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Aftermarket Gear Legs

T

TeamFAS

Active Member
Hi all,
It ends up my gear legs (1981 RV-3) are wayyy out of bend, both vertically and horizontally. Aggressive wear on the inside of the tires. I'm just curious if there are additional options besides what I've listed below, or other advice.
1) Buy new gear legs from Van's / Langair (is one source or the other a better choice?)
2) Have Langair reshape my gear legs for $100. (Would they hold their shape...?)
3) Buy the $1300 a leg titanium rocket legs.

Is there anyone else who makes gear legs or a different and/or better alternative..?!
 
Last edited:
TeamFAS said:
Hi all,
It ends up my gear legs are wayyy out of bend, both vertically and horizontally. Aggressive wear on the inside of the tires. I'm just curious if there are additional options besides what I've listed below, or other advice.
1) Buy new gear legs from Van's / Langair (is one source or the other a better choice?)
2) Have Langair reshape my gear legs for $100. (Would they hold their shape...?)
3) Buy the $1300 a leg titanium rocket legs.

Is there anyone else who makes gear legs or a different and/or better alternative..?!
Click to expand...

What airplane? What gear? Do you know why the gear is misaligned?
 
Not knowing what model RV, I would select option 2. Langair will let you know if there was an upgrade to stronger legs and give you the option to buy them. You may need to pay to have Langair straighten your old ones so that they can match drill the new ones the same way. Not all RVs came with pre-drilled gears and if yours did not, you may need more than just the gear legs if the originals were not drilled correctly.
 
A 20 ton press from Harbor Freight is about the same price as Langair's (very fair) labor charge plus 2 way shipping....
 
I would go for option 2 if done correctly.

They would anneal the legs before reshaping or hot-form them, and then heat treat afterwards to regain the original high yield strength.

Titanium would be lighter, but if they use the original cross-section they would be springier due to Ti having a lower elastic modulus than steel (110GPa vs 210 GPa)
 
Titanium, if made to the Rocket design, would be longer and not only raise the nose to a higher angle, but the wheels would be further aft.

Dave
 
Gear

Tapered titanium has proven not to work on similar airplanes. Sonex straight titanium gear might work on RV3. Or maybe they would sell a longer Sonex gear??
 
jrs14855 said:
Tapered titanium has proven not to work on similar airplanes.....
Click to expand...

Could you expand on that a bit?

The F1 Rockets have tapered titanium gear legs.......but maybe I am not understanding your comment.
 
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