DIY Indestructible Multicopter PVC Landing Gear

by rcbif | July 15, 2012 | (14) Posted in Projects

This DIY Multicopter landing gear is great for a wide array of platforms and expert and beginner alike! 

 Easily made in an hour, and costing only a few dollars and some scrap wood, this "boiled pvc" landing gear is darn near indestructible, but still has plenty of give and bounce for those rough landings.

 

 

COMMENTS

TommyG on July 15, 2012
Nice work! I was thinking of making something similar from fiberglass, but this looks heaps easier!
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Jhb on August 27, 2012
Great idea and works wonderfully but I don't think you need the jig or the boiling water. Considering I am learning to fly entirely by trial and error I have destroyed landing gear pretty much every time I go up. This gear saves my tricopter on hard landings and still looks good (unlike pool noodles). One thing to point out, I was too lazy for the boiling water and jig and simply cut thin rings from the 4" pvc, cut out ~1/4 of the ring and then used 2 zip ties to flatten a section of it against the arm. Works great and takes all of 2 min to replace them if ever I figure out how to break them.
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Learjets on August 21, 2012
Good idea!
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stonekap on July 15, 2012
Wonderful idea!
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UndCon on July 16, 2012
Looks really good and will save you from time to time.
//UndCon
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Taqyon on July 17, 2012
Hey //Undcon, you're everywhere :p
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AbsoluteAltitudes on July 17, 2012
Landing gear seems to be my biggest pain when it comes to a tricopter. I continuously break zip ties all the time when my landing is not soft. Very creative idea, and something I'm going to try as soon as I have a chance!
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WizzyWiggs on July 18, 2012
Very cool idea!
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SuperCub92 on July 17, 2012
This does seem to be a good idea and i agree it looks great, think im going to go for the Colorex's noodle foam ones to start with then when i get more experienced swap to these more for the looks with the knowledge they will hold up :)

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colorex on July 15, 2012
Looks cleaner than my foam-type. But I like my foam as it really absorbs the energy, instead of bouncing the copter back up in the air, it just hits and stays there. Maybe just a little bounce, but not more than an inch.

Still, your design looks awesome.
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rcbif on July 15, 2012
Thanks. Once weighted down with batteries and gear, my new smaller ones in my pic still have enough absorbing, but not much crazy bounce.
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Budge72 on September 8, 2013
rcbif, this is a great idea. I added these to my FT/RCexplorer 2.5 tricopter and they work great. Thank you. BTW, is that a custom coffin-shaped canopy? How did you make that?
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rcbif on September 8, 2013
thanks. Check my other article for the canopy.
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c.sitas on June 7, 2016
I notice you do your forming with hot water. Is that better than using hot air. Reason I ask is because I thought I had the world by the a--, and I was using hot air to open the bends of the pipe. Ended up toooo brittle , broke easy and was rather bouncy when landing slightly hard . They would bounce hard enough to flip you right over on your back and also break . "I know" poor pilot".
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DIY Indestructible Multicopter PVC Landing Gear