Axle alignment

[bajapilot]

I'm in the process of mounting my landing gear and I'm at the point of checking for toe-in/out. I did a search but there's surprisingly little comment on this.

With the alignment blocks against the front of the axle and a string run across I have a small amount of toe-in. The string sits off the inner surface of the block about 1/16 inch on each axle.

What's the collective experience here? Is it enough that I should order shims and try to bring in further in? Or am I searching for perfection in an imperfect world? Thanks in advance.

Bill

[N661DJ]

Bill,
I recently went spent some time with my 8's, Grove, gear. I found that you want the alignment as close as possible to parallel as you can get. I was having trouble landing the plane, it would dart either left or right, found the existing set up to be slightly toe in. After aligning the gear to 0 degrees using vans .5 degree shims, completely changed the landings. I was ready to sell the plane. What a difference a degree makes. IMHO spend the time to get it right, it will be worth the effort.
Dick

[f1rocket]

Originally Posted by bajapilot

With the alignment blocks against the front of the axle and a string run across I have a small amount of toe-in. The string sits off the inner surface of the block about 1/16 inch on each axle.
Bill

That's not bad but it's worth correcting. The problem is those Grove shims are darn expensive. I installed shims in mine but it's still not perfect. One axle is straight but the other went from a little toe-in to a tad bit of toe-out. I would buy a couple of the smallest shims to see if it gets it closer.

Dick is right, toe-in will make the airplane a bad handler on the ground. I suspect it's not quite as bad for the -12 since it lands slower than the other models, but the Rocket was a handful if it had any toe-in at all. There's huge debate about this but in my experience, a little toe-out if preferable to a little toe-in. YMMV.

[12vaitor]

Bill

I used two Van's 1/2 degree shims on my -12 to get eliminate the toe-in measurement I had. Not sure if splitting the measurement (1/2 deg on each axle) made much difference as I did not measure to see if the axle centerline was perpendicular to airframe centerline.

John Salak
RV-12 #120116

[bajapilot]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll order two 1/2 degree shims and see how that works out. Problem is I don't know if that's enough but I figure the 1/2 will bring it in or closer. The 1 degree may take it to toe-out.

BTW, really exciting to see it one the gear for the first time. A milestone, starting to look like a real airplane.

Bill