Wheel pants?
 

What is the best method for mounting fiberglass wheel pants??????? Thanx Max

RE: Wheel pants?
 

A bottom drawer in the darkest part of the shop . Sorry about that but as you can see I'm not a big fan of wheel pants . ENJOY !!! RED

RE: Wheel pants?
 

If you fly off of grass put them away...if your paved then use two screws through the gear into a blind mounted on wood glued to the inside of the pant. re-enforce the area around the wood at the opening of the pant with epoxy.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I've used these and they work well

http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGSH728.html

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I have used the Sullivan mounts several times. I really like the way they work. http://www.sullivanproducts.com/Land...rMainFrame.htm

RE: Wheel pants?
 

The Sig mounts are the best that I've found. I fly exclusively from grass fields, and encounter few problems with wheel pants.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

SPATS: SPATS: SPATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pants cover legs, spats cover shoe (wheel) tops:-)))))))))))))))))))

Les

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I just fut a plywood pad in above the axle and run two screws through the gear and into a couple blind nuts pressed into the plywood. Some guys don't have enough wheel exposed and run into problems in grass. I leave at least 40% of the wheel sticking out of the pant.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I didn't care for the SIG mounts at all but the Sullivan system looks good, I haven't tried them though. I do about the same thing as speed but just use servo screws right through the ply.
Grass?? What is this grass stuff I keep hearing about???;)

RE: Wheel pants?
 

Gray, its like green hair on the ground. It can usually be found where water falls from the sky.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

Water from the sky?????

RE: Wheel pants?
 

They are wheel pants. Spats are like wheel pants except they don't cover the top of the wheel some of the yaks and sohkois use spats

RE: Wheel pants?
 

Yup...correct

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...FVSEARCH=Spats

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I fly off grass all the time since that is what my club runway consists of. Granted it is sod farm grass that we have had for years. I have been a club member here for 7 years and it has not been replaced, thus it is not as smooth as the sod farm grass that is 3' away and much smoother due to being replaced every year. Evenso, I install wheelpants on just about every single plane that comes with them. Over time, even with perfect landings most of the time, wheel pants will eventually get damaged, but I just repair them when needed with extra FG cloth and epoxy on the inside or outside. The repairs give them character, lol. IMHO the planes that come with them look way better with wheel pants. I am a pantsoholic and proud of it. There I said it, haha. I rather put the pants on and repair them sometimes because my planes just look sexier with their pants on. I use the various methods mentioned about using the ply plate, adding one if absent (be sure it is hard ply), hardening with CA, overlaying with more FG cloth and epoxy, etc. Sometimes the holes in the plates just wear out and larger screws are needed, or refill the holes and bore them out again, or locate a new hole in the LG and the pant. Maintaining wheel pants just takes some annual checkups, sometimes more frequently. If I had to fly off really rough grass, as in weeds, such that damage was incurred every time out, then I would probably leave them off. As I mentioned, my field is grass and we keep it short. Jon

RE: Wheel pants?
 

Sourkraut

You're looking to Tower for correct definition of terms:-(((((((((((((((((((

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Model-Airc...item25802253ec

http://www.carboncopyuk.com/acatalog...aft_Parts.html

Les

RE: Wheel pants?
 

A lifetime of being around airplanes....my Dad called them pants when i was like 8. Everyone I ever knew called them pants.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

I have never had an issue with wheel pants and grass when they've been mounted securely.

For general mounting, I use 4mm bolts for axles. Bolt goes through landing gear and through hole in wheel pant, then through nut to hold the wheel pant on. Then the wheel (maybe a plastic spacer in there if necessary) and another nut. The most important part is that the bolt needs to come out the other side of the wheel pant.

So you have one bolt, two nuts, possibly some spacers and/or washers to keep things nice.

If the bolt doesn't go through both sides of the wheel pant, then grass can pull the wheel pant off to the side and crack it. Having the bolt go fully through gives it a ton of extra support.

You'll notice I don't generally use pins to hold the wheel pant from rotating. You can get the bolts tight enough, no problem. If the field is *that bad, the pant might rotate a little and you move it back. So the movement absorbs a lot of energy that could otherwise cause damage.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

Both links are UK sites. They speak a different English than we do. Heck, they even drive on the wrong side of the road ! :)

RE: Wheel pants?
 

"Both links are UK sites. They speak a different English than we do. Heck, they even drive on the wrong side of the road !"

Yeah, but they been around a lot longer than we:-))))))))))))))))

Something about the firstest:-)))))))))))))

Les

RE: Wheel pants?
 

We had airplanes first though.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

The current (June) issue of Flying Models magazine has a good article on the installation of wheel pants.

RE: Wheel pants?
 

"We had airplanes first though. "

That is debatable. There were conflicting reports about dates that were veeeeery close together, and depending on how you define "airplanes".

Les