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Camloc access door for wheel pants

John-G

Well Known Member
I'm wondering if anybody has fitted the Camloc access doors shown below on their RV-12 wheel pants to facilitate easier tire pressure monitoring? If so, are you pleased with the product? Any pitfalls or instillation tips pertaining to the RV-12?
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I've been thinking of polishing up a set and installing them on my RV-12 ... knowing somebody else has installed them successfully would be encouraging.

Happy flying,
 
I have those installed on my wheel pants. 13yrs and over 2000hrs. Would I do it again? Definitely not, unless you're just looking for little things to fiddle with.

The reality of use means using a fitting extension, ok, no big deal, works fine. Then you need to mark the tire/wheel assembly to attempt a reasonable line-up, doable, but not perfect. You certainly can't see the stem that you are trying to stab with your extension through the hole... Nah, just a recipe for a few minutes of frustration.

I choose to just remove the front half of the wheel pant, take a good look around at the whole rolling assembly, and add air if needed. No frustration and much added inspection benefit.

Just my 2c.
 
+1 to Scott. I would not do it again. If I get hard up for something to do some day I may even remove them, glass over the hole and repaint.
 
A friend of mine bought a set of blue tooth motorcycle tire monitors for his RV-7 and loves them. They activate when near the airplane with your phone.
 
I put no leak tubes on our RV-6. They need a little air at each annual inspection, very, very rarely between annuals. And the wheel pants just have ~3/4? holes to access the valve stems. One o? these days I?m gonna get around to installing a set of high zoot wheelpants, and then I?ll try to figure out some kind of cool access to the valve stems. Maybe a biggish, hinged door like Cessna, or maybe camlocs holding the front half on, so it?s easier to remove. Not sure yet...
 
Hi John, glad you asked the question, I was also wondering about those camloc doors for my RV-12. Sounds like that are more trouble than they're worth. I think I'm going to try the motorcycle bluetooth tpms system. There is one by a company called FOBO, that is specifically for a trike, so you get 3 monitors. I don't mind taking off the pants when I am sure the tires need air, but it would be great to know for sure before going through the hassle. Ha, just realized from my sig....today is 3rd anniversary of my first flight. I digress :)
 
+1 to Scott. Looks nice but inflating the tires this way is not a pleasant experience. A bigger access door would be nice or also +1 for the Cessna doors

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Has anyone ever injected Slime or other product into the tubes to prevent/reduce leakage or to act as a backup sealant in the event of a puncture?
 
Fly enough, and you can calibrate your eyeball within a few pounds. Really!
 
A friend of mine bought a set of blue tooth motorcycle tire monitors for his RV-7 and loves them. They activate when near the airplane with your phone.

I had made a product request to Garmin last year about this. Garmin already sells tire monitors.. there just wasn't any integration with G3X..so I suggested they add support for it.. almost all airplanes have tires!
 
I took off my wheel pants after a few years. They look great but create more hassle than they are worth. Checking pressure and adding air is now a 5 minute job for all 3 tires ?- including coffee break. It used to be a 30 minute PITA. I know a guy who got a flat with wheel pants. The aircraft sat right down on the wheel pant which made it impossible to add air just to get the plane to his hangar. The bottom attach screws were not accessible. He had to jack it up before he could do anything.
 
I took off my wheel pants after a few years. They look great but create more hassle than they are worth. Checking pressure and adding air is now a 5 minute job for all 3 tires ?- including coffee break. It used to be a 30 minute PITA. I know a guy who got a flat with wheel pants. The aircraft sat right down on the wheel pant which made it impossible to add air just to get the plane to his hangar. The bottom attach screws were not accessible. He had to jack it up before he could do anything.

I'm curious what the speed penalty was for that....
 
+1 for Scott. Def won?t be doing that again for the 10.
Much less grief just taking the front of the pant off and doing it that way.

But... speaking of camlocks. Has anyone replaced the screws that hold the wheel pants together with camlocks?

Richard.
 
+1 for Scott. Def won?t be doing that again for the 10.
Much less grief just taking the front of the pant off and doing it that way.

