Gear Leg Stiffeners
On a RV4 or 6 gear leg stiffener, this is the
method we use:
On the gear leg stiffeners, we use cattle prods,
that can bought at Atwoods or veterinarian store that sells supplies for
cattle. They are a little over 4' with a rubber handle and a cap on the
other end. One prod will do both gears at 2' lengths, it's about
3/4" round rod. After you cut to length then sand or cut the ends to
make a taper to the gear leg. This makes the glass tape form easier at the
ends. Just center the rod equally on the back side of the gear, attach
it with tie wraps or string to hold it in position. Put the tie ends on
the front or back, not the sides. The gear should be free of rust, but
no primer. (When you're finished with attaching the fiberglass and the
resin has dried, you can paint the gear that's exposed.) Fill the gap
between gear and the rod with a mixture of Microballoons and epoxy resin to
make a smooth transition for your fiberglass tape to lay down smoothly.
(Looking at the picture, you will see a white color running between the gear
leg and the rod, that's the microballoon mixture, also at the top and bottom
tips of the rod is filled in.) Fill the void completely. Make it
pretty thick so it doesn't run and that way you can proceed with the
fiberglass tape. We use epoxy because the pot life is longer than
polyester is.
Clear off your workbench and lay wax paper down
and use masking tape to hold the paper to the table. Cut off a
4 foot strip of 2 inch cloth and mix one or two batches of epoxy resin. The
4' strip of glass cloth is a guess, it may take a little more or less. We
like the West System Epoxy, you can buy pumps for their containers, for
a batch, you take one pump from each container. After you've got your
resin mixed, saturate the 4' strip of fiberglass cloth with the resin.
Start at one end of the gear and completely cover the fiberglass rod,
overlapping the tape 1/2 the width of the tape.
