Skid shoes

[seneca2e]

What have you used material width and thickness to reline/repair your skid shoes with? Mine had a very thin 1/2" wide steel strap in the middle that was worn to the nubbing so to speak. Has anyone went to a wider strip maybe 3/4 to 1" and maybe a 1/4" thick? If you do many run on takeoffs and landings on pavement these things wear pretty fast.

[bryancobb]

I lined mine with 1/8 x 1/2 mild steel.

[9121u]

ED I used a hard steel 3/16 thick 7/16 wide.. harder steel last a lot longer then mild..does not have to be wider. after tig welded in. round off all sharp edges so the helicopter does not dig in on black top...hope this helps....

[bryancobb]

+1 on the hard steel. If you have a fabricator near you,that can cut you some from AR-500 abrasive-resistant steel plate, that would be best. It's used in the mining industry as wear-plates on equipment. It has a Brinnell Hardness of 500.

++11 on rounding the edges too. I didn't and am lucky I didn't snag a corner and roll over.

[seneca2e]

Okay thanks guys. I actually had a local welding shop under my supervision do these but when I inspected them they were 1/16" stainless steel. A good choice of materials for hardness but just not thick enough to last for any time. That's why I was wondering about going thicker. Seems like it would also give you a little more clearance from damaging your skid tubes. I think I'll stick to 3/16 inch since both of you are concerned about digging in-which is a good point. I'll definitely round the edges. Seems like my old Enstrom manual just said to weld beads on the plates for wear strips.

I ride atv's a lot and they have some amazing plastic materials these day for skid plates. They glide right over the rocks where as the aluminum or steel skid plates just stop you like glue! I guess the newer materials have not been tried yet on helicopter skid shoes. They actually might slide too far if friction coefficient was too low.

[9121u]

ED stainless is a good choice.let us no how they wear for future use.thanks.. for got to mention your brantly is pretty sharp looking like the colors and design

[seneca2e]

Thanks Tom! Being from KY I couldn't have been happier with the colors and scheme. We paint almost everything in those colors and amazingly I bought (after a 30 year wait) a Brantly that was already painted like we wanted!