taildragger toe-in vs toe-out AGAIN

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 17:21:21 GMT, Mr Nobody
wrote:

J oa

Toe in vs Toe out depends on the type of gear you have your wheels
connected to. This is the absolute first thing to consider before even
thinking about setting toe. If your gear is articulated you
need neutral or toe-in. Why? Because the gear legs will be forced apart
with toe out and the plane will start to sink on its gear. And it will
happen as you push it out of the hanger. It takes very little to get the
gear legs to spread if there is toe out. The rate at which it will sink
depends on the amount of toe out. So if you have bungees or
springs on some sort of A arm gear legs please don't use any toe-out.


I'll take issue here.
Your plane is so light the wheels will "scuff" long before they squat
the suspension enough to affect anything. Particularly when talking
only a few degrees of toe-out.
Now, if you were putting thousands of miles on the plane on the ground
tire wear would possibly become an issue, but you FLY the thing.
If you have fixed gear like a one piece steel or aluminum unit then you
can consider all these other posts about how it should be set.

Mike

One other thing to consider (and I can't help but wonder if it makes a greater
difference than initial toe in or out setting) is the angle (camber) of the
tire as it sits on the ground. The camber obviously changes with the weight on
the gear at any time. The problem is the bias ply tires that are on light
aircraft. They normally tend to want to steer toward the way they are leaning
as slight as that may be. Inflation could also effect this tendency.

Jim