HighWing LLC Bush Gear

[FoxDB]

Tuna,
I would agree with John on the Aluminum Gear Durability advantage, at least when it comes to vertical drop. However it is my opinion it may not take as much horizontal force (mainly fuselage attachment)(But then you may be upside down before it breaks). I designed and built my our Landing Gear that is similar to the Highwing LLC, Kitfox Bush and Airdale Landing gear and performed my own drop test and found the maximum drop I could safely attain was 5.5 - 6.0 inches without fully compressing the Die Spring. The 3/4" axles are the week point. My calculations showed I could bend the axles at 4" drop but was happy to find they did not bend (may have been stronger than min. yield for normalized condition and geometry changes are hard to analyze with tire contact. The gear does have a Super Cub/Waco Look though. Here is a link to my Drop Test if your interested. You should notice the tires did not provide any cushioning in the test.
Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQtKQ5gHVY

[oldfox]

Hey guys looking to do the same to my Model 1 after doing a ground loop or close to it. I would like to know how to check the camber of the wheels ??? when I roll the plane forward and check the distance between the wheels and roll it back I have a 3" change in distance ?? looks like too much of postive camber. Oh by the way can not even think of putting plane on two wheels without doing some offroading.

[FoxDB]

Oldfox,
It sounds like you have a "toe in" or "toe out" problem. Camber should be about 2-3 degrees (bottom of tires closer to each other than top) with empty aircraft. The toe should be checked at positions across the front and across the back of the tires inline with the axle and equal distance from the fuselage down (not equal distance from the ground on taildraggers as the camber will effect this measurement).
Dave

[FoxDB]

Oldfox,
After re-reading your post it does sound like toe-in as rolling the plane forward with toe-in would drive the tires together and vise versa when rolling backward. It is very difficult to take off and land with that condition as you know the wheel with the more weight will decide the direction you will go and a quick change of weight can dramatically change your direction. There has been discussion in the past on how to correct the condition including bending the axles. I would prefer bending the gear slightly. You would do this with a long pipe attached so it does not just bend the axle.
Dave

[oldfox]

Thanks Dave I will try this on the old gear and see if it helps. I planed on replacing the gear anyway with the LLC bush gear but need to save some money first. Again were do you take the messurements from to set the gear ??? or process when building new ??

[GDN]

Tuna, Here are some previously posted pictures of my conversion to the Highwing bush gear.. The thin aluminum fairings on the gear add a nice look also. It was a weekend job and I am using the original Douglas wheels,brakes,axles,etc. The total weight for the conversion was a few pounds lighter than the original gear. (I weighed all the installed and removed parts).
Either way you go, it's a dramatic improvement over the stock gear !
Dick

Just one question bought the same and yesterday put in place just to see and it is not fitting perfectly i will have tu push strongly to put one bolt.

Put the same tires too, does your angle of attack kept the same as the tires are higher but the landing gear seem lower ? Did you keep the original 5" tail wheel ?

[catz631]

As I recall, I too had a problem with one bolt and had to grind a very tiny part of the gear bracket to get a nice fit. It was not a problem though.
The gear made the nose of the aircraft sit a little higher on the ground and it was a little more reach during the "burping process". The angle of attack is a little higher (which is fine) You will notice it when you sit in the aircraft but rapidly get used to it.
I now use a 6 inch Matco pnuematic tailwheel. BUT this was not a result of the gear mod. I have just been playing around with tailwheels to find one that manuevers well on grass. I originally stayed with the 5 inch Maule after going to the bush gear and it worked just fine except it was a little worn from previous use and tight turning on grass was a bit of a pain.
The Matco is a little better but not much. It is much quiter though. It doesn't resonate thru the fuselage as the Maule did. You can feel the cushion effect of the air in the tire.
Hope this helps.
Dick

[GDN]

Thank you for the quick answer will see when my recovering will be finished.

Merry Christmas to all the Kitfox owners !

[oldfox]

No I did not change the tail wheel and had no problem with it.

[cainbird]

[ATTACH]kitfox 2.jpg[/ATTACH]I just installed the Highwing gear on my model 4 and couldn't be happier. What a great improvement over the stock gear!Attachment 4389