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Main Landing Gear SB-00007 REV 2 - Supersedes SL-00033

It looks like the new weldment doesn't have the kicker leg that comes forward into the footwell? At least that's a positive for this, but maaaaan, that looks like a ROUGH job.
 
Anybody know how many failed inspections requiring replacement there have been so far? I’ve heard two but that is unverified.
First rule of aircraft maintenance is to do no harm. I'm not sayin’, I'm just sayin’
 
Appears the left and right landing gear mounts are in stock which are the big-ticket items. (And they and this kit are not cheap)

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I recently acquired a 10 project and had to remove all the floor pans, just south of 1000 rivets, to remove ill conceived insulation. This also required to removal of the gear weldments and yes they were a PIA, plenty of blood sacrifice and not such nice words. I'm glad I found out now and not next week after I put them back in! I talked to Vans and they do have the parts just not in kit form, so its on order.
 
Bill.Peyton said:
Has Anyone asked vans how many cracked weldments have been found?
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When SL-00033 first came out, Vans said they knew of 3 aircraft with cracks, one of which was one of their demonstrators. Details here. I know of 2 in the UK (out of about 15 flying) but a large proportion of UK RVs are based at grass strips.
 
N787KV said:
I recently acquired a 10 project and had to remove all the floor pans, just south of 1000 rivets, to remove ill conceived insulation. This also required to removal of the gear weldments and yes they were a PIA, plenty of blood sacrifice and not such nice words. I'm glad I found out now and not next week after I put them back in! I talked to Vans and they do have the parts just not in kit form, so its on order.
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I had to do this SL because my center spar was the old design but my fuse kit came with the revised -1 weldments. The plates and drill bushings that Van's put together is really well done and the process is straightforward. I did find that a couple holes were moved with the -1 weldments. I used a DeWalt pilot point drill bit to make sure the drill didn't follow the old hole on those. Honestly the most painful part was clearancing the bottom skin for the weldments because they needed to have several bolts installed to verify fitment and it took 15 minutes per side to just install those bolts..

I was lucky enough that I could do the modifications with the spar on my workbench. I do feel for anyone that needs to do this in situ.
 
One of the guys on the FB group said he called and spoke to Van's at they said 25 planes have been affected / reported. So 2.5% or so of the flying fleet. Prior calls (by other guys) confirmed this seems to happen mainly to RV-10s operating primarily off rough strips.

I just acquired a 2017 build (unfinished) with the old mounts. No cracking (never flown). I don't intend to replace these at this time as the vast majority of my flying will be on pavement with the very occasional non-pavement landing.

Will inspect yearly and try not to slamma-jamma those landings :)
 
550 hours so far on my RV10 finished in 2020. Only occasionally flown on a very smooth grass strip. I have over 500 landings logged because I do a lot of short Young Eagles flights. I had to pull the right seat and stick to get under the instrument panel to modify some wiring so I checked that side. No cracks.
I can see how hard landings on rough strips could be a problem over time. I plan on doing nothing but inspect because I tend to land the aircraft pretty smoothly the vast majority of the time and I am almost always on smooth paved strips.
 
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