Landing Gear Page IILanding Gear Page IIA friend of mine took a look at the Dan Diehl brackets and said he could build them out of 1/8 inch 4130 plate for maybe $30.00. I told him to knock himself out! :o) I cut out the pieces on a large band saw at work and he welded them together.
The new brackets fresh from the sand blaster. One has a coat of black epoxy paint applied.
Wheel and lower bracket clamped to gear leg
Left upper bracket painted white
Axle and lower bracket which still needs a gusset welded in
Right upper bracket painted black
Left gear leg as seem exiting bottom of wing
Brake disc and caliper
Side view mounted wheel, much further forward
Gear leg too long? Considering trimming off 2 inches at this point
Trimmed off one and half inches from the bottom of the legs and bolted everything up. It looks and works great so far. The distance from the bottom of the wing to the ground is 22 inches (main spar area) and I have about 6 inches of prop clearance when in a level attitude. The wheels fall about 8 inches in front of the front face of the main spar. This is much better than the old gear which was only about 4 inches forward of the main spar. Another benefit to this gear change is the airplane lost about 20 pounds!
First shots of the Pig on her new feet.
More Info
I used EZ-Poxy and the glass is a combination of tri-ply and
unidirectional spar cap tape. Both items are available at Aircraft
Spruce. The triply cloth is 22 oz and its part number 01-38300 and the
spar cap tape is part number 01-06800 and its also 22 oz. I used equal
layers of each for a total of 36. The legs are 1 inch thick and seem to
be heavy enough for my plane. I still need to wrap the legs in 2 layers
of bid. People seem to think that if you don't wrap the unidirectional
glass it will splinter?
Changes last made on: Sept, 25 1999