What indicates nosewheel damage?

[FloridaMan]

My second concern that I've posted in a week, I'm starting to feel like I'm claiming the sky is falling.

I took a friend up for his first plane ride yesterday. On return, I taxied over to the tiedown area and an extremely pissed off line guy pulls up in a pickup truck and motions for me to follow him, which I did. The guy parking me was also in a bad mood.

I tell them my intentions that I was leaving in the morning and they said that they would not move the airplane. They moved the plane. Whenever I leave it with anyone, I feel behind the turning assembly. It's always rough, but this time, it felt like there was a small, maybe 3mm indentation on the right (facing forward) side of the nose gear assembly where I guess it would hit. Is this something that I should be concerned over? A previous FBO claimed that there was damage as I posted in my topic about a bent tie down ring, but I think that was just them being overly cautious as there has always been a rough paint texture there, but never what I feel as a dimple.

Is that dimple something to be concerned about? Is there anything else that I should take a closer look at?

[OR75]

the 3 mm is the depth of the dent ???

i am not sure everyone understand where you found the dent. I don't . Picture?

[gregwatts]

Definitely have it looked at. I do not know exactly what the allowance is....but if it is beyond a certain measurement, it may need replacement. IIRC, LASAR sells the replacement for about $800. That is not an item to let go......

My opinion only!

[OR75]

3mm deep dent is a big dent ! i believe the limit is 1/32 of an inch ? ( and that's an order of magnitude lower than 3 mm)

[jfdez]

The limit is in fact 1/32 of an inch. I have pictures, but can't seem to figure out how to upload them here.

[carusoam]

For uploading photos it helps to have tapatalk, available for a few bucks from the usual app stores...

Good luck,

-a-

[FloridaMan]

Their line guy came out an inspected it and said they always inspect them before towing and it's not like what he's seen as bad. I know it's something new, but it's not very deep. The 3mm is diameter of the dimple, not the depth. The depth is barely discernable; you can feel it, but it may be less than 1/32". I took several photos and I'll post them as soon as I can find my damned SD card reader.

[rbridges]

Their line guy came out an inspected it and said they always inspect them before towing and it's not like what he's seen as bad. I know it's something new, but it's not very deep. The 3mm is diameter of the dimple, not the depth. The depth is barely discernable; you can feel it, but it may be less than 1/32". I took several photos and I'll post them as soon as I can find my damned SD card reader.

that's good to hear. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about.

[Marauder]

Here is a picture of one that I found on the Internet. Mine was dented like this one and required replacement.

[BigTex]

Ever thought about having the nose gear modification done to prevent this type of damage? The prior owner of my plane went through two nose wheel trusses before biting the bullet and installing the mod.

[Piloto]

One way to prevent damage is to cover the tubing with a piece of thick rubber hose. Just slice a suitable hose on one side. Wrap it around the tubing with ty-wraps. The hose prevents metal to metal contact by cushioning the rubber material. It works very well.

José

[garytex]

Jose, great idea. Does the hose make the turning radius bigger? Or does one just override it somewhat with the brakes. Does the truss ordinarily bottom out against the other tube when we turn?

Thanks, Gary

[DonMuncy]

Yes, anything you put on the tube would make the turning radius larger. And that clearance is quite small. I didn't measure it, but in my opinion, any padding you put on the tube would really change the radius.

The tubes always, or almost always bottom out when pulling your plane with a tow bar. I haven't checked to see what happens under full rudder inputs, but I'll bet it is close.

[FloridaMan]

Here is my damage. You can barely see the indentation at the bottom of the rough area. You are looking up at the rear right-hand side of the truss in this photo.

[Piloto]

Jose, great idea. Does the hose make the turning radius bigger? Or does one just override it somewhat with the brakes. Does the truss ordinarily bottom out against the other tube when we turn?

Thanks, Gary

The rudder pedals are unable to steer the nose wheel as far as a tow bar so your turning radius remains the same. The rubber hose acts very much like the rubber bumper in your car door that keeps it from getting ding when it hits the post at the gas station.

José

[DonMuncy]

You are probably right Jose. I assumed that if the tow bar "bumped", the rudder pedals would go as far or almost as far. And you know what happens when you assume.

[Greg_D]

Does the rubber hose trick require an STC?

[gregwatts]

Not if you use duct tape...............

[rdav]

I'm now in the same unenviable position.  I just flew my M20C on several hops across the country for the holidays, and started noticing that the plane seemed to pull to the left when the nosewheel touches on landing.  After reading this thread, I did (what I thought was) a close visual inspection of the nosewheel truss with each walk-around but saw nothing obviously out of the ordinary, so I attributed it to rusty pilot skills.  On the most recent landing though, she pulled HARD left when the nosewheel touched, and I had trouble making any tight right turns when taxiing.  On closer inspection, there is a definite dent on the aft side of the truss, but I had all sorts of trouble actually seeing the bend.  It is very noticeable when I run my finger down the backside of the truss member though.  Could the damage have actually gotten worse from a few landings when the nosewheel took a sudden side load?

 

Needless to say, I have no idea where the dent first occurred so I can't recover any of the repair costs.  I will be adding a quick "feel" check as part of my preflight inspection now, and am seriously thinking about the indicator idea described on the "Nosewheel truss damage warning device" thread.