Tail rotor gearbox on LMH cracks and breaks on tail strikes: Tip- try putting a couple layers of fiberglass over the gearbox. No more buying a gearbox. Note: do this before it break and rough
the surface so it will adhere better
Tail fin breaks: Make your own out of 3/32 or 1/8 lite plywood cover them with monokote, or poly paint. Note: these are much easier to replace than the plastic ones. dont forget to taper the edges.
Please post all you hints and tips for the LMH.

Thanks

When you decide you need a new crutch think about building it backwards. I did this so that the exhaust dose not hit the main gear or spur throwing fuel everywhere. Its almost ready.
If I get a camera for Christmas I will post some pictures.

Tail boom guard. I wrapped foam around tail boom, coke bottle plastic around that then black electrical tape. WORKS GREAT.
Only cover area were blades hit.
My LMH 110 is over a year old and has the original boom.

I mounted the tail servo in the rear. This will eliminate metal-metal contact with the loooonng tail servo rod touching the muffler. I managed to get servo twitching and glitching until I did this, now it works great and I get more throw, with faster response! Simply cut 4 pieces of smal balsa - 1.5 inches long and mount them off of the rear of the crutch. Then, slip the servo in there and away you go. Once I get some, pics, I'll post'm.

I'm now working on boom supports and a horizontal stab!


Later

Well I Hovered the heli with the new cruch built in revers, and it works I only had to clean off the back of one skid.
No more fuel mess!
The only down side I see so far is that the glow plug is harder for me to get to it is on other side. But I don't care it is worth it.

In a good crash I lose a lot of z links.
I am thinking of making my own with one end longer so that I can put a wheel collar on it. This would keep one end attached so I would not lose them.
Its not that they cost that much I Just hate down time when I am out of parts, and when the LHS is out.

Wait Joe, I dont think you really want to do that, you risk the chance of really messing up your rotor head, Its designed that way (to do that ) Just think if you had a collar to keep them from comming off in a crash your going to cause more stress on the part that it is connected to and as a result, youll going to be replacing more than a z link. I was having the same problem basically because of crashing. You have to stop crashing. Well back then I got fed up waiting on LHS for parts so I made my own. I made a bunch of them (about 10). That was about six months ago. Ive used mabey one so far. Trust me I do fly alot The LMH is my only Heli, I just dont crash alot anymore.

I was thinking of a wheel collar on only one end this would still let the other end pop out yet not losing the part.
I made a bunch of my own too. almost out again.
Most of my crashes now are do to wind and the fixed pitch rise and drops syndrome. Wind or no wind if I have time I am in the air.

I've made mine a little longer at both ends, didn't need the collar, never lost them again just make sure both z-links are the same size!!

I LIKE THAT LESS WEIGHT.

I have some pictures in my gallery of my new crutch build in reverse. Much cleaner!

Ok Joe, saw the pics. Its on my agenda, thanks.

When ever you make any changes to your heli setup put the training wheels back on your chopper and take off from a hard surface so you can see if the heli is pulling in any direction before it leaves the ground

I wanted to try the bigger blades on tail of my lmh have (LMH 110 BLADES), BUT thought I had nothing to lose buy modifying the old ones. They work great much more response.
I just glued on some clear plastic to blades. Made them a 1/4" bigger all the way around.

Hey Patternfly, What size stock do you use for those links?

Thanks, Phil......

darthdrk,

Could you put up some pics of your reinforced TR gearbox? I would like to do this to my next one...

Thanks in advance,
Spiro

Ok, heres a pic of my gearbox. I never did paint it. I was going to. If and when you do this, make sure you rough up the outside a little so the resin would adhere better. I figured on this fix after loosing about three gearboxes in a short amount of time. Dont use the fiberglass cloth you get at the autoparts store. You have to use some finer cloth. Wrap the gearbox several times. This has been a real cost saver for me. Get an old tailboom and rub candle wax on the end or a fiberglass form release agent and insert that end in your gearbox. gives you something to hold on to when doing this. Im getting ready to do another gearbox. but going to add a plate to the gearbox so I can bolt my tailfins to the gearbox. Hey, this is fun.

