Just for the record, I have a set of Azusa wheels and brakes on a clone of a
Kitfox, built as an ultralight (empty wt 254#). The wheels are OK, but the
brakes are not adequate, even at that low weight..


"richard riley" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

I need to buy a set of main wheels for my 4-place composite (2400 lbs
gross) homebuilt, but don't have the experience to make a good
decision. I know that Clevelands are deemed "the best" by many, but
they are horribly expensive. Can they really be worth that much?
Matcos are cheaper; are they as good? And Azusa's are MUCH cheaper
still. Are they any good?

Specifically, I'm looking at the Azusu 6-inch diameter, 4-inch wide
aluminum wheels and brakes. The wheels can (they say) accommodate a
600x6 tire, tho' I'd probably go with a slightly slimmer one. They
look nice in the pictures.

One concern is that the axle is only 3/4 inch, whereas other
manufacturers use 1.5 inch axles in their 600x6 wheels. However, the
specs say that they're good for 3625 lbs per wheel, which is enough
for a max 3G (ouch!) landing (whoops!!) at 2400 gross.

Another concern is braking. How good/bad are the Azusu brakes? I've
seen elsewhere someone mentioning another manufacturer of brakes to
mate with the Azusu wheels, but I've lost that reference now.

Thanks in advance for your opinions/advice.

Greg Reid

It's not that hard to hit 3G's in a bad landing. FAA certification spec
to gear
is 3.8 G's at full gross. I've always seen the Azusa wheels used on
*much*
lighter aircraft, things with half that weight at gross.

The matco brakes/wheels/etc are terrific quality, in many ways better than
the
Clevelands. If you go matco, get the nickel plated disks - the sweaped
area of
the disks doesn't have a problem, but if you just have the iron disks the
rest
of the disk rusts quickly.