no engineers left at ICON who have worked on the trailer development and testing in other words all the resident knowledge has gone.

As for roads being smoother than landings I can assure you they are not even close, I sincerely hope you are not landing your aircraft like that if you are its only once in a great while and only like 3.5-4 g's.

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Bret - when you say “ the Icon Trailer” are you referring to the one that NONE of us have been able to buy?? As I said “dire”. I have not moved the airplane on this trailer but I have had extensive conversations with individuals at Icon expressing that we ALL need a way to recover our aircraft if it’s stuck in the lake - or else the 96 hr paint will fall off.

I knew I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.

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Hey Michael. I read Dire and was expecting that you would only use it in Dire straights. I just wanted to be very clear that the way it was tied down could do some damage to it. I understand that dire is dire, but I have plenty of stories of owners who were dire need of transport and did more harm handling their aircraft than what was done in the first place. In other words just offering advice and my reasoning behind it.

I also understand you and many others haven't been able to purchase a trailer, I feel for your situation, I really do, the whole ICON situation (not just the trailer, thats actually the least of it) sucks, thus why I'm no longer an employee. I partake here to help you guys out where I can. I have nearly 6 years of ICON engineering and flight test experience, I was also apart of almost all the trailer development and testing from the initial development. Its not a easy problem to solve and there are a lot of pit falls. Just trying to impart those on you as you do what needs to be done for your situation.

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I DO appreciate your input Bret - and I think you, having come from Icon, do understand the frustration all of us feel who were given ever-changing dates that the trailer would be available. I even know one owner who put down money on a trailer years ago and, last I heard, never got anything for that deposit except for supposedly getting a better price on the initial aircraft purchase because he was committing to the trailer at the same time. I think that we are all surprised that Icon continues to show the trailer on its website as if it is an available item.

My own testing on trailer hauling involved using an old G-meter from a T-38 trainer clamped to various locations on the trailer - without the A5 onboard. Granted this was not a through test involving strain-meters, etc. but in these the few test I did on smooth roads and all speeds below 40 mph I never saw more than 2 Gs on the meter after the drive. Sooooo, that leads me to ask you a question: do you think the hull, sitting on a cradle, can handle the 10 G loads you saw during testing? I have taken a look at the cradle on the Icon trailer while out at Peter O' and it didn't look like it had any additional shock absorption on the actual cradle. Was there some I missed seeing? I'll admit, I dumped most of my engineering knowledge shortly after I got the degree but it has always seem to me that the aircraft sitting on the MLG is better at absorbing G shocks during transport than the cradle. Your thoughts?

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The bunks on don't offer any shock absorption, the torsion axles (that were specifically chosen for their size) do that. What the bunks offer though is a way to secure the aircraft to the trailer with no movement. The problem with putting the aircraft on its gear is it is flexible, especially the nose gear. As such when you strap the aircraft down to the trailer it will compress the gear a bit. As the system (trailer and aircraft) goes down the road it will encounter bumps and resulting accelerations both up and down. The torsion axles will absorb some of them but not all the gear will flex in response and the straps will go slack, as soon as the acceleration swaps, the straps go taught again putting a very large point loads into the aircraft. If the aircraft is strapped down by the tail and the nose you are bending the aircraft about the main gear on fairly long moment arms (especially the tail). The bow ring is designed to take a lot of load the tail tie down lug was only designed to the take ground tie down loads which are much less than road loads. If you look at how car haulers strap cars down they don't typically compress the cars shock struts. They typically strap the wheel to the trailer on a ratchet strap. This would also be the preferred way to strap the aircraft to the trailer while on gear allowing the gear to flex and the airplane with it but not imparting shock loads into the plane. The bunks allow you to distribute the shock loads along the hull which is designed to take it. The tie downs just keep the system together.

Your trailer is actually not that bad other than the tie down method, especially the tail tie down. The axles appear to be located correctly as well so it should trailer well from a load distribution standpoint. Not sure if the torsion axles are the correct choice or not.

As for G we have measured. We had some fairly bad roads around the factory we'd test on, certainly a worst case. We regularly saw 6-10 G shock loads and needed the abuse cases cause well some A5 owners have more than proven they can be hard or careless with their aircraft. Smooth roads were more in the range you were seeing. Typically landings are no more than 2g mostly less. Wave actions well outside the A5 limits are around 6g and will crack and break the sea wings and if the sea wing tips weren't bonded those would most likely depart the plane as well.

So consider all that when coming up with alternate method to tie down the aircraft on that trailer.

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Enclosed trailer option from Icon.

I just saw this addition on the Icon website.

https://www.iconaircraft.com/icon-a5-enclosed-trailer/

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ONLY $40K??? I’m buyin two!

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Don't forget the upgraded paint option! ;-)

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Great news. Finally! Thanks for the heads up.

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I am designing a light weight trailer to lift the A5 off its gear and tow it back to my hangar (1 mile away). It will support the aircraft on its boat hull like the big Icon Trailer. I will share photos.

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Does anyone know of legacy amphib trailers available? Or did that custom trailer get built Michel Gadbois?

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I completed most of the design for my Aluminum Framed Open trailer. 680 pounds nominal. 0 hydraulics. I got too busy with House/shop/RV-14 construction to get it manufactured. Hopefully in 2025. I am happy to share my thoughts with any of you looking for a lightweight trailer. I do not want to have to trade-in our Volvo or Bronco to pull the Icon... Big Bad SUVs or P/Us are not for us

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Great Lakes Icon builds Icon enclosed trailers. http://greatlakesicon.com/

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How much does it weigh Matt?

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Our Great lakes addition enclosed trailer empty weight with the lift system installed is 3,588 pounds on the wheels and 429 pounds on the tong totaling 4,017 pounds. We have some photos on our website. I will be adding more detailed photos and an instruction video how to load and unload the plane in the near future.

How much does it weigh Matt?