How accurate

[Mark]

are these rigging gauges when using on small riggs and exactley what model is suitable for the rigging on a 260?What measurements is everyone using who has one of these things?Going to have to bite the bullet and get another one for this little beutie!! for the one I have is for bigger rigging.

 

[Mark]

HELLO Does anybody own a loos gauge?

dito

 

[Marcel]

Ballpark Adjustment

The basic Loos gauge comes in 2 sizes, for wire 3/32 to 5/32, and 3/16 to 9/32. The only 260 I have helped with had 5/32 wire, but even though I have the 3/16 gauge for my H-26 wires, we tried it on the 260 rigging, and it showed that the tensions were way off.Accuracy? For about $50 you may not get fantastic accuracy, but I completely trust the repeatability of the measurements. That is, I trust the gauge enough that if all my sidestay readings are the same I know I have the rig balanced side to side.If anyone has a private aviation mechanic as a friend, the guy should have a sophisticated dial gauge tension meter you can borrow. Most smaller aircraft and commercial aircraft have lots of wires in the controls, and the tension on them is checked and adjusted regularly. Unfortunately, those gauges are in the hundreds of dollars, if not more.

 

[Gerard]

Hi Mark. My experience...

..is highly unscientific. I just tensioned my rig using a combination of the Crazy Dave and Julian methods, using the Loos gauge only to compare sides. I can't say how accurate it is, because I don't have another method of measuring its accuracy. I'm sure that the rig is tensioned quite lower than suggested by the Loos directions and the numbers that have also been suggested here. I can't remember for sure, and unfortunately won't be at the boat for a couple weeks to check, but I think the uppers were at 28 on the scale and the lowers at 22/23. Rake and prebend are good, the shrouds are just tight on opposite tack, and the forestay seems stable (although there hasn't been enough wind to really push it).My '95 h26 is sailing the best it ever has in the four years I've had it. I highly suggest reading Julian's article about tensioning at USSpars.com. Hope this helps.Good luck...

 

[John Revenboer]

Rigging Tension

For the 1/8 (3mm) rigging, tension to 20% of the breaking load which is 353 pounds and for the 5/32 (4mm) 20% of BL is 617 pounds.

 

[Wanderer138]

I own one - it's worth the money

At the very least it allows you to verify that the tensions on both sides of the rig are even. It also allows you to measure good rig settings that you found by trial and error on the water. If these setings are recorded, the gauge will enable you to reproduce them if the rig is changed for any reason, e.g. lowering the mast.PeterH23 "Raven"