chuck l

My Feedback: (17)

I need to replace the stock landing gear on my 28% Edge and am thinking about going with the Graphtec replacement. Any body have experience, comments or recommendations?

Thanks
Chuck

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

If I may offer an opinion, my opinion is to not purchase or install C/F landing gear from aftermarket sources. Few, if any, of the aftermarket c/f landing gear are manufactured using the correct process to provide maximum strength, nor do they often use the correct fiber weaves, lay up, and laminating material. If you hear of someone making C/F gear that actually cures them in a kiln, let me know. That will finally be a place to obtain strong, lightweight landing gear, but only then.

Just an opinion.

RCFREAK

silversurfer i have to disagree with you there mate... [X(]
i have a Graphtech and its the best investment i have made on the model.
It withstood a crash not a crack on it. The CF gears are flexible enough to act like suspention and there plenty stiff.
Lightweight.. What more could you want. Please go ahead and buy one

charrua

My Feedback: (47)

I'm amslo using the Graphtech CF Landing Gear purchased directly from Graphtech and I have been using it for over 1 year now,,,and I can tell you it's plenty of strong,,,,I have done several hard landing in 1 wheel to bend an aluminum one and mine has been fine,,,aslo have done several harrier landing on thi gear and it doesn't even notice it.

I have also heard a lot of bad things about it but I'haven't experience one,,I think if they delaminate or break it's because a really hard landing which might make an aluminm LG bend also.

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

Exactly CHARRUA,, I ordered mine from Troybuiltmodels, and it has done fine, looks brand new,,,, after 5months of hard flying,,, I would reccomend it to anyone,,

flyingohio

My Feedback: (2)

The Graphtech gear that was on my 300LX held up perfectly, plenty of less-than-perfect landings and even a crash that destroyed the plane! They look as good as the day I received them from TBM.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Perhaps things have changed considerably in the year plus since I have used C/F landing gear. Prior to that most, if not all, of the aftermarket C/F landing gear were certain to fail regardless of how they were treated by the user in a relatively short period of time. A search will locate numerous posts by others relating to the problems at the time. The guarantees were great but it cost about 1/3 of the gear price to mail the stuff back and forth.

Kudos to those manufacturers that may now be doing things correctly but I'll stay with standard gear for awhile yet.

sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

I purchased a set of graphtec gear from troybuilt last year for my 28% extra special and love the gear. It has proven to be very strong, durable, and lightweight. It looks really great and I am extremely happy with the performance. I would not hesitate to buy it again.
Alot of people on this forum really seem to go one way or the other with graphtec, ie there is a school of people that like them and a school of people that say they are weak and break. I suspect that the second group are the people that are doing harrier landings all the time and being really hard on the gear. Well, all I can say it what do you expect? My personal style of flying does not involve a lot of extreme stress on the gear, so they work great for that purpose.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

I don't ever do harrier landings since I like to keep the empennage attached to the fuselage. It's not very often that I land hard either, but it does happen from time to time as I'm laid claim to elsewhere. I'll presume there are many others with similar landing talent, i.e., people that land, not arrive. Rolling down a smooth asphalt runway is not normally considered stressful to the gear.

Fact of life was that there was a period of time not all that long ago when C/F landing gear for the 28% planes from one source sucked and would always fail via delamination no matter what you did. Been there, done that, as have many others. There was no need to harrier land or drop in, they would just come apart from the flexing of normal landings. Then again, that was also the same period of time that the C/F gear available for the 28% Extra was actually designed to be used on a slightly smaller plane from a different manufacturer. More searching will find that the norm was for people to receive the smaller gear from a certain C/F manufacturer when they ordered for a 28% W/H. Perhaps the mold was finally changed to one of the right size?

Again, if the gear is finally being made in a manner that permits strength and durability and permits more that 20 landings or so before it gives up, then great. Spend the cash and go for it. As one that fully understands what's necessary for proper C/F lay up and curing I'll continue to wait out the customer testing process that's obviously currently taking place. Come flying with me some time to see if you can land as smooth or softly, mono wing or bipe, large or small, it's all the same to me.

BTW, I have not in any post in this thread mentioned the name of any manufacturer. From a personal position I would truly enjoy having a nice, light set of C/F landing gear that saved me half a pound or better but I would prefer to only pay for, ship, and install it once.

sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

silversurfer,
you may want to check out the new generation CF gear then. I am your average flyer that occasionally has some harder landings than I would like. I land on a blacktop runway, which probably results in a harder landing than soft grass. With that said, mine is holding up just fine.

SitNFly

My Feedback: (54)

I'll go with the Surfer on this one. I've had two sets of Graphtec gear on my 29% Edge. One older and one "new generation". Both of them delaminated on one side. Landings were definitely not harrier style. Seems like it's a little bit of a roll of the dice. Sure are pretty and light, but I'm back to aluminum.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

I'm of the opinion that grass places a larger load on the gear than a smooth surface. "Blacktop" has less drag and a lot fewer bumps. However, how you land on a blacktop surface makes all the difference in the world.

RC_DESI

My Feedback: (44)

I would say go with the Graphtech Landing Gear. Had one on my 28% Extra & it worked great.

Infact I have the spare one I bought on sale here are RCU http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=210544. ;-)