Patrol Gear Fairing Modification for 31" Bushwheels

[AKLawler]

A friend of mine decided to sell me his 31" Bushwheels so now I'm trying to figure out what kind of modifications I need to make to the gear fairing to accommodate the increased tire width. I've seen the thread from Battson on his modifications, which seem pretty straightforward but I still have a few questions.

1. How robust is the stock Patrol Gear? Should I look to upgrade the gear now instead of going through all the labor required to modify the fairing for the new tires?
2. How much of a speed reduction will be realized from removing the fabric from the gear fairing? I'm thinking I could just remove the fabric, modify the fairing tubing and be done with it instead of re-doing the fabric.

Thanks!

Kurt

[N942VT]

You don’t have to cut much of the fabric to make that modification. A patch or two will do it. I’ve done it a couple times with very minor patch work.
The Patrol gear is plenty stout, what would be the upgrade?
Speed reduction is negligible compared to the tires.

[AKLawler]

I was just asking about the gear because theres a guy up here in Alaska that had heavy duty gear built by Atlee for his 4 place. I'm completely fine with sticking with the stock gear if there's no reason to modify.

[AKLawler]

I was able to compete the gear modifications and 31"bushwheel install over the weekend. I ended up just cutting off the fairing support and bracket, grinding down the old welds and sanding and painting the gear. I wanted the ability to inspect the gear for damage since I'll be using it on skis. If I end up going with the gear fairing again I'll just make a removable one out of aluminum. Preliminary flight testing suggests a reduction of around 10mph in cruise but I will report back after further testing.

One problem I ran into was the calipers were rubbing on the bushwheels so I had to buy and install a $200 set of spacers, oh well! Also the Grove wheels aren't the same depth as Airframes so make sure you get the right bolt lengths before the parts store closes on a Sunday when you're trying to get your aircraft out of the hangar!
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[m.mooney]

Congrats on your Patrol. If there ever was a perfect place to slap on some Oratex, it’s those gear legs. Dirt simple and tough as nails. It would take no time to do the work. Love your paint scheme, but I’m biased, mine is the same but blue.

[AKLawler]

I was thinking the same thing about Oratex! I'm going to run it as is for now but if I feel the need to cover I'm going to either build the removable fairing or slap some Oratex on there.

[Battson]

Nice! That is cool.
It looks especially aggressive with that small tailwheel. I doubt that'll last long, mind you.

We have been running 31s on stock gear for almost a decade now, on the 4-place, no signs of trouble. If anything the gear has less work to do, the rubber reduces the impulsive forces.

[AKLawler]

That's great news about the stock gear! Hopefully mine will be as trouble-free as yours.

Well I was hoping I could get away with the small tailwheel for a little while, but maybe I need to think about upgrading to one of Eric's Tundra Tailwheels sooner rather than later! For now I've just tried to be very gentle with it when taxiing over rocks and such. I should probably just go ahead and order one so I have it in case I have an issue this summer.

[Gerhard Rieger]

I plan to use at least 26’s but preferably 29 heavy threads, this is what I did with my gear legs

[AKLawler]

That looks stout! Very similar to some of the heavy duty Maule gear I've seen. Nice work!

[jim.mclaughlin924]

I like the flange mount axles, great improvement. Adjust the toe in with tapered shims, easy.