269A/B oleo dampers

[apiaguy]

I figured I'd get some discussion going.... what do you guys set your landing gear damper pressures at?

I've been using 2-300 front and 450-550 rear. 200 will not cut it like the manual says. I don't like the stance at 200. I did read an NTSB report on a C-1 that went into ground resonance and they said the dampers were overfilled not allowing proper damping. Also, I know that Kinzie used to make some modified damper parts for the early models... anybody give me some more info?

[Guest pokey]

I agree 200 front and back is a bit "tail heavy" especially if ya have dual fuel tanks. I bought a few overhaul kits from Kinzie when he was still in business, wasnt aware of any "modified" parts tho, & i am fairly sure there is no STC to warrent their use IF they existed. The C model uses a completely different high-pressure seal & the early dampers were charged to 350 front & 560 rear (rear since gone up to 725). The A & B dampers just use a skimpy regular old 'O'-ring for their high pressure seal. This being the case, leads me to believe that the 'O'-ring seal wont take 560 psi, what will it safely take? dunno ! The last A & B sets that i did about 2 years ago (still sits pretty nice even w/43 gallons of fuel), was front: 190 rear: 340, the extension is acceptable per the HMI too This is just my personal preference & when i do them for a customer, they get the 200psi front and back, as long as the extension is w/in limits.

[apiaguy]

Thanks for the input, I don't want to drop names because who know if he's on here, but when I lived in Texas a number of years back, the 269 guru I knew gave me the numbers I use as a relative standard. He laughed when I had my first ship set up with 200 psi.