Camloc access door for wheel pants

[rcarsey]

Originally Posted by Raymo

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!

[RFSchaller]

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.

[mturnerb]

Originally Posted by RFSchaller

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....

[NinerBikes]

Originally Posted by mturnerb

I'm curious what the speed penalty was for that....

Supposedly 5 to 7 kt's depending on who you talk to. rgawer did a write up about the cumulative effects a while back.

[RFSchaller]

Didn?t notice much but sure I lost a few. Well worth it for me.

[Richard Connell]

+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.

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by Richard Connell

+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...

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by scard

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.

[John-G]

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.

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by John-G

...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/communit...75#post1428275