Rigging jury struts

[jtpitkin06]

Well, it turns out I don’t need longer jury strut brackets.



I made a short phone call to John McBean at Kitfox LLC to ask about fitting the jury struts. He was very helpful in telling me my situation was not normal. We agreed I needed to look for the cause. While not able to diagnose over the phone he did give me some tips on where to look. I have to say the Kitfox customer support is terrific.


Per the assembly manual, I used a taut string to ensure the forward lift strut was not sagging; but the jury strut was still low by 1/4 inch. Shifting the front of the jury strut outboard to raise it up put the fore and aft alignment off by one inch. Not ideal in my book.


With some clues from my conversation with John, I checked the rear lift strut and found it had a warp in the upward direction. That was totally unexpected. I had assumed it would be sagging from gravity.
I gave a quick tweak to the rear lift strut to remove the upward warp and everything came into place.


While some may find this episode a bit boring, I pass this information on as a reminder. When you get stuck, keep asking questions. Try different sources. Keep searching. And feedback, no matter how small, is a big help.


And lastly… if something doesn’t seem quite right, it probably isn’t.
Net result here is: The problem is resolved and I get to move forward.

John Pitkin
Greenville, TX

[carlisle]

Good job John. An engineer's perspective for sure and while I can't always claim I'm as persistent about such problems and sometimes compromise where I shouldn't, reading someone elses success stories helps to keep me motivated.

Chris