Hi everybody, the company that designed and builds the Roberts Bush Gear would like to introduce the RAGE Suspension System. (*Patent Pending) For too long our cub style landing gear suspension has been saddled with outdated technology. Well we say “No more!” The RAGE is a modern suspension system designed for aircraft incorporating a cabane “v”, or more commonly a “cub style landing gear.” No longer will you have to live in the 1930’s.



The RAGE which is also known as the Roberts Air Gear Extreme, uses a light-weight modern racing shock similar to ones being used by snow machines and utv’s to bring the world of taildraggers into the 21st century. Imagine the bone-jarring, head rattling feeling from a rough field, rocks, etc., or the rebound into the air from a dropped in landing. At this point you might feel like you are going to break something on the airplane or even yourself. This is just the way it is, the way it has always been. Now imagine riding along and wondering if the ground is a lot smoother than it looks, seeing the same bump ahead and preparing to get rocked and rolling over it with without even being able to feel it in the cockpit. It’s real. The following video is the reaction of a pilot who got to test it out for himself.



You see, the problem all current options for suspension have is that they are based on the expansion and or compression of steel springs or elastic material to perform this job. The big problem with bungee or spring systems is that the return or recovery rate is very fast and has a rubber band or slingshot effect. The problem with compressed rubber wafers is just the opposite, sometimes the recovery is too slow or even worse the compression reaches its max and thus turns into a solid rather than continuing to work. Not one of these systems is easily adjustable. The RAGE is.

The RAGE is infinitely adjustable. I’ll go you one better, it’s cockpit adjustable! Imagine you are sitting at a backcountry landing strip or just some flat spot in the boonies. You unpack your camp and get settled in. When you flew in you had the suspension set to haul the weight of your gear as well as a buddy. Now you’d like to do some solo flying and check out a few spots. Well, you don’t have the extra weight anymore so soften up the suspension a bit with the cockpit adjustment system and head out. When it’s time to go home you can pump the suspension back up and load the plane. You just can’t do that with current systems. You can with the RAGE.

So here are some of the specs.

Streamlined lightweight covers standard
Safety cables standard
Weighs less than the AOSS
Infinitely adjustable and tuneable suspension
12+- inches of wheel travel
Cockpit adjustability option (with or without electrical system)
Designed to retrofit with LSA cub style aircraft incorporating a cabane “v” such as:
• Highlander
• Rans S7 with the Roberts Bush Gear
• American Legend Cub
• Savage Cub
• Virtually any experimental 1320 gross cub geared aircraft


Need we say more?
Oh, I guess we do. Don’t worry, this is also being developed for planes exceeding the LSA weight standards. This means Super Cubs ect..

Avweld
John Roberts
(208)573-0714
[email protected]
or
Jason Fisher
(208)899-2755

John has sent me a set to try out as he knows I will give them a work out, I don't know if I should be complimented or insulted

It took around 2 hrs, and was straightforward as they are a direct replacement for the bungee shock cord struts. Note the cable setup to keep the a-frames sucked together while working on the shock struts, no need to lift the entire plane that way. Included is a nifty little air pump with a built in gauge. I have them at 100 lbs. now and will play with the various pressures tomorrow when I fly them for the first time. Kind of like a Sleep Comfort bed, (TM, I guess) you can adjust for your own comfort level. Note the piano hinge closure for the aft end of the fairing, pretty slick. Like his gear all the bolts lined right up and in, with a minor tap from a small plastic mallet with NO slop once in place. I love that feeling, when a bolt slips home "just right". I like the single big fairing, it should be cleaner then my orginal gear with the two different fairings.

While soft deep powder snow won't be much of a test (who needs any shock absorbers in that stuff ) the harder wind blown ridges will, as will unseen/unnoticed elevation changes and other whoop de doos. Also, with 30 lbs of air in the little 6:00's I use when on the skis, I will try and get over to a hard surface airport and get a sense for how they handle a botched landing and a normal landing, and everything in between.

Looks/sounds great

This answers a question that I've had...... Why has no one built something like this yet??? Sweet.

Thank you for the feedback and the pictures. Have fun flying today, can't wait to hear about it. It's always good to hear from an outside source.

I got some flying in yesterday on the new shock struts, about 6 hrs worth. Still playing around with the air pressure, though right where it's at (100 psi) may be the sweet spot. What's confusing the issue of course is being on the skis and landing on everything from frozen lakes with rock hard wind driven ridges, to 5' deep powder. I need to hit some more hard surface airports to eliminate some of the varibles. All I know for sure so far is my first landing after the install was in a very remote area with nobody around for miles....right before setting down I realized this would be the first test and maybe I should have tried it out in a more populated area first? But, no worries, it went fine.

BTW: Note the deep cabane on the Roberts Gear, I'm told this reduces the stress put on the fuselage, whatever.....all I know for sure is that my swiss muffler (sneakybastardmufflersystem or SBMS for short) fits right in the resulting gap with no modifications, frigging perfect

Another 5+ hrs today, but damn it not one paved strip. Lots of hummocked snow on hard ice, noticeably less pitch back with this gear. As in popping back up in the air. I had some pretty good sideloads on one skidding turn at Stanley, stiff there, when I didn't want it mushy. I do have one bushing that moved out of place, nothing to be a problem short term, and a fix for that should be easy now that we know about it. More torture testing to follow.

