Wheel replacements for T-28 Trojan

I'd swap the wheels for foam wheels and save the weight...  But if it is a display piece then original style wheels would be better. Those sure look like the dubro treaded wheel.

http://shop.dubro.com/c/aircraft_tires-wheels

although there are these too

http://coxengines.ca/cox-landing-gear-wheel-6.html

Phil

The diameter of the tires is approx.  1 1/8 ". They could possibly have been 1-1/4" but due to shrinkage and rotting they reduced a little in size. Sullivan and Dubro do make nice treaded rubber tires in tailwheel size that would fit the bill. I have the landing gear off in preparation for a detail job. The engine is gummed up a little and there is residue here and there but no missing pieces and no damage anywhere. Even without the landing gear on, this plane is unusually heavy for its size, with much of the weight gain in the nose area. As a kid, my older neighbor had one and despite the weight it flew well as a SCALE plane. No wingovers or God forbid anybody try loops. It'll surely go in! As a side note, the pic above I've seen before, but at least for now I doubt the seller will get what he wants because of the completely broken rudder section. But who knows.

Thanks for the link, and the offer. After 50 years they do tend to break down. The ones on the plane are barely noticeable as being tires. The nose wheel tire already fell off the rim. The Perfect tires might be the way to go because they have that classic "older" look to them that would fit with the age of the plane. Most of these smaller tires come in either 1 or 1 1/4 inch size and nothing in between so I'd opt for the 1 inchers so they would not get to close or rub against the top bend of the wire struts.

I'll order a set today and put them on when they arrive. Here's a couple photos so far.  I got the old ones off and cleaned the residue off the struts and covers. The axles tips are machine-pressed so the hubs and covers don't come off unless you grind the flared tips off and I'm not going to do that. The photo of the plane  "gear up" before I break it down for a detail cleaning and new decals. The missing wing walk strips I may just paint on.

.

bottomgun wrote:I'll order a set today and put them on when they arrive. Here's a couple photos so far.  I got the old ones off and cleaned the residue off the struts and covers. The axles tips are machine-pressed so the hubs and covers don't come off unless you grind the flared tips off and I'm not going to do that. The photo of the plane  "gear up" before I break it down for a detail cleaning and new decals. The missing wing walk strips I may just paint on.

bottomgun: Have you considered using a smaller tire, (rubber or foam). Something like 3/4 inch or so instead of 1 1/8 inch. It would weigh less and maybe even fit the same hub.

happydad          

I'm considering ordering two pairs of each size so I can choose which would be right. There inexpensive and the ones I don't use I can use on something else. Today I got the fuselage apart and taking into consideration the advice from Mudhen, the center bellcrank/fuse screw and both fronts were very stiff. I used a syringe and poured 91 alcohol into the screw holes to loosen up some of the old dry fuel build up and they actually came loose. As I turned them out slowly I would keep injecting alcohol into the holes and between the fuse bosses when there was a gap forming from coming apart. I could inject them through the cylinder head cut out or the front end. I would sometimes really douse it and turn the screw back in maybe one turn to get some of the alcohol into the threads and it eventually worked out! I got all screws out with no damage and all bosses intact. I went ahead and got the canopy off and polished that up and went through the motor. As expected the needle valve opening was clogged and the fuel line was pretty much toast. The fuel outlet was not broken as the fuel line did not tighten with age around the fitting so that was another plus. A new reed, crankcase gasket, fuel line, snap spring starter, and a detail cleaning and lube and it is good as new.  The canopy and screw removal was about a 9 1/2 on the pucker factor scale though. With that over everything else save possibly the tires should not be a problem.

For display, the Perfect tires would look nice if you can source them. They're wicked heavy.

Here's a pair of 1.25" Perfect wheels.. just to get an idea of their weight. Their hubs probably account for less than 1/4 of the total weight. The T-28's hubs look a lot smaller.



I've never tried to remove a Perfect-brand tire from the hub. If you want to fly it.. you could try to find a black or dk. grey color piece of 3/8" thick rigid foam sheet.. and cut tires from it. Size the hub-hole small enough for a tight fit to your hub. They would probably stay on fine. The gear-doors would help keep them from popping off too.

.

Got me on that one. Mark, I'll shoot you a PM with my info. If anything it would be good to have as a spare just to have it. I would have to think long and hard about wanting to actually fly this plane. They only made it for just under two years and it's very hard to get replacement parts in case of an oops moment. There's absolutely no damage or cracks anywhere on this plane and I want to keep it that way.  Now the PT 19, that's a different matter...  What I think I'll do is buy one Perfect and one Sullivan in 3/4 and 1 inch sizes and give them a comparison to see which fits the bill. I'll post more pics as I go along. I'm thinking on the wing walk bars that instead of using monokote trim sheet, I'm going to mask and paint them flat black with a follow up of clear fuel proof Klass Kote epoxy paint. It's almost exactly like K&B Superpoxy that I used in the 1980's and I did a complete clear coat job on a mid 1960's prop rod that I restored. I've run it about five times and the toughness and fuel proof capabilities are outstanding.


I've since placed the cylinder head inverted in original configuration and it runs just as well.

I think an .049 powered Bearcat would have been a good seller for Cox. I wonder if anybody has tried to convert an electric model to use an .049. Would be interesting.

Last night I cleaned up and masked off the areas for repainting. Had to wear my reading glasses for this one. Weather here in SoCal was about 71 degrees with rain coming so this morning I went ahead and shot the black on.
The factory wing stickers were dried up and falling apart. I was going to make new ones using Monocote trim sheet but opted to spray them when I did the anti glare panel on the cowling. Before I started I removed the old decals from the fuse sides. They were practically etched on. I don't know if someone used some sort of fuel proofer on them but they were a bite and a half to get off. Used about 8 coats of ELO decal and paint remover to get them off but it turned out well.

Here's a close up of the cowling before any work was done. Some wear here and there but it held up quite well for 50 years.


Got everything masked using Scotch painters tape. It took a while to do this part. I cleaned the cowling and had no problem removing most the old factory paint. I used my old stock of K&B Superpoxy which is about 32 years old. I used it on another project two years ago and it still works great.



Using muh trusty Paasche which is also about the same age.


All airbrushed. I used toothpicks to keep paint out of the filler tubes.



All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out. The wing walk panels look way better than the stickers that were on there. I won't even begin to handle these parts until about another 3 days even though it's dry to the touch in about half an hour and is completely fuel proof from my experience using Superpoxy. I'll concentrate now on how I'll handle the wheel/tire situation.

wow great job!

I decided to go ahead and use the Perfect tires and hubs. They are the 1 inch diameter units. The original hubs were to small in diameter and also too wide. I have a good original front (thanks Mark) and if I ever find a good complete pair of rears then I'll replace them with that. I'm not flying it so these will suffice even if I wanted to fly it. I also used some yellow Great Planes striping tape to accent the canopy even though originally it was never like this, but it does look neat. Just waiting now for my Stars and Bars graphics from Callie Graphics and I'll be done.

Awesome job there. what and or how did you prep the plastic for the paint? Again, great job.

I used lacquer thinner spread with a cotton swab to condition the plastic to help the epoxy paint stick. I did it sparingly and quickly just before shooting on the paint. I was going to use some of the automotive pre prep spray conditioners like Bulldog or whatnot but I was leery of using them and besides, I've done this method before with good results.