Steering chains

I have just spent a cold miserable afternoon in the hangar trying to work out how to reduce the length of the steering chains by about half a link.

At the moment the rudder pedals move quite a bit left and right before they pull on the tail wheel steering arm. If I take a whole link out each side the springs will be continuously slightly compressed in the air, though they would be close to perfect on the ground, when the weight of the back of the plane is on the tail spring.

Apart from torn hands and blood, I have achieved nothing. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to shorten them by less than a whole link? All my 'good ideas' failed. Most concerned lock wire.

Finally, I presume having them just less than taught provides for the best handling on role out?

I don't know what your chains look like, but on my tail wheel I was able to tighten them by using safety wire. Go through one link and then go up a couple and go through another. Tighten the safety wire to where you like it. Worked for me.

You can also try an eye hook to the rudder horn. Raising or lowering the eye hook will fine adjust tension and the connecting pin you have now wont wear into the horn with this solution. The aviation department at your local hardware store will have one like this. And you should not be worried about having tension on the chains airborn or on the ground. Your personal preference of course.

Personal preference....

I agree with Kahuna.
Most like thier chains tight. It "feels" like you have more control on the ground. I believe, although I have no research to support it, that tight chains wear the tail wheel more, especially the Vans stock wheel that has to "drag" in the pivot to turn.
As you can imagine, when you put power on take off you put in appropriate rudder to keep the airplane straight. Without slack, the tailwheel is in a turn and being dragged sideways. It's round, so it is turning, but there must be some price to pay there in lost rubber and the wear will always be on one side. You can research posts where folks seem to get a lot of hours on the tail wheel and then those questioning why they did not. Maybe nothing to do with this but that is my theory and I am sticking to it!
I have about 4" of slack in the rudder side to side before the "chains" tighten ( I use Tail Lynx which is a cable ), so my tail wheel is dragging too, just not as much. I transitioned with Mike Seager in Vans 7 and that is about what it had, so it is what I put in. Good enough for Mike, good enough for me.
The only disadvantage is occasionally some mild differential braking is necessary.
I would leave them as is and fly it. If you dont like the feel, tighten them up.
M.H.O.

tailwheel chains

Keeping them tight enough to eliminate slack works well on the Pitts. Work is easier if we compress the springs with channel locks and use plastic wire tie to hold while doing chain work. Simply cut wire tie when done. Bill

Bill Dicus said:

Keeping them tight enough to eliminate slack works well on the Pitts. Work is easier if we compress the springs with channel locks and use plastic wire tie to hold while doing chain work. Simply cut wire tie when done. Bill

Click to expand...

I use safety wire to do the same thing - compress the springs so the chains can be attached, then cut the safety wire and the springs expand - bingo - tight chains!

paul

Hi Paul

I sent you a PM.

cj

allbee said:

I don't know what your chains look like, but on my tail wheel I was able to tighten them by using safety wire. Go through one link and then go up a couple and go through another. Tighten the safety wire to where you like it. Worked for me.

Click to expand...

Steve, did you just use one loop of safety wire? That was basically what I was trying to do but I thought I would need at least 3 or 4 loops for it to hold together. If one loop holds it should be reasonably easy to do as you say from the experience I gained this afternoon. I will give it a try.

Kahuna, thanks for your suggestion. I would have thought it puts rather a lot of levarage on the horn!

Bill, I know how to compress the springs, thats easy, but I would be interested if you did anything other than the safety wire approach suggested by Steve Allbee.


Thanks, Steve.

one loop was enough for mine, did both sides to keep the wheel centered. Use .030 wire or bigger. I found it didn't matter if the chains were tight or not. Now I just have them loose. One thing, put the chains tight with the safety wire and try it, if no change you can quickly cut them off.

Might be a fun Poll

allbee said:

I found it didn't matter if the chains were tight or not. Now I just have them loose. .

Click to expand...

Might be a fun Poll:
I like them loose.
I like them tight.
I could care less!!
(I thought about "I go both ways" but that did not sound right.)

Try cables

About $20.00 worth of parts and a borrowed tool. http://www.flickr.com/photos/33445888@N07/3116383151/

I've done it both ways, couple of thousand hours on two RVs. I've settled on having them just barely slack when the tailwheel is unload so that it doesn't affect yaw trim.
ymmv.
Tom

Try some i-bolts

Here is a picture of another way to install the springs:

Another i-bolt was used on the bottom of the rudder horn as well. This allows the spring to run a little more horizontal and best part is they don't elongate the aluminum. Should anything wear out, it is easy enough to replace.

More on Rudder Springs

Hope you can see from my much enlarged picture....the chains are just relaxed a bit...it works great.

Tail spring tension

Steve: A couple of hints. 1) There are different length link in sash chains, I use the stainless, check Home Depot / hardware stores. 2) Instead ou using the the filmsy little tear drop wire connectors to attach chain to stearing arm & rudder horn, try small chain link connectors. They look like a regular chain link (not sash chain) except you can open and close them with the built in thread and nut, they are made in 1/8 or 3/32 diameter and come in different lenghts. You can find them drilled so you can safety wire or cotter pin, or drill yourself. You can find these at Home depot, or a good Marine supply store, I like the stainless ones. 3) Consider using aircraft AN115 Cable shackles with drilled bolt & castelated nuts. Or small hardware store chain shackles & drill top of thumb screw for safety. Or Aircraft eye bolts AN42B-4 on the rudder horn & stearing arm then connect chains/connectors to them the slight height gained helps chain angle and changes shash chain length.
I have been working on taildraggers over 40 years and can always make a tight fit using one or more of the combinations above. Everyone seems to have their own idea of how much slack or tension on the springs but, I think you get the best control by having no slack, but only slight tension ( no real compression on the springs when static, just taunt). I am new to this site, recently sold my Pitts S-1T & bought RV-4. If you send your email address, I will take some pic's for you . I am down below the Green Swamp ( Smokey Ray's / Mike Araldi's).
Best Regards, Ed

cables

I got tired of messing with the chains Van's supplied, so made some some custom ones using 1/16" control cable with nicopress sleeves and thimbles. They fit perfectly, slighty loose on the ground, and snug when in flight. Has to be stronger than the stuff supplied with the kit, right??? Only problem so far is that they hum in flight, and I mean loudly. About had a heart attack on the first flt, thought I had some sort of flutter! Still working on it.

Warren Moore
Rv4, 240hours now.

Ed Jarnagin said:

Steve: A couple of hints. ....

Click to expand...

Ed, thanks for your interest. I have put a blog entry here to show you just how I have mine set up. I would really appreciate any further suggestions or pictures you have to send also. I suggest you send to [email protected]. I dont like the idea of the springs being under tension all the time, it appears to be hard on the hinge line, but I hate loose chains.

Thanks.

PS Warren, your idea is interesting. Did you just make them to an accurate length or do you have an adjustment mechanism? Let us know if you solve the hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!