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RV14 wheel pants

Tom Martin

Well Known Member
I have changed the order of assembly a bit and mounted the wheel pants on the gear before the engine is added. The manual has the wheel pants and gear towards the end of the book but this means lifting the engine, wings etc when you mount the pants. The gear, in the air, does not care whether the engine is on or not and thus I decided to at least get the pants drilled in place.

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Before mounting the tires I had used Van's method of checking toe-in/toe-out, of the main axles and found that I needed a shim on the right side. I am not sure why this happened but the manual gave a way of checking it and I had some shims in stock, thus an easy fix, and necessary before mounting the pants.

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I found that with no real load on the aircraft it was not necessary to lift it off the ground. With the aircraft in a level position I could, by hand, pick up each side of the aircraft, at the engine mount, and relieve the pressure on the gear. Once each gear was lifted and the aircraft levelled again, subsequent lifts on the gear yielded no further movement. I suppose there might be a small change if left hanging but balancing that with the risk of jacking made it a good trade off in my books.
Van's parts and methods are spot on for the wheel pant installation. Typically this is one of my least favourite jobs but I was able to do it from start to finish in 6 hours. There is still some glass work, screws, etc to be done but now I can let the tail down and finish this stuff at a later date.
I would highly recommend positioning your wheel pants prior to mounting the engine

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Before versus after

Tom,

Will the alignment of the gear or the installment of the wheel pants be affected by the gear splaying out once the motor is on the mount? I have not studied that section too much but I'm getting there fast.

Also, that shop is a disgrace. Do you ever clean it? ;)
 
Yes, the weight of the motor and wings will splay the wheels out. This is why they recommend lifting the weight off the wheels, and in level flight attitude, before setting the wheel pants. In my case there did not seem to be enough weight, without the engine, prop, wings, to move the wheels out. You can check for this by lifting the weight off the wheels and watching the gear to see if it goes inboard, and forward, as the tire clears the ground.
This gear is different then other gear legs I have worked with. They are hollow!
The upper gear is quite thick, two to 3" while the bottom is about an inch and a quarter. Essentially it is a tapered pipe. I will be interested to see how it feels. A "pipe" tends to be a bit more rigid then a rod but the size is considerably different then the older style. Hollow for weight savings, thicker for the stiffness required?
This is just conjecture on my part and I would be interested in what the engineers have to say.
 
I mounted the engine today and took some before and after measurements.

The wheels were under no side loads before the engine and after mounting it I rolled the airplane around a bit to let the gear move.

The gear moved out a total of 1", or one half inch per side after the engine was mounted.

The crankshaft dropped 1 3/4" after the engine was mounted. I have no doubt that the wheels moved aft a bit and the camber likely changed a very small amount.

The wings, fuel crew, baggage will all have an affect on the gear position, while it is on the ground.
 
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