Tripod Heli Rolling Landing Gear Project

I have always liked the look of trainling link landing gear, and I have wanted to put a set on a heli since I first started modleing. A few months ago I found these trialing link landing gear at Hobby King, at a pretty hard to believe price.

 

 

I had asked on Helifreak if anyone had any ideas on how to put these on a 500 class heli, in this case my HK500, but no one had any ideas. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but the other night came up with this idea.

 

I used the nylon strut from a normal 500 Class heli and cut a slit in the bottom of the strut.

I opened this and pushed the landing gear through it.

 

Here you can see the way I fit the gear strut onto the nylon landing gear.

 

I used wire ties to secure the aluminum strut to the nylon strut.

 

You can see a touch of CA to further secure the gear.

 

I built a wood cross bar to secure the nylon landing gear strut to. I bolted the nylon part to the wood, and used servo screws to attach the wood to the heli frame.

 

I tossed on a couple of wire ties to push some of the landing torque to the frame

rather than just the landing gear screws. (Yes, I see the exposed connectors... will be taping them).

 

I built a wood brace to put some of the rear gear ooad onto the

frame since the gear itself is attached to the reciever tray.

 

Side view. I changed the screw that the gear is mounted to, to a longer

one to allow a larger spacer, extending the length a bit.

 

Here's a view of the change with a larger white spacer.

 

I mounted the rear gear just aft of the servo tray screws to put the loan

on the pivot rather than on the end, decreasing the torque on the tray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The heli's weight sets the gear a bit on the springs, giving it a nice bounce and recoil. I think the tripod's footprint is a bit small, and I may need to move the rear gear further back. If I do I will need to develop a base a bit stronger than the nylon receiver tray.

 

I have a set of wheel pants from an Eflite Pulse XT 25e I am playing with to make nacelles for the gear tops. Could be pretty sweet!

 

Addendum: Added nacelles. Check out the pics here! I went back and moved the nylon strut in front of the wood block, effectively moving the wheelbase another cm forward and long. Not sure it matts, but it makes me feel better. I just couldn't shake the feeling the wheelbase was too short, almost cartoonish. Looks much better. I had to trim the ends of the spar.

 

CHANGES: Moved the front gear further forward.

 

Posted with Blogsy