smart1

im building a 4star 60 and i want wheelpants. i would like to use 3 1/4"dubro treaded lite wheels.

Alex7403

i took my wheel pants off because if something is happening and the wheel pant is breaking loose it continues and breaking the wing too.
i heard this warning but i didn't listen so i had to order a new wing.

Alex

Ram Jet

Most wheel pants connect at the very end of the landing gear legs. If the wheel pant attachment failed it seems like a remote possibility that it would damage your wing enough to require replacement. Wheel pants must weigh about 2 - 3 grams. Just curious.

Bill

Ram Jet

I was on the Tower website last night and under Great Planes they listed a ton of different wheel pants. Some are in a kit that you assemble yourself. I'm looking for a pair for my Oriental C/L.

Bill

ChuckW

I used the wheel pants off of a Somthin Extra ARF on a 4* once. www.ohiomodelplanes.com also has nice universal wheel pants.

*JCB*

My Feedback: (9)

use the ones from the Hog Bipe. Call Sig, I'm sure they'd be glad to help you out. They have a great customer service reputaion

Campgems

I use the Dubro comosite landing gear on the 4*60's I've build and killed. A nice touch is a set of wheel pants from a 60 size U-Can_Do. They are white fiber glass and should handle your wheels nicely. They have a set of lugs to lock into the landing gear and I have to cut the flats on the Dubro gear to fit. I then use the Dubro axels and bolt them together. If my fit isn't quite right, I use some epoxy between the gear and the pants to take up the slack between the lugs and the landing gear. Here are a couple photos of the pants and gear on a Ruperts Dad built from plans plane. I've got the same setup on a Great Planes Super Aeromaster and I used this on my last 4*60.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXBMP0&P=Z The wheel pants
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXNM65&P=SM The Landing Gear
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXD823&P=SM The axels

It is a cheap and good looking setup. Just paint the landing gear to match the pants, Paint both if you don't want white.

Don

Darn it I fortot the photos

Campgems

One more thing, If you land hard and break the LG off, the wheels and pants are going to go through the bottom of the wing, on the top also in one case. Doesn't matter much if there are wheel pants on or not. I rebuilt/recoverd the bottom of the wings three times due to these hard landings, and a couple when I greased it down on the grass next to the paved runway only to drop into a ground squirlel hole and snap it off. The wheel pants will agrivate this a bit, but on the other hand they look good and you will become a better pilot unless you like rebuilding wings

Don

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Wheel pants and unpaved fields do not get along.

Campgems

luckly our field is paved.

A little story about pants though. I purchaced the colection of a local guy who was retiring from the hobby. Included was a Quicke 500, one of the orginal ones. The wire landing gear had cables and other add ons to try and stiffen it up. I found an aluminum gear of the right size and it had wheels and pants already installed. Dressed the little guy right up. I flew the plane a couple times on the buddy box, WOW what a ride, then put it away. I pulled it out again after I had a bunch of solo hours. Three or four good flights then it developed a really bad ground handeling habbit, sharp left turns. One of the guy who flew the quicke in compentition was "helping" me one day. It was behaving really bad that day. Taxi to the center line and as soon as you started throttle up, it would go into it sharp left turn, I'm not talking about a torque pull to the left, but cutting donuts the diameter of the wing span. He decided that I would hold the plane and he would come up to full throttle and then I would release it. A compentition start. Well when I released the plane, it lunged forward about 5 ft and then went into its donut trick. I though it was going to eat me before I could get out of it's way. As I'm carrying the plane back to the pits, I heard something rattling around. I shook the plane a few time and discovered it was comming from the left wheel pant. A small rock had found it way in and while it was free inside, it would lock the left wheel now and then. Off came teh wheel pants on that one. I now make sure that there is a lot of clearance around the wheel.

Don

Deadeye

w8ye, while I have always read your post with great respect, I am going to be forced to disagree with you on this point. Nearly all of my planes have pants, and I fly off a decent patch of grass, that still has it's share of rough spots - even gopher holes. I have never had a pant break if they are installed with OUTER SUPPORT. That is the key to a solid pant mount. While i do wear the paint off of them sometimes, they aren't breaking or even cracking for that matter.

The attached diagram shows how I use poly-glued postage stamp sized plywood on the outside of the pant. The steel axle extends INTO this 'bushing', thus giving the outer pant support.

Deadeye

I should add that I use 1/8 aircraft ply on both the outside and inside of the pant. In the following pictures, the Extra has 200 flights, and is showing some paint wearing off. The Skybolt has probably 300 flights on it, and I cleared the pants enough, that the clearcoat is just showing signs of wear. The Cessna has only 25 flights, so it doesn't count. The Blue SE has 300 flights - no wear, no cracks (pics was taken day of maiden - pants added the next day). The American scheme SE only has 50 or so flights, so it's too early to see how they will last. But they are installed the same.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Randy, Thanks to your engineering expertise, you have been very successful with your pants.

All I ever see is them cocking, catching, and falling off when they are not firmly mounted and flying off grass.

Campgems

I've seen ailerons, rudders, and wings fall off also. I think it has more to do with who than what

Don