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alignment

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byoungplumbing(at)gmail.c
Guest

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 5:53 am Post subject: alignment

how are you re aligning the wheels....   are you bending the axels / gear/ 

or adjusting the position through elongated holes that are moving under 

load?  are the setting  going back to the original settings or ending up in 

the opposite direction?



also how are you setting the alignment?   the best way I have found is to 

put the wheels on grease plates, take a straight edge, take your choice, 

2x4,   1x4,  angle iron,  etc    behind the wheels at axel height.  take a 

carpenter square and align with the straight edge while holding the other 

edge against the outside of the  tire, then measure to the front and rear 

edges of the rim.   on a 5 3/4 inch rim, 6 is close enough,, the difference 

between the measurement in inches, multiplied by 10 equals the degrees in 

toe in or toe out.   example:    if the back of the rim to the square is 

0.5  inches   and the measurement to the square from the front of the rim is 

0.55 inches the difference is 0.05 inches    multiplied by 10  equals 0.5 

deg.     because the front of the rim measurement is greater than the 

measurement to the back.. it is toe in.  if you donâ€™t use the grease 

plates.. the rolling resistance from the tire to the ground will affect the 

reading.



boyd

do not archive

 	  Quote: 	
		  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


	




Is there a stronger gear that can be used or additional bracing to keep

things from coming out of alignment.



Any other ideas ?



thanks for any responses,



Lee

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lmorgan100(at)charter.net
Guest

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:51 am Post subject: alignment

boyd,  

Thanks for the response,  

My main problem now is that the landing gear keeps bending, just from going up and down the runway.  

It bends in the tapered portion of the aluminum legs, Is this taper for a reason other than weight ?  

I have been thinking about making adapters to put 1 1/2 inch fiberglass in place of the aluminum, also going to try cable bracing on the existing legs.  

I have a couple of dips in the runway that are not to kind to week landing gear.  

 I don't own the property and the land owner for some reason doesn't want me to do anything to it to smooth it out.  

He also uses the surrounding field for hay.  

 I have a CGS hawk  single place that has fiberglass landing gear and it handles the dip fine.  

thanks,  

Lee  

       [quote][b]

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frank goodnight

Joined: 27 Dec 2011
Posts: 126

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:24 am Post subject: alignment

Hi Lee,

Hope you don't mind my butting in and adding my 2 cents worth.I had the same problem with my firestar. I weigh 235lb.and just a short taxi over moderatly rough ground would 

bend the alum gear. After talking to Larry Cottrel out in Oregon and Travis at the kolb 

factory, I bought some 4130 tubing from aircraft spruce I don't remember the the size

or wall thickness( I'm sure Larry or Travis has that and the heat treat #) and had it 

heat treated to make it springy. Kolb will tell you the down side of this change is  if you have a 

really rough landing you will bend the cage but that the soft alum gear is designed to bend and 

save the cage, be that as it may after 200 hrs and plenty of MUCH less  than perfect

landings, lots of them off airport, my gear is still as good as new and my cage is fine.

Hope this helps.

Frank Goodnight 

HKS engine 

chrome molly landing gear

From: Lee <lmorgan100(at)charter.net>

To: kolb-list(at)matronics.com

Sent: Sat, April 27, 2013 6:51:14 AM

Subject: Re: alignment



                  

boyd,   

Thanks for the response,   

My main problem now is that the landing gear keeps bending, just from going up and down the runway.   

It bends in the tapered portion of the aluminum legs, Is this taper for a reason other than weight ?   

I have been thinking about making adapters to put 1 1/2 inch fiberglass in place of the aluminum, also going to try cable bracing on the existing legs.   

I have a couple of dips in the runway that are not to kind to week landing gear.   

 I don't own the property and the land owner for some reason doesn't want me to do anything to it to smooth it out.   

He also uses the surrounding field for hay.   

 I have a CGS hawk  single place that has fiberglass landing gear and it handles the dip fine.   

thanks,   

Lee   

        	  Quote: 	
		  

	


   

 [quote][b]

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byoungplumbing(at)gmail.c
Guest

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:24 pm Post subject: alignment

lee

 the taper would be for weight and also flexibility...  if the gear was  too ridged all the shock of a rough landing would transfer to the  cage.   some on the list have made their own gear from round  tubing,  cut fit welded to shape, then heat treated to spring  steel.    somewhere in the back of my mind, it seems Kolb used  some fiberglass gear,   but went away from it,  I donâ€™t know  why.   if you look in the archives,  and do a search for  straightening alum gear,,  there will be some information you can  find.   seems you could only do it a couple times then had to   buy new.    I donâ€™t know about cable bracing...  seems that  would make things a bit ridged.

  

 good luck

  

 Boyd young

  

 do not archive

    

  From: Lee (lmorgan100(at)charter.net) 

 Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2013 5:50 AM

 To: kolb-list(at)matronics.com (kolb-list(at)matronics.com) 

 Subject: Re: alignment

  



   

boyd, 

Thanks for the  response, 

My main problem now is that the  landing gear keeps bending, just from going up and down the  runway. 

It bends in the tapered portion of  the aluminum legs, Is this taper for a reason other than weight  ? 

I have been thinking about making  adapters to put 1 1/2 inch fiberglass in place of the aluminum, also going to  try cable bracing on the existing legs. 

I have a couple of dips in the  runway that are not to kind to week landing gear. 

I don't own the property and the  land owner for some reason doesn't want me to do anything to it to smooth it  out. 

He also uses the surrounding field  for hay. 

I have a CGS hawk  single place  that has fiberglass landing gear and it handles the dip  fine. 

thanks, 

Lee

[quote]

[b]

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lcottrell

Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 1494
Location: Jordan Valley, Or

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:46 pm Post subject: alignment

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 7:23 AM, frank goodnight <frank.goodnight(at)att.net (frank.goodnight(at)att.net)> wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   Hi Lee,

 Kolb will tell you the down side of this change is  if you have a 

really rough landing you will bend the cage but that the soft alum gear is designed to bend and 

 save the cage.



	
===============

Having lots of experience in bending landing gear, I believe that I might be an exdribble in the matter. (Not quite enough to qualify for exspurt quite yet. ) I think it might be the only case wherein Kolb has misjudged the damage factor between alum crumbling and causing a wreck, and spring steel causing malformation of the cage.

 



One of my mishaps involved bending the landing gear far enough that the wheel turned, (Dropped it about 5 feet over a fence with the early smaller gear legs) and threw me into a ditch. The cage definitely bent and not from the impact.

 



I have several times on a landing that I thought wasn't all that bad, ( for me at least) actually had enough compression that it would close the Master switch. ( It was a pull switch mounted flat)

 



I got tired of the alum gear and managed to obtain a set of 4130 legs tempered to 46-48 Rockwell, and found that the spring of the 36 inch legs is a lot easier on the plane than the alum. If you hit hard, the spring of the legs will cushion a lot of the jolt, which I never found to be so with the Alum legs. Of course there is about a foot more leg sticking out than the alum and that would also be a factor. 

 



I am sure that my landings have gotten a bit better, but I have not bent anything nor shut off any switches since changing over.

I believe that Travis could help you out with a set, and my opinion is that it is definitely worth the effort and cost.

 Larry

  [quote][b]

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