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Wheel pant dimensions Vans/James

hohocc

Well Known Member
I'm considering buying some unidentified wheel pants that have become available.
Would someone out there who has a set of wheel pants handy mind measuring the length, width and height to help me confirm or deny what I'm looking at? I'm interested in getting the above dimensions for both Vans and Sam James 500x5 wheel pants. I'm aware the James aircraft site shows some dimensions but I'm unsure which size wheel they relate to.
The pants I've come across are apparently 36Lx12Hx8.5W. I suspect they are for a bigger wheel despite being advertised as for 500x5 but some numbers to compare with would be great.
Thanks.
 
Shouldn't need dimensions.

The Sam James pants have always had flat sides so that the cross section is somewhat a rectangle.

The early Vans pants were similar but the not as wide so they had a bump molded into the inboard sides for the brakes (James pants are flat on both sides).
The current Van's pants are a compound curved shape on all of its exterior (no flat areas at all except for a small portion of the very aft end.
 
I'm considering buying some unidentified wheel pants that have become available.
Would someone out there who has a set of wheel pants handy mind measuring the length, width and height to help me confirm or deny what I'm looking at? I'm interested in getting the above dimensions for both Vans and Sam James 500x5 wheel pants. I'm aware the James aircraft site shows some dimensions but I'm unsure which size wheel they relate to.
The pants I've come across are apparently 36Lx12Hx8.5W. I suspect they are for a bigger wheel despite being advertised as for 500x5 but some numbers to compare with would be great.
Thanks.

My SJ pants are a little longer than that, but the other two dimensions are about right. The pants are just bigger than you think. The Vans pressure recovery are larger yet and cover the wheel better than the James. I prepared the James and will test the Vans after flying so have not prepared them for installation. The James were a lot more work to get installed and looking nice compared to Vans. The Vans pressure recovery glass is one of the better pieces I have come across.
 
Scott: The shape certainly suggests they are the James shape, rectangular when viewed from the front with corners rounded and in plan view tapering more steeply aft of the wheel then a more gentle taper to the te, moulded in fore and aft pieces with no brake bump on the side. The dimensions I mentioned threw me off though as the length was so different from on James site. However the shape is certainly consistent, so maybe I read the dimensions wrong?
Bill: Sounds like the pants I'm looking at may well be the same as your James examples since the dimensions are close. When you say the Vans are bigger again, do you mean they are longer than the James, or just more volume due to the curved rather than flat sided shape? I'll be very interested to see the side by side comparison between the 2, I have seen an "apples to apples" comparison post somewhere that suggested James were faster but the numbers mentioned were too different to be believable so I'm not sure it was "apples to apples" in the strictest sense.
In any case thanks for the help gents!
 
Scott: The shape certainly suggests they are the James shape, rectangular when viewed from the front with corners rounded and in plan view tapering more steeply aft of the wheel then a more gentle taper to the te, moulded in fore and aft pieces with no brake bump on the side. The dimensions I mentioned threw me off though as the length was so different from on James site. However the shape is certainly consistent, so maybe I read the dimensions wrong?

I don't know much about the James wheel pants but I imagine it is fully possible that he has revised the size at some point.

If the have flat sides with no bump for the brakes, they are not Vans pants.
 
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