I found a guy at TK1 racing that said he fabricated an experimental canabee Vee suspension for a maule and was working on a tension shock to replace the oleo. He sells hydrosorbs for cubs as well as air shocks for the JuStol aircarft. Anyone have any pics or info on this? Im wondering how this could be done without doing any welding on the airframe.

Hoping he gets back to me with some pics and drawings. I flew the M4 for the first time since the rebuild on Sunday. Still drops in like a 1 ton truck on a pogo stick! I still got in under 300 or 400 feet but I could sure stop alot faster if it didn't bounce.

Upgraded the oleo springs from the old 1970's rectangular springs to the new round coil ones and refilled them with fresh oil/new bolts etc... The new springs seem MUCH stiffer. Perhaps I should try it with 65 gallons of fuel and a load and see if it helps. I only had 20 on board.

I sure like this new M5 wing though. It's about 10 knots slower in cruise than the M4 round tip jettison wing (115vs125)@~23 squared, io360, but with the droop tips, 2 more feet of flaps, and the VG's it flys noticeably slower on landing . It easily keeps the needle buried far under the white arc when hanging off the prop for a landing. elevator is less effective, likely cause of the larger flaps. Needs gap seals and vg's beneath elevator and move the battery off the firewall and back where it belongs. When the power is let off, full flaps, yolk back, it doesnt stall... the nose just drops down immediately. If I ever had a power failure I would sure be in trouble. Needs balancing. I see why they went to the bigger tailfeathers on the M5. I definitely need tail weight. Ok done rambling.. back to pushing paper in my cubicle

I find that a few more knots and a touch more power sometimes helps control the crash and without that bounce makes for a shorter landing. One can overdo the slow on final thing. But then that's just me.

Maybe some of the guys with aoa setups could work the numbers with different weights and cg's just to see what the speed spread might be. I played around a bit the other day still looking for that sweet spot on this m5. I want to get a lot more time on the back side of the power curve and some more stalls in. I've been doing most of my flying with just me and full mains so I need to bump the weight up and move the cg rearward for some heavy practice.

akholland wrote: Needs gap seals and vg's beneath elevator and move the battery off the firewall and back where it belongs. I definitely need tail weight. Ok done rambling.. back to pushing paper in my cubicle

Maybe throw in a ruck sack or a tool kit, leaving the cg for will be helpful in utilizing the useful load capability of your maule.

Some times when loading you run into the aft cg limit before you reach the useful load limit.

Got some more details on a suspension setup. 2800 for replacement Oleos that are four 2.25" air shocks. 875 I believe for the tk3 HD tailwheel. 7 inches of travel factory and 13 inches with new shocks, 31 inch bushwheels minimum for good clearance with a flat and compressed shocks. Can be easily adapted to 4inch extended Alaska airframe gear for ski flying and probably get another inch of travel out of it. Around 3700 total for a smooth ride. About to pull the trigger on it I think. I'd only be the 2nd person to try it. Anyone else in?.

akholland wrote:Got some more details on a suspension setup. 2800 for replacement Oleos that are four 2.25" air shocks. 875 I believe for the tk3 HD tailwheel. 7 inches of travel factory and 13 inches with new shocks, 31 inch bushwheels minimum for good clearance with a flat and compressed shocks. Can be easily adapted to 4inch extended Alaska airframe gear for ski flying and probably get another inch of travel out of it. Around 3700 total for a smooth ride. About to pull the trigger on it I think. I'd only be the 2nd person to try it. Anyone else in?.

Would love to see them do a drop test on a heavy Maule. Would also be nice to see a profile piece screwed to the top and bottom plates to allow for a removable airfoil cowl to hide the utilitarian construction.

Where can we see pictures ?

Double post

maules.com wrote:Where can we see pictures ?

http://store.tk1racing.com/mobile/Category.aspx?id=231

The 4 inch gear is 3k. (4k if u buy their extended oleos). Only need it if u wanna run skis.


3k gear with bolts, brake lines
2800. Shocks
875 tailwheel.
31's. have them

$6,675 extended gear
$3675 stock gear which should be plenty

I'll ask if he can make them with a slider to adjust to 2 lengths

Just to clarify on the Airframes Alaska 4" extended landing gear, it's $4k for the gear, which doesn't include new oleos. It's set up to reuse the original Maule gear oleos when you remove the standard gear.

AJ

For 4k you get replacement Oleos with the extended gear. You do not get the oleo spring packs that go inside them.

3k I just emailed them , you can get the 4inch extended gear only.
2600 gets you the HD stock length gear only.

Oops, my bad- you're right, bad terminology on my part, still learning. The $4k includes the "oleo struts" but doesn't include the "oleo spring packs"... that's what I got when I just plunked down my card recently.

Well oleo upgrade is officially ordered today. 2 to 3 weeks to make them, should have them by mid September.

Had him make me 2 different length struts, one for the stock gear at 34.5" long eye to eye, (then he subtracts half inch to allow tires to hang lower in flight), and one for the 4 inch extended at 38.75 if I decide I don't have good prop clearance and need longer gear.

I'll have to go long gear if I want to do anything less than 31's like 8.50's for wheel skis.

It was only 75 bucks more to have the longer lowers made to run on either gear types, plus if I ever bend a gear in the field I have more options.

Can't wait to try it! Been dreaming about something like this for years. I'll keep u posted.