Gear hardware? Preventative maintenance or not

[piperboy84]

Any of you homebuilder/engineering types out there have any thoughts on changing out the nuts and bolts on the Oleo struts as a preventative maintenance item perhaps every 2nd or 3rd annual as opposed to waiting till there is visible signs of wear, bending or breaking?

Its seems that replacing the hardware would be a minor expense during the annual when everything is unbuttoned versus waiting for a failure when you least expect it would be a pretty good return on investment.

I have read where several accidents, mostly in taildraggers on unprepared strips have had strut/gear failure due to bolt fatigue, the repair bills were through the roof.

Any thoughts?

[Jan Olieslagers]

Must you really disassemble the oleos for the annual?
If the bolts are some standard AN-size then I should go with you: the cost is minimal. If they must be ordered from the factory, though, it might get expensive.

Whether it is worth its while, i.e. how grave the risk of breakage, I have no idea. Depends perhaps on your field and your style of landing?

[ChickenHouse]

As a rule of thumbs, look at the TBR times of comparable certified planes and follow roughly that road. For example, the gear bolts on a C172 have to be replaced every 1.000 flight hours (and they are hefty expensive nowadays, about an Euro per flight hour).