You might want to research the nose gear issues that RVs have been having, also.
You may think twice about operating an 8A on a rough or unimproved strip.
the exact basis for his assessment? Is it RV generic? Or specific to the cracking issue?A friend with an RV4 .... and says the vibration is too hard on the airframe
One other thing to remember is that you friend with the -4 has a completely different type of landing gear arrangement than on an -8. The -4 has a rod-shaped gear attached to the engine mount, and the -8 has a flat steel gear mounted to the fuselage. While I agree that the stock airplane is not ideally suited to rough fields, I would be hesitant to take action simply based on comparisons to the -4....the first time I saw one taxi up to me on a rough grass strip and I saw the springiness of the gear and the way the wheel move relative to the airplane, it scared the heck out of me! The -8's gear doesn't bounce around in quite the same fashion.
Paul
Paul,
As the risk of starting a war, do you think the RV-8 style gear definitely handles rough fields better than the tapered rod traditional style?
I would really like to know!
Thanks,
Andrew.
A middle option is to use somewhat bigger tires on the standard 5" wheels. Folks are using the 380 x 150 x 5 tires, which are about an inch bigger in diameter and a fair bit wider too. This provides a pretty significant increase in tire, but still fits in the wheel pants, is easy to switch back to std tires if you like in the future. This is what I am doing.
I positioned my wheel pants about 1/2" higher than the instructions say, so that the 380x150x5 tires will fit inside, and the combination of the higher fit and the bigger tire gives lots of clearance from the wheel pant to the ground, so it doesn't get beat up on gravel, grass, etc. Would still be vulnerable in very soft/muddy situations, but I hope those are very rare for me.
What size inner tubes do you use on the 380x150-5 tires?
While he answers, I read on another forum they?re using the same tube since it?s almost the same size and tubes expand so much.
This might be worth some consideration too.
https://www.flyboyaccessories.com/product-p/1152.htm
Muchas gracias Carlos. I figured it might be the same tubes but just wanted to make sure. Just moved La Otra Chica to my new grass strip at TN26 and it's not as smooth as I'd like it just yet. Spent all day yesterday riding around on a motorized roller that helped a bit. Pretty sure it'll get better as the Bermuda grass continues to get established. In the mean time I was looking at putting the larger tires on.