But... speaking of camlocks. Has anyone replaced the screws that hold the wheel pants together with camlocks?

Richard.

That sounds like an interesting mod...
 
Fly enough, and you can calibrate your eyeball within a few pounds. Really!
What he said. And you really can't discount the value of having a good look around in there every time you need to add air. Monitoring the brake pad wear, if nothing else.
 
Thanks for all the valuable input guys. Guess I will pass on the Camloc access door.

I was hoping for a better way to monitor tire pressure because in addition to wheel pants, I also added intersection fairings ... so have many more screws to remove to get the wheel pants off to access the air valve. Of course, as has been mentioned, it is good to remove the pants occasionally anyway for a thorough investigation of the gear components.

Paul ... I like your idea about using the bluetooth FOBO trike tire monitors. I looked those up and the set of three costs $148 ... only $25 more than a set of three Camloc access doors. My only reservations is the size of the monitors .... the specifications show them to be .8" in diameter which means they will require .4 inches clearance from the center of the valve stem to the wheel not to mention the additional 1/8" clearance suggested by the manufacturer. This is not an issue for the RV-12's Matco nose wheel, because the valve stem extends beyond the wheel. However, the valve stems on the Matco main gear wheels do not extend beyond the wheel ... they stop well short. Looking at photos on my blog, it appears the valve stems are positioned very close to the wheels (I'm think around 1/2"). It's close ... but I don't think there is .4" + an additional 1/8" clearance between the center of the valve stem and the wheel.

Think I will start another thread and see if we can get a measurement from somebody who has not added wheel pants or a build in progress.
 
...so have many more screws to remove to get the wheel pants off to access the air valve. Of course, as has been mentioned, it is good to remove the pants occasionally anyway for a thorough investigation of the gear components.

Paul ... I like your idea about using the bluetooth FOBO trike tire monitors. I looked those up and the set of three costs $148 ...

If you don't mind generic sensors you can get all of them on eBay for about $50.

I still think putting camlocks on the wheelpants is a good idea so I started a new thread for suggestions http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1428275#post1428275
 
Supposedly 5 to 7 kt's depending on who you talk to. rgawer did a write up about the cumulative effects a while back.

On the RV-12 with the speeds it flys at the difference of wheel pants and nose gear leg fairing, or not, is 3 kts.

Max cruise with is 120 Kts
Max cruise without is 117 Kts
 
Main advantage is there are cool looking and keep bottom of airplane clean. The fairings are very robust design and remain solidly attached even when operating exclusively from turf runway.
 
I used skybolt 1/4 turns on all 3 of my wheel pants. No screws. 500 hours and 400+ landings - no issues. Can remove all 3 in LESS than 5 minutes. And replace in LESS than 5 minutes also. Looks exactly like screws.
 
I used skybolt 1/4 turns on all 3 of my wheel pants. No screws. 500 hours and 400+ landings - no issues. Can remove all 3 in LESS than 5 minutes. And replace in LESS than 5 minutes also. Looks exactly like screws.

Could you post or email me some pictures please? Do you have pictures on another personal website or somewhere to see them?
 
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Paul ... I like your idea about using the bluetooth FOBO trike tire monitors. I looked those up and the set of three costs $148 ... only $25 more than a set of three Camloc access doors.

Hi John, I ordered the FOBO trike set, should be here Monday (from Malaysia). I will let you know how they fit and work. It was worth taking a chance to me, if they don't fit, I will install them on my Suzuki GSXR and have a spare! I also love the idea of the Skybolt fasteners for the wheel pants. That would be the best of all worlds to me, a simple way to check tire pressures via bluetooth.....and if you need to add air, the 1/4 turn fasteners give you access in a few minutes (even just to check brake lines/pads/etc).

Warning, thread drift, I also used your blog post to help me install the Reiff 150W preheat system on my 912ULS last week. I went to my hangar at midnight a few nights ago and plugged it in, came back at 0630 and turned on master. Oil temp was 110 and CHT/EGTs were just in the green. For reference, inside hangar temp overnight was about 50F. Had only a large moving blanket draped over top cowl. Love it!
 
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