Hang Glider Wheels

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Making Wheels for your Hang Glider

Overview

If you want to get rid of those great big training wheels, but you're not ready to go to the little tiny wheels some folks use, you can fabricate a set of 12 inch by 2 inch wheels that give you lots of ground clearance, but don't have too big a frontal area (drag). And they're real cheap to make - total cost at the end of 2004 is about $25.00.

These wheels are also good for tandem gliders and for anyone who wants cheap, sturdy wheels that give you plenty of ground clearance.

These instructions will show the wheels being put on a Wills Wing Falcon, with a 1 1/8 in. diameter control bar and no VG. You'll have to make adjustments if your control bar is a different diameter. If you have a VG, then you may want to route your VG cord up and over the wheel. Or, see what Fred Clement did, below.

What you'll need:

A pair of wheels, with tires and tubes. Here is a source that sells 12 inch wheels for a very good price:
Northern Tool part no. 40148, a 12.5 in. wheel (thanks to Fred Clement for finding this).

4: PVC reducer, 1 1/4in. to 1in.

About a foot of 1 1/4in. PVC pipe. You want the thin walled pipe, not the normal sched. 40 stuff. You may have to look around to find this. It is often used for lawn sprinkler systems.
2: hose clamps, no. 020. This fits around the reducer.
A bit of PVC cement
tools: Swiss Army knife, hacksaw, flat file, 1 1/8in. hole saw, and either a drill press or a hand drill.
some Acetone for lean-up would be nice.
and some silicone spray lubricant would be good too.

Step one: Drill out the hub.

Hopefully you have access to a drill press and a second set of hands for this important step.

Pop out the wheel bearings that came with the wheels. The bearings are 1 1/8 in in diameter. That's exactly the size hole that you want to go all the way through the hub. With another person holding the wheel tightly down on the drill press platform, line up the hole saw, then turn on the drill press and drill out the hub. You don't want the hole saw to get hot. If it does get hot, it will gall the hole - melt the plastic - and make a mess. You might want to pour water on it as you drill. For sure you'll want to cool it off before you do the second wheel.

When you're done, the hole will be pretty much the way you want it, but it'll be 'dirty'. Use the small blade of your Swiss Army knife, or use a sharp thin-bladed paring knife, to clean out the hole. You'll find that you can make it pretty clean, and even enlarge it just a bit. You should check the fit of the wheel in the base tube as you go to see how well it spins. The wheel doesn't have to spin freely; it just has to move without too much resistance. It'll move much easier after you lube it and it gets some use.

Using a drill press for this step helps you keep the hole saw straight as you drill out the hub. If you don't have a drill press, you'll probably want to drill the hole half-way from one side, then flip the wheel over to drill it from the other side. This will help keep the drill from veering off-center too much.

Step two: The inside wheel stop

That does it for the wheels themselves. Now turn your attention to the wheel stops that will keep the wheels in place on the control bar.

The four PVC reducers need to be trimmed down so that the smaller-diameter section is removed. Use a hacksaw.

Two of the wheel stops will be on the inside, nearer your hands. They will be kept in place with hose clamps.

Glue in a short length of the thin-walled PVC tubing.
Cut the tubing flush with the reducer with the hacksaw
smooth the cuts with a file.
cut a notch, about 1/4 in. wide, so that the wheel stop will grip the control bar

Step three: The outside wheel stop

The idea is that the inside wheel stop can stay on the control bar, but the outside wheel stop will be removed each time you break down the glider. Now, it may be that you'll want to keep the whole control bar with wheels as a single unit, outside the glider bag. That's fine too.

In order to quickly remove the wheels, the outside wheel stops will not be held in place with hose clamps. (Aside: you may want to go the hose clamp route anyway since it doesn't take much to loosen them). So, with no hose clamps, you'll have the thin-walled PVC tubing extend out to the end of the control bar, where it will be held in place by the control bar bolts.

Here's the steps for the outside wheel stops:

Glue in a longer length of thin-walled PVC tubing.
Assemble the control bar onto the glider so you can measure.
Slide the inner wheel stop and the wheel onto the control bar. Determine where the wheel should be located so that it won't rub against the down tube. Tighten the hose clamp on the inner wheel stop.
Slide the outer wheel stop on. Cut the PVC tubing flush with the end of the control bar so that the outside wheel stop will be next to the wheel, with just a small clearance gap.
Use the Awl on your Swiss Army knife to poke a small hole in the tubing where it lines up with the control bar's bolt hole.
Use the Awl to carefully enlarge the hole so that it matches the control bar hole. The PVC cuts easily with the awl.
Put the bolt and wing nut on the control bar / wheel stop so that you can use a pencil and draw a line around the head of the bolt.
Use the awl to enlarge the hole, out to the pencil line. Test the fit. The bolt head should sit inside the hole you cut in the tube.
Reverse the bolt and enlarge the hole on the other side of the tubing. You want both holes to be the same, lined up on the control bar holes and large enough so that the bolt head and the wing nut both sit tightly against the control bar, just like before we added the PVC tube.
Use a file to clean up edges.
Use Acetone to clean up the plastic, removing excess glue, print marks, etc.
Assemble the inner wheel stop, wheel and outer wheel stop. Tighten the inner wheel stop using the hose clamp. Make sure the clearance with the down tube is OK. Remove the outer wheel stop. Leave the inner wheel stop in place.
Make the second outside wheel stop exactly the same as the first. Make it on the same end of the control bar using the same wheel and inner wheel stop as before. You want both outer wheel stops to be interchangeable.

Step four: Assemble and test

Assemble the whole thing and make sure the wheels clear the down tubes. Make sure that the outside wheel stops fit on either end of the control bar. That should do it.

Some Notes:

If you may be using these wheels on more than one glider, then you'll want to forget about outer wheel stops and use inner wheel stops exclusively.
Consider carrying a nut driver (socket on the end of a screwdriver handle) to tighten up the hose clamps more easily.
I made one set of these wheels without using a drill press. The hand drill worked fine. I drilled half-way from one side, then the rest of the way from the other side. But the important part was that I did it underwater, with the wheel in the kitchen sink. By keeping the plastic wet, the drill did not gall the plastic.

Here are some photos to help clarify things.

click any image for larger version

	12 1/2 x 2 1/4 wheel & tire The wheel bearing pops right out. The resulting hole is exactly 1 1/8 in. wide, just what you want.
	1 1/8 hole saw Use this in a drill press to cut out the hole in the hub.
	Hub hole after being cut Use your Swiss Army knife to smooth out the hole.
	Hub hole after clean up The whitish stuff is spray dry lubricant (Sailkote).
	Inner wheel stop before cleanup The tightening slot in this photo is a bit wider than needed. Use a file to smooth out the face.
	Outer wheel stop construction Using the awl to make a hole to match bolt hole in the control bar.
	Marking hole to be enlarged
	Checking fit of bolt in hole Both holes should be the same. Both outer wheel stops should be the same.
	Assembled wheel on control bar You might want a bit more clearance than this between the tire and the down tube.
	Assembled wheel, inner wheel stop Notice gap in inner wheel stop. Gap should be there, but small.
	Assembled wheel, outer wheel stop The wheel stop does not interfere with the control bar bolt.
	Wheels in use Maya shows good launch form.
	VG modification Fred Clement made this set.
	VG modification Close-up of Fred's VG enabled hub.
	Buy a spare or two Although these wheels are tough, they're not tough enough to live through a 10 ft. stall/drop. Consider getting a spare or two, just in case. Besides, they're cheap!