REFLECTOR: Matco vs Cleveland

[Chuck Jensen]

Kurt,

You seem to have captured the essence of the situation.  I had Matcos on
an XLRG 300 and I can say that the conversion to Clevelands was
absolutely the right move but it gets consistently reported that the
Matcos are more than adequate for the 173 Elite.  200-300 extra pounds
at another 5-7kts make all the difference in braking demand.  Now, if
you intend to visit a lot of short fields that are high-and-hot, then
you might reconsider, but since you already have the Matcos, it doesn't
strike me as important that you convert to the Clevelands.  Others may
have higher quality opinions to share.

 

Chuck Jensen

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of NMFlyer1 at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 10:24 AM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Matco vs Cleveland

 

I have heard many things about the Brake comparison. Recently one
Velocity builder told me that Matco was sold some time back. That caused
quite a few problems in quality and customer service, so the old owners
bought it back. I was told that a set of Matcos was sent back,
rebuilt/upgraded and now work fine. 

 

I had not heard about the brake pad pain in the a$$ (PITA) and that
sounds like a bonus for Clevelands. 

 

I also heard that the Cleveland kit was pretty spensive (considering I
haven't even used the brakes that I have yet)!. 

 

I have the 173 Elite FG, and was wondering whether I really need to
consider some form of brake mod at this point. Either sending the Matcos
back for an upgrade, or switching to Clevelands.  I thought I recalled a
Velocity factory rep saying that the Matcos did well on the smaller
airplane. 

  It would be nice to have adequate braking since Im flying out of a
high density altitude airport, and only have 4300' of runway. But I dot
want to spend more time fixing things that aren't broken. 

 

Any input?.  

 

Kurt Winker

173 FGE

325 HP Alum. V-6 Chevy

 

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