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RV-10 heat mod

ddddsp

Well Known Member
The last few winters some of my rear passengers complained that their feet were hot and their shoulders were cool. Never wanting to have unhappy passengers, we set out to find a way to make them happy and warm all over.

The pics show the vent we installed on the tunnel in the rear passenger area. I tapped into the rear heat scat tube to get heat to the new vent. The vent was purchased from STEINAIR, who sells nothing but high quality stuff.

Now I have warmer and happier passengers....................hope those of you RV10 owners who enjoy winter flying will find this mod helpful.

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Dean
805HL RV10
 
Thanks for the Mods

As a prospective 10-builder, I want to thank you for posting your mod. Everytime I read about modifications like this one, it gives me more to think about customizing my own ship, when the time comes. Living in Colorado, I definitely will need to think about heat inside the cabin!
 
Great Idea

Do you have any pics as to how you tapped into the tee? I assume you added an internal tee before the existing tee. I have my jacks right in the spot of your new vent so I hope I can still make it work. Can't wait to make the change.
 
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Good job Dean. I do a lot of winter flying so I definitely want to add decent heat in the rear seat area when I get to this area.
 
I did not take pics of the tunnel area and how I connected the T.
Remove the scat hose connected to the T rear heat vent. Get a custom T made to slip over the rear T that goes to the floor heat vents. Then cut the scat hose back and attach it to the new T that is now directly over the T going to the floor vent. Then attach scat hose from the new T to the vent on the tunnel cover. My vent is 3 inches aft of the flap motor in the tunnel.

Dean
805HL
 
Rv10 head mod test flight

Took the RV10 for a short flight today and played with the new rear heat vent. I will never have complaints from my rear passengers again about being cool. The vent allows a high flow of very hot air to flood the rear seat passengers and still put heat to the rear floor vents. The vent air flow can easily be regulated by turning the eyeball vent or the push/pull cable.

Dean
805HL
 
I ordered the vent outlet yesterday and can't wait to make the mod. Comfort in the back at -20c would be great. That might be asking a bit much:rolleyes: Any improvment will be great though.
 
Here is how I did it.

I already had my headset jacks in place so unless I made a new tunnel cover I only had one option. So what I did was buy a VA 175 (I think) from vans. I also bought the same eye ball vent from Steinair as Dean.

I simply placed the tee on top of the existing T in the tunnel. The new tee had to be cut down to fit. Once cut down I brought it to a muffler shop to get it flared for the vent to fit in. The only item left was to drill a hole in the tunnel cover and install. If you had a muffler shop near by the whole job would not take much over an hour.

It sure blast a tonne of heat up instead of all at your feet. I think it reduce the flow on the floor so you don't have such a hot butt on the front seat too.
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is there a way to have the older photos work? I'm interested in learning about this mod.

[ed. Afraid not. This thread is 14 years old and photo hosting was very different back in that timeframe. dr]
 
The real source of the ‘cold rear passengers’ ears’ problem is air leaks. Cold air enters the tail cone, comes forward thru the corrugated aft bulkhead, and escapes out thru the door seals into the low pressure area on the cabin top. Fixing the door seals, and especially, shoving insulation into the corrugations in the bulkhead to seal it better, go a long ways toward solving the problem.
 
I was wondering why my passengers are always freezing when I, and my passengers feet, are burning up with only the rear heat on. I will seal the bulkhead but I wonder how that would affect the airflow in the summer? Also, If anyone does have a picture of the earlier mod, that would be appreciated.
 
I was wondering why my passengers are always freezing when I, and my passengers feet, are burning up with only the rear heat on. I will seal the bulkhead but I wonder how that would affect the airflow in the summer? Also, If anyone does have a picture of the earlier mod, that would be appreciated.
I don’t have a picture, but w/r/t your question about airflow, check out post #33 in this thread by Scott McDaniels. I don’t know if it’s relevant for RV-10s or just 6-9s.

I'm not flying and freezing yet, so I decided to lay up removable fiberglass hinge pocket covers, and seal as many cabin and fuse holes as I can while building, before adding mods. I’m as concerned about good warm weather airflow as I am about cold weather comfort.
 
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