> > Could someone tell me the angle of the Diehl main gear brakets? I
> intend to make my own. I also remember a post regarding composite
> legs that some of you had used. Any idea if they might still be
> available ? ps at what position are the mounting brackets attached
> to the main spar? Thanks Mark
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>You can find the fiberglass legs on eBay. Aviation parts/ Grumman
>tiger undrilled. Contact me direct and ill sen you photos of my
>setup with PDFs of drawings. I'm also using the legs cut down for
>the front gear.
>Dprich01 at comcast.net
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The Diehl upper brackets are mounted to the spar with the leg angled
at 45 degrees. The lower bracket is also 45 degrees. If you want to
increase the camber a bit I'd suggest you modify the lower fitting a
bit to the angle you want. I went with 45 / 45 and it has worked out
well for me. The Grumman gear legs are made of the same material as
the Diehl legs but are slightly thicker and wider. You will have to
modify them a bit to get similar results, i.e., cut a bit narrower or
run through a planner to modify the thickness. Some builders make
upper gear brackets using 1/8" steel plate. I added about 1/8" of
fiberglass to my 30 inch legs for a bit more stiffness. If you use
the Grumman legs with more than 24" length I'd suggest leaving them a
bit thicker than the 24" Diehl leg. With my 24" fuselage stretch I
needed longer legs to get the correct 3 point stance.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32133949/IMG_8669.JPG
I made my lower brackets using a piece of 2"X6"X1/4" 4130 steel
plate. I cut through the plate at center going about 3/4 of the way
through the metal. I bent the plate at the cut to 45 degrees with
the cut on the outside. I had a gusset welled to the inside and had
the cut welded shut and then sanded the weld to a nice radius. I
think the Diehl lower bracket is 2 1/2 inches
wide. http://myplace.frontier.com/~flesner/21.jpg
Diehl instructions say to mount the upper brackets next to the
fuselage. I moved my brackets outboard 4 to 6 inches on each side
for a slightly wider gear stance. That and 30 inch legs instead of
the Diehl 24 inch legs give me a nice 8 foot wide gear track.
There is much discussion about "toe-in, toe-out". I set my track at
zero / zero and love the ground handling and I get zero tire side
ware. I also run a slightly lower tire pressure (25 pounds) than some
and my tires seem to last forever. On an annual once I found them
both to have deflated to 15 pounds each. They still looked
and performed perfectly normal although I'd not recommend running
them below the 25 pound range if possible or unusual side loads might
cause a problem. Keep the aircraft aligned with the direction of
travel when on the ground and that won't be an issue. :-) 500+ hours
and still wearing the KR grin........
Larry Flesner
