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replacing fork - use original wheel faring?

seagull

Well Known Member
I just received my SB 19-08-26 nose gear leg and SB 16-05-23 nose fork conversion kits. It came with a new front half of the wheel faring. Mine is painted so I would like to use it and not have to repaint. I read somewhere that it is possible, does anyone have experience? What is required?

I am assuming it will require a bit of adapting or else Vans wouldn't have included a $75 faring.
 
Interesting

I was able to use my original nose wheel fairing after installing the upgraded nose wheel fork. It?s been long enough I don?t recall all the work needed but I believe it was mostly work on the fork.
And since I recently finished the the nose wheel gear there was no work I had to do to the fork or nose wheel fairing.
 
I replaced my nose wheel fork when the new one first came out. I don't remember having to do anything to the faring and they did not send a new one with the kit.
 
I just received my SB 19-08-26 nose gear leg and SB 16-05-23 nose fork conversion kits. It came with a new front half of the wheel faring. Mine is painted so I would like to use it and not have to repaint. I read somewhere that it is possible, does anyone have experience? What is required?

I am assuming it will require a bit of adapting or else Vans wouldn't have included a $75 faring.

I just finished my nose gear and nose fork replacement. The replacement kit also included the front half wheel faring. I use my original faring with no problem, you have to drill out the mounting angles and replace them with the ones that are furnished with the kit. Took less than an hour. Far less work then trimming the new faring to fit, installing the hardware and painting.

I am not sure why vans supplies a new faring. Using the old one was far less labor.
 
SB 16-05-23

I did the SB in 2018 and did not receive a new front fairing half, nor did I need it. Seemed pretty straight forward to me.
 
To be clear, we are talking about replacing front of wheel pant while changing to the new fork consideration, not including also, the new nose gear landing strut?

Does the strut make the difference for need of new front portion of the wheel pant being redesigned, or ?
 
Jessica at Van's response;

"Some customers with the same concern about paint have said they?re making up their own bracket between the new fork and their old fairing. The old fairing will fit around the new fork, it?s just the brackets that don?t quite line up".
 
Update,

I was able to use my original front faring. I had to do things a bit different than the provided instructions.
(1) I riveted the new U-00006E-L-1 U-00006E-R-1 onto the new fork.
(2) drilled out the rivets and removed U-00006D-1 from both sides of my old faring.
(3) Do not remove the angle piece U-00006A-R-1 (right) or U-00006A-L-1 (left) from the faring. New ones are provided in the kit but I did not use them.
(4) Fit / clamp the new U-00006D-1 pieces onto the angle pieces in #3 above already part of the faring, None of the holes will line up, not the 3 mounting holes or any of the rivet holes.
(5) Be sure the rear faring will mount up to your front faring in this position. My front was narrower than it needed to be in it's relaxed state.
(6) Match drill the mounting and rivet holes from the new U-00006D-1 to the existing U-00006A-L-1 & U-00006A-R-1
(7) Rivet together using the new holes.
(8) This method was easier and took less time vs using a new front faring, not to mention I didn't have to match paint.

Disclaimer: This is the way I did it, I am not responsible for anyone else. Do this at your own risk.
 
Just completed my front fork SB this week. I found the new front wheel fairing is actually larger than my current front fairing and will not work without replacing the rear also. My serial# is 12350. This may have changed with the newer kits.
However I was able to reuse all installed brackets on the old fairing by positioning the old front fairing on the fork and marking the 2 rear holes from underneath with the wheel off. I then used the supplied templete to locate the front holes.
I plan to return the new front fairing to Van's and try to receive a refund.
 
I reused the existing fairing, but drilled new brackets. Looks and works fine. Van?s did take back the new fairing, less a restocking fee. And shipping from Florida to Oregon was steep. But at least I got something back.
 
front nose leg fairing without the wheel fairing?

I hope to get my new nose gear leg in the next few months and was considering adding just the leg fairing (if it picks up as many knots as Vans touts why not). Has anyone out there just added the leg faring and not the wheel fairing? Photo of how it looks?
 
I hope to get my new nose gear leg in the next few months and was considering adding just the leg fairing (if it picks up as many knots as Vans touts why not). Has anyone out there just added the leg faring and not the wheel fairing? Photo of how it looks?

i-MQ5qCMc-L.jpg
 
I actually did the opposite – I installed wheel fairing and left strut fairing off. I also cut off the trailer hook on the nose gear.

I don’t notice any difference in cruise speed without strut fairing.

Scott is correct about very high drag for round tube; however, tube is relatively short and angled 45 degrees to slip stream.

 
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