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Tire inflation access on wheel pants

Access door

I don't have pics, so I'll have to describe what I made. At an aircraft surplus shop I found 2 Hartwell latches attached to a pair of panels. I cut square holes approx 3"x3" in the main gear wheel pants. I then trimmed the latch equipped panels to size and used some piano hinge to attach the access doors to the pants. I made aluminum striker plates for the Hartwell latches to contact to avoid damage to the fiberglas. I can now add air to the tires with no special tools and with plenty of 'hand room' to remove the tire caps due to the size of the doors. I stole this idea from a Cessna 172.
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On the nose gear I made a smaller door with a leftover 'butterfly' quarter turn fastener originally made for the oil door in the cowl. This door also uses piano hinge material. No tools required for access either.
 
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NAPA Auto Parts Dually Wheel Extension

NAPA Auto Parts has a Dual Wheel valve stem extension in different lengths. Locally they were the only one of three different auto parts stores in my local area to have one that would work, without piggybacking several of the shorter 1" extensions together, after removing valve stems.

P/N; Tire Valve ST: T NTH 90305 is a 6" extension $23.99 / Extension (855) T NTH 90302 is a 3" extension $13.99. Pipe tubing style, not flexible braided hose versions.

The 3" barely sticks out enough on my RV-6, but it worked great. It has a hollow tube to slide over the rubber valve stem to line it up so you don't cross thread. The extension model lost was designed for aircraft but did not have this feature and cost $60.

The aircraft model leaked air trying to install or remove, the 3" extension just purchased does not.

My RV-6 has 3/8" Hex tire valve stem cap that I remove with a 3/8" nut driver.

Mike
 
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I don't have pics, so I'll have to describe what I made. At an aircraft surplus shop I found 2 Hartwell latches attached to a pair of panels. I cut square holes approx 3"x3" in the main gear wheel pants. I then trimmed the latch equipped panels to size and used some piano hinge to attach the access doors to the pants. I made aluminum striker plates for the Hartwell latches to contact to avoid damage to the fiberglas. I can now add air to the tires with no special tools and with plenty of 'hand room' to remove the tire caps due to the size of the doors. I stole this idea from a Cessna 172.
th
On the nose gear I made a smaller door with a leftover 'butterfly' quarter turn fastener originally made for the oil door in the cowl. This door also uses piano hinge material. No tools required for access either.

What he said. Laying up the doors using the pants for the shape. I figured while I’m doing glass, now is the time.
 

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I ended up making little doors too, each with a cam lock connector holding them on.





Paint hid all my nasty amateur-hour fiberglass work:

 
Glass it in and rivet time…..
 

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Use Michelin Airstops, pull nose off every few weeks and before big trips, inspect everything at the same time. Takes five minutes a side at most.
Originally I drilled an access hole, used a Cleveland extension. It worked until I changed tires and the stem angle changed making it difficult to align.
Now I have a hole, with a plug, that didn’t work or need to be there.

So, if you must, fabricate a solution that has more wiggle room, or use the airstops and feel good about checking things out every once in a while. The inside of wheel pants is a very ugly environment.

Some day, I’ll repair the hole and gain .004 kts.
 
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