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Inspired by Sheepdog's Bush-6

punkin

Well Known Member
My picture isn't nearly as good, nor my plane nearly as pretty, but I was pretty excited to get my new Matco w60 wheels and brakes on, along with the Desser oversized 800-6 tires.

Great day project that actually went very smoothly. Need to bleed brakes tomorrow and verify function but my back and knees tired of squatting on the ground today...

Here it is with the 380/150-5's, then with the 21/800-6s

AB2654AD-ADDC-436A-8A78-49FF2CCBC1E6_zpsedccqcao.jpg


DF5ADCCB-0C64-43B5-8CC3-B391CBDE7333_zpsljafusq6.jpg
 
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That looks serious!

Are you using the original gear legs?

Please report if you have any shimmy with this installation.

Dave
 
They are original gear legs. I'll see how she rolls tomorrow if the wind cooperates after I bleed the brakes!

Scott
 
Bigger feet

I hope all of you that are going to be "That Guy" with the big tires are enjoying
the utility of having larger tires as much as I am. The trade off is minamal
And it's kind of like having the Harley with the fat tires, people look
This may not be for everyone but I sure am enjoying mine.
 
Shims

Scott,
Going from stock hubs to the Matco, how many shims or additional spacing did you need to make it align up?
Thanks

My picture isn't nearly as good, nor my plane nearly as pretty, but I was pretty excited to get my new Matco w60 wheels and brakes on, along with the Desser oversized 800-6 tires.

Great day project that actually went very smoothly. Need to bleed brakes tomorrow and verify function but my back and knees tired of squatting on the ground today...

Here it is with the 380/150-5's, then with the 21/800-6s

AB2654AD-ADDC-436A-8A78-49FF2CCBC1E6_zpsedccqcao.jpg


DF5ADCCB-0C64-43B5-8CC3-B391CBDE7333_zpsljafusq6.jpg
 
Rob, you're funny. I think Sheepdog calculated like 50" long or something! :)

Craig, I might make some of the engineers and machinists here crazy, but I work in "about" rather than in .000001s. I removed the spacers that went with the 5" wheels to keep each "set" the same, and I used 1/4" spacer and a machine shim (about 14ga) on the inside of the hub, and a 1/2" spacer on the outside. Because my axles and axle nuts are not drilled equally, on one side I had to use another machine shim to find a happy place for inserting the cotter pin through the nut.

Dave, my right main has a bit of hop that feels like a balance issue between 29mph and 34 mph. It is not noticeably present before or after those speeds. I'll pull each back off and actually try balance them, trying to move the tire's location relative to valve stem rather than using weights if at all possible. I'm not sure if it will fit on my spin balancer, but if not I'll try to static balance it.

While it was a little disconcerting at first (in fact, I did some "medium" speed taxiing around and the first time I felt it I stopped, shut down, got out, and reinspected EVERYTHING) I did end up doing a couple of full stop landings and nothing felt unsafe or unpredictable--just a little annoying, but I'm sure it can be corrected.
I fly out of Greeley, work in Lafayette, so if you want to take a closer look sometime, you're welcome. I'm heading out of the country for the next month though, so I'm really happy I got to fly and check 'em out before I leave!

I also noticed that my left main rotor was noticeably hotter than the right side after taxiing, and when I lifted the tail, it wanted to go left. My suspicion is that brake is rubbing just a little bit, so I'll take a closer look at that as well. I wasn't getting too worked up about anything as the rotors had a less than impressive finish on them upon arrival, and I figured I'd let the brake pads create their own surface anyway.

In all, I was really pleased, and it was pretty cool to see a bunch of guys at an otherwise quiet airport stop what they were doing and look up as I taxied by. I got one thumbs up, and I'm pretty sure a couple, "WHAT THE ****s" as I went by. :D
 
I ran 18lbs in them for my first run. Just kindof swag-ed it based on reading on backcountry pilot. They definitely have some balloon tendancy, and with only a couple of landings, I need to get used to them.

In reality, the sight picture isn't that different on flare, but I think I psyched myself out and flared early each time, expecting my "monster" tires to be closer to the ground than they actually were.

All said, I'm pretty excited. Plenty will poo-poo the look and speed loss, but it fits my mission, and ** I ** think she looks pretty sexy. :rolleyes: Saturday I head to Ecuador for a full month, so I won't get to fly or tinker anymore until I return. :(
 
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Bigger tires

My 850-6 tires only raised my axel height 4 inches , I'm guessing your 800 s only raised your axle around 3 inches. So you only need to flair 3 inches higher
I do have a set of custom made laminar flow wheel pants for the 850-6 tires
The length is the same as the vans pants. I'm working on those as a winter project. Hopefully mounted I will gain back most of what I lost-Gee Bee:)
On a side note running the 800s is a good idea especially if you have access to
Almost wore out Cherokee tires. I'll bet they would give them to you.. I usually see a pile of them at the FBO
Tailwinds
 
Not so fast...

My picture isn't nearly as good, nor my plane nearly as pretty, but I was pretty excited to get my new Matco w60 wheels and brakes on, along with the Desser oversized 800-6 tires.

Great day project that actually went very smoothly. Need to bleed brakes tomorrow and verify function but my back and knees tired of squatting on the ground today...

Here it is with the 380/150-5's, then with the 21/800-6s

Scott,
Many moons ago (1990's) I put a set of Kitfox 9"knobbies on my RV4 to try to operate out of my muddy strip and the ID backcountry in summertime. They worked OK but I found the speed loss and underwing gravel dings from Non-wheel pant ops inferior to my 380X150X5's with Vans PR pants.

For my RV4 and HR2 the faired 380"s were a great compromise for 99% of the "rough stuff" I encountered or sought out.

Nicely done...:)
V/R
Smokey
 
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Pimp your ride

We tried doing this to a -7 today but realized we had the wrong size caliper mounting bracket (Matco).
Will try to locate the correct bracket and hopefully can get a photo posted !
 
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