Comment

Comment by Normand Lambert on October 14, 2016 at 5:48pm

Hi guys,

Thru their website, I wrote to Matco tech support about the FAILURE I had with one of their product (Split Rim MH6BD.75 rated at 660lbs/rim). I had found an article in the LightAircraft 'SafetySpot' of November 2015 where A similar incident was reported. The Murphy Rebel that suffered the failure was overweight for the rims but my CH701 was NOT.

They offered no compensation (material/design defect) and were ready to SELL replacement parts.

This is their response :

Normand,

The earlier manufacturer of MATCO mfg products used a stamped wheel half with 0.120 material.   Since 2001 when we acquired the assets, we have used a CNC spun wheel that is 0.160 thick and fully hardened.

 

The halves can be replaced with the new halves.  The 3 shorter bolts that hold the wheel together need to be changed to the MSC.31-18X.875SHCS. The technical manual for the MH wheels is at:

 http://static.veracart.com/matco/item_pdfs/2395/document1.pdf

 Be sure to assembled the two halves together with the 3 shorter bolts and then insert on to the hub.  Do not use the bolts to draw the wheel on to the hub as the bolt holes can be locally loaded by doing so.  The older style halves were particularly sensitive to this and not so much with the new halves.

 

Thank you

 George R Happ

MATCO mfg

801-335-0582 801-335-0581 (F)

www.matcomfg.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, If you bought your split rims model MH6BD.75 from Matco or Zenith (they were supplying those for the 701 kits)

BEFORE 2001 you may want to keep a close eye on them or maybe you SHOULD REPLACE THEM because the material used was NOT THICK enough and you may suffer the same fate I did.

I've already replaced both rims.

You can check the rim label, the manufacturing date is stamped there.

Each half rim is 79$ USD, so this will cost you 320$ USD + shipping and taxes and by the way THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS and come again...

I was lucky enough that the failure happened AFTER I just landed and I was pushing back but someone else may not be as lucky...

Please verify what you got and INSPECT those rims CAREFULLY before each flight !

Better safe than sorry !

Regards,

Norm

Comment by Normand Lambert on October 13, 2016 at 12:31am

Hi guys,

Sent Matco an email with photos. Will see what happens. This also happened to a Murphy Rebel and was reported by Safety Spot from the Light Aviation magazine back in november 2015. The Rebel was overweight for those rims but my 701 was NOT. So WTF ???

The landing was nice on a turf runway... No tire blowout, no main landing gear bent, nothing out of the ordinary...

My girlfriend is worried cause that was too close for comfort...

Will let you know.

Norm

Comment by david shrader on October 12, 2016 at 10:14pm

That's crazy! You call Matco? I've never seen that type of failure. Was this on landing? Sorry about your bad luck.

Comment by Raymond Paul on October 11, 2016 at 6:03am

What about possible over inflation of the tyre to get the bead to set on the rim which then over stressed the rim bead section??