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.

 

 

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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