Wheel Pants! Which Ones Have The Least Drag?

rv969wf · #1 11-14-2006, 08:54 PM

I could not find a good post on this so I'm asking. Who makes the lowest drag wheel pants? I have Van's wheel pants installed and I have a pair of Sam James wheel pants sitting on the floor which I think / maybe are copied from Klaus Wheel pants. SJ claims 3 mph over VAN'S??? Is this voodoo or has anyone tested apples against oranges. Reason asking is I've got rigging issues with my wheel pants and gear leg fares and my plane flys crooked and I don't know whether to fix my Van's wheel pants / fairings and get them in the streamline correctly, or start from scratch and install the slimmer SJ wheel pants????? Any suggestions would be nice. I don't care about quality issues of one product over the other or things like that. Just want to know if anyone has tested different wheel pants and have seen any gains or losses. Thanks, AJ

Kevin Horton · #2 11-15-2006, 04:11 AM

From Dick Martin on the RV-List in September:

Quote:

I had Vans pants installed and flying first. I fitted Sam James pants and flew them. In order to determine the performance, which appeared to be faster, I reinstalled Vans pants and flew them and then removed them and flew the Sam James pants an hour later. The James pants were approx 5 knot faster +/- 1 knot.

osxuser · #3 11-15-2006, 08:52 PM

Are those the old Van's pants or the Pressure Recovery ones? It makes a difference. I was under the impression that the Pressure Recovery ones are almost the same as the SJ ones as far as speed.

gmcjetpilot · #4 11-15-2006, 09:02 PM

Van's are fine but they are sure large. All the fast RV's have SJ or Klaus wheel pants. I don't know about 5 kts even +/- 1 kt, that is a bit hard to imagine? But than I did not do the flight test. There is alignment, tire fairing gap and intersection fairings that goes into the mix. A well fitted and aligned wheel pants with nice intersection fairing is going to better than one poorly fitted and aligned, regardless of brand. However I went with the SJ pants for looks. I don't care for Vans wheel pants. With that said I think the SJ pants (copies of Klaus pants as you said) are a little faster. With the nice work you do, fit finish is not an issue.

I think if your gear legs are off than you need new intersection fairings. If you wheel pants are off it would be a good time to switch to the SJ fairings. I would suggest some wider chord gear leg fairings. Tracy Saylor makes them. The team rocket gear leg fairings may be a little large. Alignment is a little tricky but the first thing to do is fly with no pants and align the gear leg fairings, which are adjustable. Than you install the wheel pants, flight test and adjust. Than make the intersection fairings, which locks everything together. Good luck

rv969wf · #5 11-15-2006, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by osxuser

Are those the old Van's pants or the Pressure Recovery ones? It makes a difference. I was under the impression that the Pressure Recovery ones are almost the same as the SJ ones as far as speed.

They are the pressure recovery. If I do put the SJ pants on I'm sure I will see some gain mostly from getting everything rigged correctly. My left gear leg fare is out 3/8" and the pant is 3/4" off centerline to one side. No I didn't install them that way, someone else did. I do like the looks of the Van's pants much better then the thinner SJ's. Thanks, AJ

Kevin Horton · #6 11-16-2006, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by osxuser

Are those the old Van's pants or the Pressure Recovery ones? It makes a difference. I was under the impression that the Pressure Recovery ones are almost the same as the SJ ones as far as speed.

Dick had the new pressure recovery pants, as I understand it. His testing found that the Sam James one were faster.

rv969wf · #7 11-16-2006, 04:23 AM

Thanks Kevin for the update and the TAS info. AJ

Tram · #8 09-14-2007, 03:35 PM

Where can one pick up Sam James pants?

My pops and I are thinking about upgrading to the Harmon Rocket pants..

hevansrv7a · #9 09-14-2007, 05:34 PM

Dick Martin's post as quoted by K. Horton makes it sound just by implication that you can use the same brackets. I don't think you can. In my experience, I had to make different main (inboard) brackets to Sam's plans and you don't use an outboard bracket. If you are flying a tri-gear as in my case, you have to make new, smaller brackets for the nose gear because that fairing is also narrower than Van's. I don't think Dick meant to say it, only it sounds that way from the rapid change over implied in his post. It would involve pulling each wheel. Just ancillary information.