TRAILER & LANDING GEAR

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All the time I've been building, the nagging little thought of "What am I gonna DO with this thing when it's done" has been there, but was among many other "future concerns."  It IS a valid question, tho'.  Hangar space in the Palm Springs area is approaching $500.00 a month - beyond my means, and I hated to tie it down out in the open because of concerns over the terrific summer heat here, and also very possible vandalism/component theft.  Then, in the early part of 2003, a friend in San Diego decided to sell his plane and trailer.  I grabbed the chance at the trailer.

I was familiar with the trailer from past visits, and John offered it at a very fair price.  The fact that the trailer was built for a single seat Kolb FireStar, and I have a 2 seat Kolb Mk III was just a detail.........right ??  Couple of old sayings started coming true right away.  (1) Nothing is as simple as it seems, and (2) Change 1 thing, change everything.  Boy, are they ever the truth, especially since I seem to lead with my chin, and figure things out later.  Right away, I found that Vamoose was a very tight fit in this new toy.

Fortunately, Vamoose was already at the A&P's shop in Yucca Valley, being covered, so just hauled the trailer up there.  Tape measure showed that length was just barely adequate, and offered no room for a winch, so the 1st item of business was to lengthen the nose.  The mess shown here, above, has since been changed, and the winch will live there. and the battery a few feet away, along the side.  With the wings folded, the leading edges are fairly close to the ground.  This requires a straight line into the trailer.

Otherwise the leading edges will drag on the "hump" where the ramp meets the trailer.  Previous owner John Wood had solved the problem with a clever lifting arrangement that attached to the hitch that would let the trailer cup right back down onto the ball, so with a little cutting and welding, it was modified to fit the big diesel Dodge.  It was quickly found that weight on the back would sink the thing down, and give a reverse hump.  John had used a block under the back end, but I wanted to get a little fancier, and came up with the idea of reversible "legs" to support the weight in back when loading/unloading.

Wishful thinking had led me to hope that Vamoose' 78" wheelbase would fit into the FireStar's 76" wide trailer.  Duh.........Uh-UH.  So..........narrow the landing gear.  Simple.  Uh-huh, it was, and I narrowed it 3" to give a little room, and with tremendous effort, squeezing, and fragrant language, actually managed to get the plane into its' new home.  'Bout stripped my gears.  Did I mention that 1 thing always leads to another ??  Or that Murphy's Law ALWAYS applies to projects like this ??

This trial run was, of course, with the wings off.  When the time came to bring Vamoose home, with the wings folded, I nearly gave up in despair.  Tore up the leading edges anyway, ailerons hit the roof in the front, aileron balancers hit the sides when the ailerons were laid down..........on and on.  I had also installed a larger tailwheel, being far less than impressed with the toy that came in the kit.  Being real bright and intelligent, (and not knowing) I got a non-breakaway model, that made it nearly impossible to load the plane without dis-connecting it.

You'll notice that the tailwheel post isn't quite vertical.  'Nother mistake, and had to rebuild it.  I'm also installing a breakaway wheel to save at least that small hassle each time.  Narrowing the landing gear, which sockets are welded in at an angle also, of course, lowered the plane a couple of inches.  The much bigger tailwheel made the problem even worse, and a B.S. session around the fire at the Monument Valley fly-in convinced me that the reduced angle of attack would create problems, especially a higher take-off and landing speed, which, for an off-airport plane is just no good.

A few people started noticing cracks in the Matco wheels that are commonly used, and which are, I believe, rated at 600# capacity for the pair, with their 6.00x6 tires.  More talk on the Kolb List, especially with John H., led me to the (much) taller 8.00x6 tires, and the much heavier Matco 1300# capacity wheel assemblies, with their 3/4" axles and tapered roller bearings.  Since Vamoose weighs more than 600# empty, this was a logical step, and it also lifts those leading edges a few inches as well.  Looks sexy, too.  Heavier, as well, but'cha cain't have ever'thin'........??

In the picture above, you can see how low those fragile leading edges really are, as well as the size of the much taller 8.00x6 tires.  John Hauck's Miss P'fer at right really catches my eye with its tall, aggressive stance, and those big tires.  John used an extended landing gear that stands the plane taller, wider, and with the wheels 6" farther forward, to help avoid the tendency of these planes to nose over in soft soil, or under hard braking.  I couldn't go wider, cause of the trailer..........

..........but..........if I bent the gear leg down, I could go as high as I wanted.  Yah ! ! !  Now, how to attach the wheel to it ??  John had success with a stock type set-up that had - for me - proven to be extremely difficult to align properly, which made the plane extremely difficult to pull straight back into the trailer.  A&P Jim Johnson looked at it, and said, "why not use a Cessna type of set-up ??"  A call to Matco told me that a standard aircraft type square mounting flange was available, and they very kindly sent me a pair at no charge, since I'd already bought the wheel/tire/brake assemblies from them.  This allows me to use standard Cessna 150 tapered alignment shims, and set the thing up precisely.  Big Benefit - - - look at how rugged this whole set-up is.

A brain(??)storming session with Jim led to the idea of welding stand-offs on the gear legs to set the mounting pad out far enuf to get the bolts behind it.  Since Vamoose was freshly covered and painted, we hated to cut into it and start welding, so came up with the idea of just rotating the legs in the sockets, to swing the wheels forward, as far as we wanted - which will vary the angle the legs will need to be bent to.  As I write this, in mid-October, '03, he's busy bending and fitting the whole mess.  When done, it'll all go to the heat treating shop, to be hardened to R48.  Then paint them, and install.  Vamoose will be lifted a total of 9" in front, and the new 4" breakaway tailwheel will drop the tail 1".  Angle of attack will be much improved.  The leg sockets on the plane will be reinforced with 1 3/8" x 1/8" 4130 steel, and the legs, which will slip up inside them are 1 1/8" x 1/8" 4130.  John H. has found this combination to be more than adequately strong, so I'm going with his recommendations.  I'm not an artist, by any means, but did fool around in Paint long enuf to produce a couple of drawings of what the finished landing gear should look like.  Shouldn't be too much longer, now...........I hope.  Been saying that for the last 5 of the 7 years I've been building this thing.  :-)                 Lar.

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Jim also came up with the idea of making removable, temporary lift points that would attach to the lower wing strut fittings, to lift the whole plane when working on the landing gear.  Sounded good to me, and in my day-dreaming came up with some weird and wonderful ideas to accomplish this.  Next time I went to visit, the deed was done, and soooo simple.  Just a simple "J" hook that pins into the strut bracket, and a stub projecting below.  For wheel alignment especially, this will be a great benefit.  Thanks Jim ! ! !