Hey guys just copied this from Litemachines website. Some guy by the name of Marty posted this(giving credit where credit is due):

Cost saving tips: The main rotor shaft can be replaced by going to your LHS and buying a 36” length of 5/32 music wire. This is hardened drill rod and is actually what the part is made of. This can be purchased for about one dollar, and you can make at least 4 main rotor shafts. You will need a tool like a Moto tool with a cut-off wheel and a grinding bit to make your replacements shafts. Z-bend links To help prevent the loss of these links take a 2-56 Die and put about 4 to 5 threads on one of the ends of each of the z-bend links. Then put a 2-56 nut on the z-bend link (after it is on the helo of course). Next put a drop of lock-tight on the nut (this will keep it from coming lose). With this mod, the z-link can still come free in a crash but will not get lost. Landing Gear wire This to can be made of music wire. Again your LHS most likely has this as a stock item and sells for less than 90 cents for a 36” length. Since this is hardened steel it is brittle and you must take care when bending at 90 degree angles. It does have the same flexibility as the original landing gear and is cheap. Tail Boom K&S Engineering sells this tubing (the same supplier that has the music wire) . They will sell direct but, you have to place an order for 80 dollars or more. My LHS does not carry it as part of their stock, however I was able to get one of my LHS (non-franchise) to order it direct from K&S (since I did not need that much) . I did have to buy four 36” lengths (that is the way K&S packages it). K&S sells it for about 9 dollars (4 36” lengths) the LHS sold it to me for 20 dollars. So I now have enough to make 8 tail booms (lets see LMH sells them for 10 dollars each I paid 2.50 each). I bought the thicker wall tubing and turned-down the TR bushings. The OD of the tubing is the same so nothing has to be done any of the other TR components.

Darthdrk, where did you get your fine mesh fiberglass cloth? What is the mesh size?

Thanks for the pics!

Spiro

At my local hobby center. They have several to choose from. I think I got the medium. Im sure I didnt get the lightest. Youll need something that when put around the curves, it wont try to lift off because of its rigidness.

Heres a pic of the gearbox tailfin mounting plate that I plan on incorporating into my next gearbox reinforcement fiberglassing. I plan on using a piece of 1/16 plywood. I dont see why just glueing a ply plate like this to a gearbox and drilling your tailfins and just bolting them on wouldnt work better than just glueing the whole tailfin on the gearbox. I brok a tailfin once and for the life of me couldnt get what was left off the gearbox. Well, Im sure that wont be a problem with this mod anymore. Im taking it a step further by fiberglassing the whole thing. Besides that, With the different Heli bodies I mount to my LMH chasis, this will be a Godsend when going from different tail fin designs and colors. To let you guys know, I dont buy tail fins anymore either. I make them out of 1/8 lite ply and and cover them with monokote or paint .

Heres some of my tailfins, all made from 1/8 lite ply.

I have been flying with an aluminum crutch for about a three-summer seasons.
I used 3/32 Aluminum flat stock. ¼ brass angle stock, 2-56-1/4 screws and JB weld.
I took the original wood crutch parts; double stick taped the parts to the flat stock.
Cut the parts out of the flat stock, and drilled the holes using the wood parts as the jig/template. I put them together using the brass stock, the 2-56 screws and JB weld under the brass angle stock.
I also put some scrap wood between the crutch and the Vmax to isolate the crutch from some of the heat transfer.

I have had no problems with weight (since LMH recommends adding 4-6oz of lead to the standard configuration). You do not need any stiffeners and I have yet to bend it on any crash (and I crash a lot).

I can post pics if wanted.
P.S I have made an adapter for standard GP to Vmax using old Vmax plug. If you are intrested in how post your request here.

notasme

darthdrk,

The tips you copied from LMH chat where mine thanks for posting here.

If you have in interest in how I successfully modified Vmax GP to standard I can send you a detailed description. It does require
a lath and precision measuring tools. I have been using the mod for two years.

notasme (not a subject matter expert)

Notasme, I have thought of making an aluminum crutch for my Corona, should I ever break the wood one. I have also toyed with the idea of tapping the crutch, rather than using the nylocks for weight savings.

Phil.