SonexBuilders.net

My Onex 362DV has about 100 hours on it and I am seeing excessive tire wear on the inside of both mains. Is this a toe-in/out problem or something else? Last Summer I flew to Oshkosh (30 hours of flight time and many landings) and was operating at gross weight most of the time and I tend to carry a little extra speed on final. Perhaps the combination has caused more than normal gear leg splaying. During a recent condition inspection I turned the tires around to even the wear.

Vince Homer

Hi Vince,

I'm a bit late in replying to your post but I'm having the same issue as you on my conventional gear Onex with significant tire wear on the inner edges. My landing gear is clearly splayed and my right wing tip is now 3 inches lower than the left, I believe this may be due to some heavy landings early on. Fortunately my landings have gotten better but I think I'm looking at replacing the gear. Does anyone have any advice on the possibility of re-bending the main gear?

Thanks,
Wayne

Wayne,

Could you rotate the gear leg 180 deg.? Guess the holes wouldn't be that true to allow than. But maybe you could swap ends after rotating and redrill each end. Or rebend it like you said.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057

I have straightened several sets of Sonex Gear Rods, even made a special set of Gap Press dies for doing it. A Onex is different animal though, with a one piece aluminum flat solid gear. It may be too expensive to ship about for "tweaking". I would be happy to give it a try though.

R.
Robert E. Barber
Sonex #271, N157SX (Sexy Hexy)
1005 hours

Hi Rick, as Robert mentioned above the Onex taildragger main gear is a single piece, so rotating it isn't an option, but since it's a flat plate it might not be too difficult to re-bend. I'm just not sure whether this might overly fatigue the material.

Hi Robert, thanks for the offer. As you say it might be a little expensive to ship around so I might just have a go myself. Any advice on bending?

Thanks,
Wayne

In a recent hard landing I bent the right gear leg on my Onex. Using wood and aluminum blocks and a 20 ton Harbor freight press I was able to straighten the leg. I did the bending cold because I didn't want to mess with the metallurgy with heat. Carefully inspect the part after bending for surface cracks. Obviously, you have to remove the gear to do this.

Vince homer