Main Wheel Fairings Question

[jerry98b]

RV-9A

The R2 plans call for three (U-408) spaces to be made from 3/8 x .058 6061-T6 tubing for each wheel.
The R3 plans call for three (U-00408) spaces to be made from 3/8 x .058 4130 steel tubing for each wheel.

I was sent R3 plans, but not sent the steel tubing; I was sent the aluminum tubing. Do I need to just follow revision 2 plans or contact Van's to get the steel tubing for revision 3?

 

[Desert Rat]

I believe the issue is that the pants take a beating and over time, the aluminum spacers can compress, resulting in the attach bracket getting loose. A common fix here is to to replace the aluminum spacers with steel. That's been going on in the field for a long time.

When was rev 3 issued? It has to be pretty recent since there are jillions of Rv's flying with aluminum spacers.

Bottom line; you can use aluminum, and if they get loose at some non-specific future time, you can replace them with steel, or you can just get some steel tube and do it now.

I put mine all together a couple of years ago and I'm reasonably confident that it called out aluminum tubes at that time, but I had it in the back of my mind to replace that with steel if the pants ever show signs of getting wobbly. Glad to see that Van's updated their print.