Gear Choice Thoughts

[N213RV]

I offer a correction, and a different perspective.....

Cabane gear no longer uses bungles... it uses die springs. It is virtually maintenance free.

in my opinion, cabane gear looks way better than grove gear. For me, that is important.

I also believe you can upgrade the cabane gear to monster shock as well. I believe the gear legs and upper cross members are identical. So if you want good looks and upgrade capability, you may consider the cabane gear.....

Attached is a picture of my plane when I was building it, showing the gear and the yellow die springs....

[flipfloplife]

Great thoughts and I appreciate all of them. The point that Stick and Rudder uses Grove is well taken, that kind of does speak volumes. I know those guys are getting after it a bit in the backcountry -- but I'm sure they see their fair share of "not awesome" landings. I'm sure they will see some more when I get out there.

The point about ACTUAL mission is very well taken as well. I live in Florida. While I do plan on flying out west -- I still have to work a bit so the idea that backcountry would be a primary mission just wouldn't be correct.

I've decided I'll look at this as more of "three excellent choices" instead of any being "poor choices". I think I'm going to go with the Grove, and then if the S&R guys can't straighten out my landings I'll throw the Monster gear on there and instantly be a better pilot!

What is the role of different tires in all of this? Purely based on looks I'd kind of like to have something bigger than 6-9" tires on there. But 29's (as cool as they are) seem like they might be a BIT much (not to mention incredibly draggy). Is there a "crowd approved" in-between here? And how does that part of the choice affect takeoffs, landings and ground handling?

[littlecricket]

Aero Classic tundra 22s

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catal...er06-02501.php

[efwd]

I agree with littlecricket. I put the tires on that came with the kit and they detract from the appearance IMHO (unless your putting wheel pants on). I think the 22" tire is the point where the plane appears correct. If your doing real back country stuff I bet the 27" would be great. I like the way they look too. I would buy those myself but I am not able to justify the increase in cost just to make the plane look a bit better and more capable in the back country that I don't do. S&R uses 27" tires. They certainly felt good on the unimproved strips that I got to land on while training there.

[jiott]

I think the S&R tires are AK Bushwheels 26".

[Av8r3400]

I can positively confirm that Stick and Rudder uses 26” Alaskan Bushwheels Airstreaks on their planes.

[efwd]

Thanks for correcting that. You two are right.

[redbowen]

I just want to add a few things to the already great opinions expressed here. The shock Monster gear is great for off airport landings, nothing compares, however I found that my model 5 was a way better all around airplane with the Grove gear on it. The Grove gear with Bushwheels 26” or 29” can go anywhere that you should go. It will bounce on uneven terrain which reduces your braking effect, but I have taken the Grove gear into some pretty rough off airport spots and always felt that it did fine. The monster shock gear is amazing in rough terrain, never bounces and can make a bad landing look great, but at a huge cost, and that cost is speed. Expect a bigger lose in speed from the monster gear than you would see from switching to the STI wing. You will see a speed reduction of 9-11 mph. 100mph cruise will be about standard with 29” Bushwheels. You can run any size tire on the grove, but the smaller tires, anything smaller than a 26”, looks ridiculous on the monster shock gear.
Your mission sounds like it is perfect for the Grove gear, ie x-country and backcountry airstrips. Backcountry strips, like the ones stick and rudder go to, do not require off airport landing gear or tires. A set of 8.50’s on grove will take you to every strip in the Idaho back country. The monster shock gear and 29” tires are really for ATV airplane flying. Off airport spot hunting. Don’t get me wrong, TK1 Shock Monster gear is going on my new build, but my mission is specific to the off airport flying. I have even considered having both so that I could switch when I need to go on a long x-country.
Bowen Aero LLC is also testing a 4th option soon. The Beringer Shock Wheel suspension on the grove landing gear. Should be the best of both worlds at the cost of some additional weight. It will be something that can be added to the Grove gear later.

[Av8r3400]

So is that like Alex DiSessa’s gear?

[ratc]

Directly related to the gear choice question. What about damage resistance between the Grove and Cabane gear?

If, heaven forbid you were to have any runway excursion/off airport incident. It always seemed to me that the more frangible Cabane frame would absorb most, if not all of the load. Rather than have it transferred to the fuselage, making any repairs more difficult and or expensive?

These were some of my thoughts when deciding on gear configuration.

Ratc
S7 sti (on order)