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How to tell difference in wheel pants?

Brantel

Brantel

Well Known Member
Can someone fill me in on how to tell the difference in non pressure recovery wheel pants and pressure recovery wheel pants?

I have a friend with a RV6 that he purchased as a non completed kit. He is now flying and working on the wheelpants and fairings. He wants to know how to tell if his are or are not pressure recovery design. His are the type that were still being gell coated.
 
The old pants are skinnier, and have a bulge for the brakes. The pressure recovery have a tear drop shape and are the same (or nearly so) on both sides. Older pants might also have the white gelcoat, while you can see through the new ones.

Mine came with the old, but I purchased pressure recovery for the mains, and left the nose as is.

edit ( and most importantly)-----------and the old ones are one piece. The new ones have a removeable nose section.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
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When did they change?

Specifically, did the CAFE test RV-6A have the old or the new pants? Thanks.
 
Mine are the newer style, but were gel coated. They came to me around 1998 or so. Seems like the change was around 1996, give or take a few years.
 
hevansrv7a said:
Specifically, did the CAFE test RV-6A have the old or the new pants? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Prior to the pressure recovery wheel pants there were two choices.
The standard one piece with the bulge for the brakes cane standard in the kits. There was also an optional wheel pant that was a two piece, close fitting that were asymmetrical and shaped to fit over the brakes without a bulge. They became available in the early 90's (they were good for a 3-4 MPH gain in top speed compared to the standard). Both were always delivered with white gel coat.

Some of the early pressure recovery wheel pants were made with gel coat with polyester resin construction. After a short time the change was made to epoxy (no gel coat).

I looked at the photos on the CAFE web site but the res. is to poor to be able to tell. I am pretty sure that Steve Barnard's RV-6A tested by CAFE did not have pressure recovery wheel pants, but it may have had the optional two piece.
 
Another one - and the wheel up front

I bought (at the Copperstate fly market) some more square looking wheel pants to replace my original ones with the "brake bulge".

I think they are the Sam James ones - from his web site - I do like the "square" look -

wheelpantfrt0035.JPG


Sam doesn't seem to support a nosegear wheel pant (no snarky comments needed....:)...)

What are the present options for the nose gear - and yes, I'm keeping it... my present one is the original Vans one, which looks to be a little more difficult for maintenance access...

gil
 
az_gila said:
Sam doesn't seem to support a nosegear wheel pant (no snarky comments needed....:)...)

What are the present options for the nose gear - and yes, I'm keeping it... my present one is the original Vans one, which looks to be a little more difficult for maintenance access...

gil
Click to expand...
Sam does provide a nose gear and it's narrower than the Van's on the same principle as the mains. You have to make your own, low profile brackets, 4 of them. Mine is SJ - see pics on my site. The front cap comes off with a few screws; the back or main portion is held on with all four brackets. I use a small hole for inflater access.

IMHO being narrower and a few other things makes his wheel fairings a little less draggy than Van's. Van's disagrees, of course.
 
Thank you

hevansrv7a said:
Sam does provide a nose gear and it's narrower than the Van's on the same principle as the mains. You have to make your own, low profile brackets, 4 of them. Mine is SJ - see pics on my site. The front cap comes off with a few screws; the back or main portion is held on with all four brackets. I use a small hole for inflater access.

IMHO being narrower and a few other things makes his wheel fairings a little less draggy than Van's. Van's disagrees, of course.
Click to expand...

Thank you... it did not show on his web site...

I'll order one this week... it'll keep all the pants looking the same...:)

I too like the slimmer ones rather than the bulbous circular profile ones...

gil A
 
hevansrv7a said:
Sam does provide a nose gear and it's narrower than the Van's on the same principle as the mains. You have to make your own, low profile brackets, 4 of them. Mine is SJ - see pics on my site. The front cap comes off with a few screws; the back or main portion is held on with all four brackets. I use a small hole for inflater access.

IMHO being narrower and a few other things makes his wheel fairings a little less draggy than Van's. Van's disagrees, of course.
Click to expand...

I have a question...sincerely not trying to stir up a fight...I am truly curious.

Sam sells a lot of products that he claims produce speed improvements over the standard kit parts.

Has he done testing on an RV equipped with Van's part "X", removed it and then installed his alternate part and retested to see what the performance change is? It has been a long time since I have been to his web site but at that time I don't remember any detailed test data being offered.

This is the only way to make any valid claims regarding performance improvements.
 
Don't see this in any of the replies. Easiest way to tell the difference before OR after paint is the 'old' ones are one piece....the PR's are 2 pieces (split front half and rear half).

Brantel said:
Can someone fill me in on how to tell the difference in non pressure recovery wheel pants and pressure recovery wheel pants?

I have a friend with a RV6 that he purchased as a non completed kit. He is now flying and working on the wheelpants and fairings. He wants to know how to tell if his are or are not pressure recovery design. His are the type that were still being gell coated.
Click to expand...
 
Both gear?

rv6rick said:
Don't see this in any of the replies. Easiest way to tell the difference before OR after paint is the 'old' ones are one piece....the PR's are 2 pieces (split front half and rear half).
Click to expand...

Rick... is that true for both the mains and the nose? gil A
 
Good Question! It's true for the mains but I have no idea about the nosewheel. That said....all pressure recovery nosewheel pants are 2 piece (split front and rear)....again...I don't know about the old style on the nose. Matter of fact I didn't even think about a nosewheel when I responded :eek:.

Thanks for asking....I'm about to get educated!

az_gila said:
Rick... is that true for both the mains and the nose? gil A
Click to expand...
 
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