Electric retract reliability

[Patrnflyr]

i was replacing the nose gear on my Carbon Z T-28 and has me wondering why very few companies can produce a retract system that’s reliable, durable and reasonably priced? There’s hundreds of pages of how to modify this plane but I know this isn’t the first with retract issues and it sure won’t be the last. I don’t want to buy a $500 airplane and have to rip out the RG’s, pull the BEC and rewire everything from day one. Just venting here and curious. I might add, never had an issue with my FW jets

[xviper]

I've had my CZ T-28 for 2.5 years now and have many flights on it. All retracts are still operational and doing fine. However, looking at them and considering the size and weight of the plane, I feel the retracts may be a little bit on the small side to do the job properly. I fly off of very rough ground with lots of gophers holes but so far, I've not had any real hard landings. For their size, the stock retracts are quite sturdy and I've not had reason to doubt that they will continue to work. Why does your front retract need replacing? Did it have a hard hit?
Eflite retracts (IMO) are ridiculously priced for what they are. I have always considered that if one of these retracts crapped out, I would try to adapt one of the FMS full metal retracts for 1700mm planes. When I say "full metal", I mean that even the casing is metal. Last I bought one, it cost over 50 bucks. It's a very solid unit and it deploys slowly just like the stock T-28 ones do. To date, I have not needed to use that FMS unit since none of my large planes have had one fail.

[Patrnflyr]

Had an LVC but was able to land it on the runway with the nosegear strut bent back slightly. Replaced the strut and back in action for a few more flights , then, nothing. I should’ve just replaced the entire unit from the start instead of just the strut. I’ve had no issues before that but many friends have. Reading the RCG modification thread, I’ve noticed a trend for problems and many fixes. If this happens again, I’ll replace them with the fix which is what you mentioned above

[rifleman_btx]

Never had a mechanical issue with mine but have had the mounts shatter like glass. Even afterwards the retract still operates fine.

[E-Challenged]

Hobby grade electro-mechanical stuff is somewhat expensive and failure prone. It is made overseas to their design and reliability standards and to a marketable price which includes shipping and current tariffs affecting import and export. Making inexpensive, reliable, light -weight retracts, that can tolerate hard landing impacts, especially nose gear, is not a simple thing, but it seems to be improving.

[OV10]

I for one would just like to see the industry move to a metal cased etract (which can be done without the exorbitant price as structured by FMS/Eflite:P) but no matter how strong and resilient the designs that are developed you will always have someone complaining about how poor or weak it is when in realty it is the poor piloting skills.
You can BoobToob all day long vids of folks pancaking a 3 point landing believing it was proper and them complaining about a busted etract or bent strut.
Landing reality check.........all aircraft land on the mains and then drop the nose/tail;)

[fhhuber]

You can get some all-metal retract that fit the Dynam 1200 mm span warbirds and larger models from Hobby King.

I used to know of 3 other sources, but they have closed.