I just picked up a set of gear to put on my experimental. The reason for the switch is two fold. First I'm converting my plane to disc brakes from some cheezy mechanical ones and the disc set up uses a totally different hub assembly. Second these are 8" Douglas ATV wheels. I am going to run a 21" ATV smooth sand tire that cost $34 a piece, is lightweight, and is 4 ply.

These new gear legs are brand new out of a kit. Somewhere down the line the original builder installed the wood fairings. Not sure what kind of glue is used but it's pretty hard. Do you think it would be worth just making them pretty and covering them at this point or should I just save some money and take my sawzall and die grinder to them and getting rid of the wood and just running them open? My airplane flies at 80-90mph. I'm thinking I'm not going to gain much by having them covered and faired other than they look pretty. I would have to spend a couple hundred bucks in materials and some time to cover and paint them.

Here's my plane now with them faired and covered.



Here are the new ones. You can see the wood fairing.

Cover them, they are in the prop blast, sort of. Don't think "more speed", think increased range and/or same speed less throttle! The glue used on the fairings is the same epoxy used on the wing ribs, it'd be a chore to get it all off without nicking the tube, it'd be easier to cover.

Nice Yota!

If ya leaves em uncovered it is a lot easier to see developing cracks in the welds / corners.

I think you should figure a way to use those tires on that pickup truck in the background??

On our slow little airplanes the gear covering is mostly for looks. The point made about being able to inspect and see any cracks is worth a lot!

If you decide to leave the legs bare don't use the sawzall. The epoxy will soften with a heat gun and you can pop the wood fairing off. Use the heat gun and a wood or plastic scraper to scrape off excess epoxy then sand paper carefully to smooth then repaint.

That's a great find! Those wheels are becoming very difficult to find. I have an extra set with a pair of clown tires (Kingfox) on them.

I wouldn't go to the trouble of covering.

If you wanted to keep the streamlined, 'faired-in" look of the current set-up you could wrap the legs with the wood fairings with some two or three inch fabric tape and process with your covering system as usual. This was normal practice back in the day, especially on biplanes with regards to their gear legs and inter-plane struts.

Thanks for the replies. I just talked with a Kitfox buddy of mine that built several and is now building a bush spring type gear for them and he said the performance difference would not be noticeable. I think I'll save myself some money and time and just remove the wood and rattle can them to match my plane. Thanks for your thoughts. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be going from go cart drum brakes and 8.00X6's to Matco Hydraulic brakes and 21X12x8 tires.

I vote for the bare-legged look too. That little bit of streamlining won't do much for you at Avid Flyer speeds, and the bare legs makes it easier to monitor tubing and welds plus looks cooler too.

Eric

What's the note on the window?

Ahh, finally something I can reply to!

I did not cover mine and it cruises same as the covered Highlanders. I figured sooner or later I'd put a foot or weed through it, plus they are easier to see/inspect.

I also have the 8" wheels/Nanco 21 inch tires and I LOVE them. They work great.

k

I'm looking forward to the combo. I currently have 8.00X6 carlisle tires on there and people have commented that my plane has "huge tires" wait till they see it now. The Yota is my other toy. It has a straight axle out of an 83 Toyota. Those are 37" Goodyear MTR tires. It also has dual transfer cases with a final drive of 223:1 with 20 forward gears and 4 reverses. Chromoly 30 spline axle shafts, cryoed inputs and outputs, full spool detroit lockers, blah blah blah.

The "note" on my plane was a spec sheet. This pic was taken at our open house last year.

The Runner flexes okay I guess....

Sweet ride! My co-worker is in the process of modifying is Toyota FJ so he can run the Rubicon Trail one of these days.

Very nice 3rd gen, I know what it takes to get it that way too. I'm sure you have good stories about running the Rubicon. Moab much?

mountainmatt wrote:I know what it takes to get it that way too.

A smaller airplane and....

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Leave the legs uncovered. If you go on a long trip and want them more aerodynamic, use duct tape. Then peal it off after the trip.

RobBurson wrote:Leave the legs uncovered. If you go on a long trip and want them more aerodynamic, use duct tape. Then peal it off after the trip.

That's what I did before installing wing strut fairing. I duck taped some wood fairing on to test the gain. It was 10 mph so I bought the high dollar PVC fairing.

Avidflyer, you could fly with the bare wood fairing still installed then remove them or vise versa and duck tape them on to test the gain. I'm talking about just fairing and not the entire gear cover, like Clay suggested above. I actually like the look of fairing and no cover on the landing gear.

I kind of like that look too. I used to do a lot of model airplane building. I wonder how Monokote would shrink over the fairings? It is pretty tough stuff and would certainly look better and be lighter than duct tape.

I am willing to bet Monokote would work well. Just make sure the seams are tight.

I talked to Ken Snider the other week. He makes the speed kits for Skywagons. He was telling me about the video tests they originally conducted on the gear legs. One leg they installed the fairing, the other leg left bare. Each leg had multiple yarns taped to the legs to observe airflow. In flight, the faired leg yarns were all flowing smoothly backwards. The unfaired leg yarns were pointing,.....get this,.... FORWARD!!!! At 120 mph you wouldn't believe it! Most spring steel gear are rounded in the back creating turbulence. I know you have tubular gear but the science is the same, dirty. Its kinda crazy, but I actually get an extra 10 knots true with that kit.

The point is, it couldn't hurt. Even replacing my 8.50's with 26" BW's I put the gear leg fairings back on, I can't fit the brake fairings. I only loose 3-4 knots, compared to 5-7 without them.

I realize your plane is relatively slow, but a little clean up here and there makes a difference. It aerodynamic science, not hokus-pokus. Of course, how much work and $$$ to achieve a few mph is another story,.....

I've been told that round tubes create 60% more drag than faired ones... That sounds about right based on your input.