Good to know it is being put through its paces. One of the things jason noticed was that it does in fact perform like a true suspension in turns correctly transferring the load. Where you want it stiff it is. Hops or rebounding should be very noticeably reduced with the shock absorber controlling both the compression and rebound speed keeping contact with the ground. I'm looking forward to hearing more feedback. Thank you Tom.

Need to see some rough landing video please Have you made a gear for the S-6 yet?

NoCOpilot wrote:Need to see some rough landing video please Have you made a gear for the S-6 yet?

I'll see what I can do, though it will a rough ski landing probably. I have had a few of those lately, but didn't have the camera with me. Plus.....I didn't KNOW it was going to be rough.

NoCOpilot,
We are working on the S6 bush gear conversion and hope to have this done soon .

Greetings,

Have you got this tghing ready to go on larger planes yet? I haver a murphy rebel with an 1800 lb gross and am leaning toward the AOSS; yours looks great and I'm interested, Craig [email protected]

Dragging up an old thread to get a few opinions from those out there using any of these "advanced suspensions" that have been appearing on the markets the last few years. My short tail S7 needed updated earlier this year and I installed a Roberts Bush Gear which was a huge upgrade in strength and rigidity. John has changed from the old bungee springs to a new style using a stack of rubber cones for the springs. It looks like a super good idea, except that my bird if fairly light and the springs are so tight that I have never really seen any movement. Any landing other than feather light touch will result in the feeling of a rock skipping on a pond. I have contacted John Roberts in hopes that he had a softer rubber spring available, but at this point he does not.

There are a few choices out there to help me out with this. Roberts makes the Rage suspension that Tom S. has on his 7, TK1 is making a double shock system that many of you on here are using, and a lessor known company (Acme Aero Fab) has an interesting solution using a shock with an internal spring. I have not talked to anyone as of yet using the Acme system so it is an unknown at this point. Since I already have the tight suspension, I would like to find a solution that will adjust in the field to that just right feeling and not end up with the spring rate off on either end of the spectrum.

I know there is a lot of experience represented on this forum and I enjoy reading things on here a great deal, so thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I ran the Acme Aero bush shocks for about a month. I'm waiting for Tony's TK1's to show up, so I can give some feedback next week. Mike

RoughAir wrote:I ran the Acme Aero bush shocks for about a month. I'm waiting for Tony's TK1's to show up, so I can give some feedback next week. Mike

I thought I saw you over at Tony's hangar the other day. Taxied right by you.

I continue to be real happy with my RAGE gear, which uses bungees for taking the hit, and air shocks for controlling the rebound. A little bit old school mixed with new. I did change from 1380 shock cords , to 1380 HD's, as apparently my plane is a bit of pig at times. This eliminated the wallowing around I was doing before near gross (guessing, loaded anyway) and still has enough cush to it. It's perfect now and I wouldn't change a thing. One thing about those 4 shock systems, all exposed to the airflow and everything......no thanks, way too draggy for my tastes. Sure we're talking STOL, but hell, I still want to go somewhere, and don't want to do it at 75 mph and/or pickyourfuel burn GPH. No reason they couldn't be faired, if I had something like that I'd figure out a way, too many advantages not too.

RoughAir wrote:I ran the Acme Aero bush shocks for about a month. I'm waiting for Tony's TK1's to show up, so I can give some feedback next week. Mike

I am glad to hear from someone that has tried the Acme set up. What airframe did you have them on, Carbon Cub I am guessing. I think my biggest concern about that set up is wondering if the internal spring is the correct one, and if not what a pain it is going to be to get that corrected. The design looks good and fairly clean drag wise. Any comments will be welcomed. I have to do something soon to mine.

courierguy wrote:I continue to be real happy with my RAGE gear, which uses bungees for taking the hit, and air shocks for controlling the rebound. A little bit old school mixed with new. I did change from 1380 shock cords , to 1380 HD's, as apparently my plane is a bit of pig at times. This eliminated the wallowing around I was doing before near gross (guessing, loaded anyway) and still has enough cush to it. It's perfect now and I wouldn't change a thing. One thing about those 4 shock systems, all exposed to the airflow and everything......no thanks, way too draggy for my tastes. Sure we're talking STOL, but hell, I still want to go somewhere, and don't want to do it at 75 mph and/or pickyourfuel burn GPH. No reason they couldn't be faired, if I had something like that I'd figure out a way, too many advantages not too.

Thanks for chiming in Tom. I was hoping that you would see this and respond. Once question about the rage gear is, I see it comes with a hand pump. I assumed that would add more resistance to the shock and help when the gross weight is higher, is that not the case?

Obviously if I decide to buy from John the quality should be the same as I have on his other products which has been a good experience on my part. I'm just asking here as I suspected there would be some input from some of the other equipment being used out there.

I never mess with the rebound shock setting, empty or loaded it stays the same. No need to, or requirement to.

courierguy wrote:I never mess with the rebound shock setting, empty or loaded it stays the same. No need to, or requirement to.

He's asking about the shock air pressure, I believe. The rebound is a hydraulic valve adjustment that controls how fast the shock returns from compressed to fully extended. Gross weight could potentially affect static compression of the shock.