KR> Landing gear question
? ? >I recently bought a couple of gear legs that are fiberglass and for >a Grumman Should I make them narrower or thinner >Mark W. + Seeing no replies to your question I'll offer my "opinion". If you are building a tail dragger I'd leave them full length. A nose dragger may require you to shorten them to match the nose gear. If you expect your KR to come in around the 700-750 pound range, many do now days, I'd leave them original thickness and cut them to the contour of the Diehl legs. I've got 30" Diehl gear legs and I thickened them a bit. That's my "opinion" based on my experience. Jeff Scott has the only other set of 30" inch legs and I don't know if he "thickened" them or not. Mine seemed to be a bit soft with two people , early in the build process. Larry Flesner --- My gear legs have the micro with soda straws formed into the leading and trailing edges for brake lines and a wrap of BID glass to finish. I've been pounding this poor plane on the ground relentlessly for over 1100 hours, usually at or near 1200#, and have never had any issues related to the landing gear. Mine are a bit softer than many others, but that doesn't seem to affect them adversely. Soft gear makes for smooth landings. :o) Like Larry, I think I would taper them to match the contour of the Diehl gear, give them a wrap with glass to finish and call it close enough. -Jeff Scott Los Alamso, NM
KR> Landing gear question
> Mine are a bit softer than many others, but that doesn't seem to > affect them adversely. Soft gear makes for smooth landings. :o) >Like Larry, I think I would taper them to match the contour of the >Diehl gear, give them a wrap with glass to finish and call it close >enough. -Jeff Scott +++ I finished mine using a piece of foam (approx 1") on lead and trail edge. I hogged out a channel on the lead edge before attaching for the brake line. I rounded the lead edge foam and tapered the trail edge and wrapped the entire thing with a layer of glass. Not a great photo but if you zoom in a bit you can see the gear. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32133949/100_5553.JPG This photo shows the brake line running through the landing light area and then down the lead edge of the leg. http://myplace.frontier.com/~flesner/02092583.jpg If I ever need to get to the gear leg attach bracket I can cut out the foam on the back side of this opening. I located the light in that area for that purpose but a better spot for the light is outside the prop arc unless the back side of the prop is painted black. If it's not black you see a giant prop reflection at night and when else do you need the light, unless of course you have flashing landing lights for daylight recognition. That's one of those "don't ask me how I know" deals. Larry Flesner
KR> Landing gear question
Mark, I used the same Grumman gear leg blanks you describe. I ran them through my wood power planer to 3/4 inch thickness and tapered with a sweep back to get 20 inches for the wheel axil from the leading edge of the stub wing for the stock KR-2. The amount of sweep will depend on tail dragger or nose dragger configuration; they are NOT interchangeable. I used the full 26 inch length. I used the original Diehl casting to mount to the aft face of the main spar.I rounded the leading and trailing edges for stream lining and stress riser relief, I put soda straws in the trailing edges, wrapped with fiberglass and foam, for brake line conduits. Have done lots of taxi testing and on a particularly bad speed bump at a taxiway intersection. The gross weight is 1170 pounds. No problem so far. No landings yet on these gear legs. Expect to fly soon as the weather cooperates. Sid Wood Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD, USA -- I recently bought a couple of gear legs that are fiberglass and for a Grumman which have indicated that they will support a 2200 to 2400 pound aircraft. Obviously a KR as about 2/3's to 1/2's that. Should I make them narrower or thinner (i.e., split them to reduce the thickness by about 50%) or narrower (i.e., make the width about 1/3 less than they are now)? They measure 3 3/4" X 1" at the bottom and 7 3/4" X 1" at the top and are 26 1/2" long. I think the length is good, but the other dimensions will be too stiff. What do you guys think? Thanks. Mark W. N952MW (res) --- I left my legs the same thickness and extrapolated dimensions from some pictures and a visit to some airplanes.I'm tapering the front and back edges to help forum the round nose and tapered trailing edge. Paul ViskBelleville IL618,406 4705 + Seeing no replies to your question I'll offer my "opinion". If you are building a tail dragger I'd leave them full length. A nose dragger may require you to shorten them to match the nose gear. If you expect your KR to come in around the 700-750 pound range, many do now days, I'd leave them original thickness and cut them to the contour of the Diehl legs. I've got 30" Diehl gear legs and I thickened them a bit. That's my "opinion" based on my experience. Jeff Scott has the only other set of 30" inch legs and I don't know if he "thickened" them or not. Mine seemed to be a bit soft with two people , early in the build process. Larry Flesner --- My gear legs have the micro with soda straws formed into the leading and trailing edges for brake lines and a wrap of BID glass to finish. I've been pounding this poor plane on the ground relentlessly for over 1100 hours, usually at or near 1200#, and have never had any issues related to the landing gear. Mine are a bit softer than many others, but that doesn't seem to affect them adversely. Soft gear makes for smooth landings. :o) Like Larry, I think I would taper them to match the contour of the Diehl gear, give them a wrap with glass to finish and call it close enough. -Jeff Scott
KR> Landing gear question
At 06:33 PM 5/8/2016, you wrote: >I recently bought a couple of gear legs that are fiberglass and for >a Grumman Should I make them narrower or thinner >Mark W. + Seeing no replies to your question I'll offer my "opinion". If you are building a tail dragger I'd leave them full length. A nose dragger may require you to shorten them to match the nose gear. If you expect your KR to come in around the 700-750 pound range, many do now days, I'd leave them original thickness and cut them to the contour of the Diehl legs. I've got 30" Diehl gear legs and I thickened them a bit. That's my "opinion" based on my experience. Jeff Scott has the only other set of 30" inch legs and I don't know if he "thickened" them or not. Mine seemed to be a bit soft with two people , early in the build process. Larry Flesner
KR> Landing gear question
I have the same legs. ?I left my legs the same thickness and extrapolated dimensions from some pictures and a visit to some airplanes.I'm tapering the front and back edges to help forum the round nose and tapered trailing edge. Paul ViskBelleville IL618,406 4705 Sent on the new Sprint Network from my Samsung Galaxy S?4 Original message From: Mark Wegmet via KRnet List-Post: krnet@list.krnet.org Date: 05/08/2016 6:33 PM (GMT-06:00) To: 'KRnet' Cc: Mark Wegmet Subject: KR> Landing gear question I recently bought a couple of gear legs that are fiberglass and for a Grumman which have indicated that they will support a 2200 to . I think the length is good, but the other dimensions will be too stiff. What do you guys think? Thanks. Mark W. N952MW (res)
KR> Landing gear question
I recently bought a couple of gear legs that are fiberglass and for a Grumman which have indicated that they will support a 2200 to 2400 pound aircraft. Obviously a KR as about 2/3's to 1/2's that. Should I make them narrower or thinner (i.e., split them to reduce the thickness by about 50%) or narrower (i.e., make the width about 1/3 less than they are now)? They measure 3 3/4" X 1" at the bottom and 7 3/4" X 1" at the top and are 26 1/2" long. I think the length is good, but the other dimensions will be too stiff. What do you guys think? Thanks. Mark W. N952MW (res) --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
