RickVB

My Feedback: (24)

I bought an H9 Taylorcraft built, which had big 'ole honkin fat 4.25" Dubro inflatables in place of the stock wheels, which obviously wouldn't fit in the wheel pants (which the guy who sold it to me obviously had destroyed in lousy landings - but that's another story).

I wanted to restore the original gear, so I purchased a new set of the stock wheel pants, but not the stock wheels or axles (I didn't see them listed on the Horizon site). I bought a set of Sullivan Skylight 3.5" wheels which seem to fit in the pants, and a set of Great Planes 3/16 bolt-on axles to hold them. Then I got the instructions from the Horizon web site, and tried to follow them.

How the *(&@^|#^@! is this supposed to work!?!? It seems to be asking you to drill a 1/4" hole through the pant and the wood reinforcement, and bolt the axle *through* the block and pant to the landing gear. Problem is, you can't get the wheel on after the axle is in, and you can't put the wheel on the axle and then fit them through the opening in the pant.

Were the stock wheels a lot thinner than they look in the picture? Is the axle setup different from the Great Planes ones (they sure don't look like it in the pictures)? Did anyone manage this per the manual?

rbort

My Feedback: (4)

I had the same issue and screwed up a couple of axles cutting them too short thinking I had to sneak the wheels in there.

Turns out you need to drill the wheel pant so it will fit on top of the axle built in nut on the outer edge. So you end up putting the wheel in the pant and then sliding the whole assembly onto the axle.

Medium CA a 1/4 inch thick plastic wheel spacer to the inside of the wheel pant on the opposite end of the pant so that the axle and slip into it and then wheel pant will be alot more rigid when you are done.

You will need to trim the axles just enough so that the axle will slip into the plastic collar and just touch the outer side of the wheel pant from the inside when you tighten the socket screw holding the pant in, but not push outwards on it.

This way if you try to squeeze the pant just a tiny bit in that area you cant as it will be supported by the axle.

More info than you need, but it helps I'm sure!

-=>Raja.

Walter D

My Feedback: (16)

I did follow directions on my Taylorcraft when installing the wheelpants, after almost 30 years in modeling, I'm still asking myself why? This is probably the worst method of doing it, as you have to force the axles with wheels installed and it doesn't take to long to see the wheelpants starting to develop cracks, in only 2 or 3 tries. Instead, just affix the axles to the landing gear, now relief (cut away) the wheelpant so it just drops over the axle nut (do make sure that the hexagonal shape of the nut has both perpendicular sides upright, thus you have less area to debur from the wheelpant, with the airplane upside down, present the wheelpant as it would normally go, and now you can cut the length of the axle to fit just inside the wheelpant.
Present the reinforcement plywood plate inside the pant (for stregth) and mark with a pencil the shape of the opening and cut away, then glue it in position.
If the cutaway made in the wheelpant was done correctly, it can be held in place with just one screw, as per instructions, if not, drill another hole through gear, and pant and install another one, make sure of correct position before doing this.
This is harder to explain than to do it, way faster and better than as per instructions.
If you don't understand my explanation let me know and I'll do some drawings.

RickVB

My Feedback: (24)

I kinda thought the solution would involve slotting the pant to fit over the pre-installed axle; too bad I already followed the instructions and epoxied and glassed the wood block in, so Walter's approach won't work. I suppose I could *carefully* countersink the 3/16 hole on the outside to 1/4+ diameter, deep enough to fit the axle nut, and side it straight on. Time to break out the Forstner bits. Thanks for the help, guys!