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One-piece Grove Gear

Grove 1-piece on my -8 project

I was lucky enough to inquire to Grove about a 1-piece gear when they had one remaining on the shelf. My project is now sitting on that gear. Mine is non-airfoil but I'm happy to have the structural advantages I believe it offers. Dan H is right on about the mods needed to fit the single gear structure.

One additional consideration: Since the gear is affixed with only the two outboard U fittings, all of it is free to flex in response to vertical landing loads. There's not much room under the center part of the gear for this flexing, which would be downward at that location. I called the Grove engineering guys and was told that normal flex would be about 1/4 inch in the center of the gear. There was less than that much room between the gear cross-member and the cover panel connecting the two Z channels fwd and aft of the gear. Having seen Grove video of extreme landing loads on 1-piece gear (for other airplanes) and seeing INCHES of flex in the central part of the gear, I did two things. I put 1/4 inch spacers under the Z-channels to provide more clearance between the gear and the cover plate, and I made the cover plate removable, and light weight, so that it would, hopefully, be the only thing damaged if the gear is ever flexed enough to contact it. This required a little adjustment to the lower skins in the landing gear area, but in the final analysis, the extra 1/4 inch of depth is visually difficult to detect.

One big benefit: Getting the gear aligned during installation was a snap. Two measurements to ensure that the unit was perpendicular to the aircraft center line and you're done.
 
I have a single piece of Aluminum stock that was destined for a single part gear leg. I dont have the dimensions with me but could measure when I return home if someone interested. The flat stock Al looks to be sufficient to machine a single piece leg for an 8. Let me know .
 
Grove gear

I posted this exact question 4-5 years ago. I even offered to buy 10 up front if I could only get enough people to commit. No response. I?m in if someone wants to head up the effort. Just let me know where to send the check.
 
One piece Grove Gear

Why is this thread popping up again? Is there interest in this? It was last started in 2011.
Reddsky1
 
I started it again because I bought a project from a friend. When I was going through all the parts he had one piece grove gear. So I did a search. These are NOT one piece airfoil gear. I still haven?t heard from anyone that is actually flying with them.
 
Flying - 4 Attach points

I have been flying with one piece gear !
4 attach points.
I have installed 2 sets of this gear so far and am very pleased with the performance.

This was the first one on a QB fuselage that does not have the removable center plate, made a long bucking bar and installed solid rivets to finish.

The second installation I made a removable center plate, will show details in another post.

START
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REMOVING INTERCOASTAL RIB
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MILLED RELIEF STEP .200 DEPTH
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NEW ALUMINUM INNER ATATCH SPACER PLATES MILLED TO HEIGHT
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Install with removable center plate

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Store bought leg fairings are not available.
Original Vans on left - New lay-up fairing on right
Slightly thicker
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One piece gear legs

Ok, if anyone is interested in. One piece AIRFOIL RV-8 gear legs let me know.

Terry Parsons
 
There is not enough room to get the vent lines down past the horizontal portion of the gear using the intended routing so I am going to use the method the Rocket guys use. I am also going to bring the brake line fitting straight up into the gear tower from the top of the gear.

Can you elaborate on how the rocket guys do the vent line? I?m installing fuel lines now and I have the one piece grove gear. I was thinking I?d just drill an additional hole forward of the Van?s vent hole.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
fuel vent routing with Grove one piece gear

Jeff,
You are right on target with your thinking - you will need to drill a new vent hole forward of the standard Van's vent hole to clear the one piece gear. See the pictures from A2Jake above :
If you look at the 6th picture up from the bottom, you will see the finished vent line exiting the bottom of the fuse.

The picture after that one (-5) shows the connected vent line (middle left of picture) inside the gear tower. The disconnected line is the brake line and you can see where it will connect to the Grove gear internal brake line in that picture too.

The third picture up shows the bottom of the fuse with the gear covers on and you can see the vent tube "stub" sticking out into the air steam.

The tank vents are installed in front of the one piece gear, and the one piece gear is installed (slides in) from the front of the fuse, so make sure you allow for the installation and removal (if needed) of the gear and the vents. That is why the last few inches of the fuel vent are removable. I did my vents in a similar way.
 
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Can you elaborate on how the rocket guys do the vent line? I?m installing fuel lines now and I have the one piece grove gear. I was thinking I?d just drill an additional hole forward of the Van?s vent hole.

Thanks,

Jeff

The "rocket" vent line technique, as I recall, is to simply form several coils in the vent line, right against the inboard portion of the tank, and then have the vent exit through the wing root fairing. I have the Grove airfoil gear for my plane (not the one-piece), and my intent is to use this vent line setup.
 
Jeff, I fabbed a coiled vent line for my -8 with Grove Airfoil gear. This was so much easier than the vent as shown in the plans. Some have reported fuel burping out the vent on hot days with full tanks. To date, I have not had any such issues. You can see pics of my setup on 12/5/2015 of my kitlog. Good luck with your build.
 
I have coil vent as well. Yes, if you fill to the skin during cool temps and leave it...you're going to get some expansion fuel dump but that is pretty rare since I only fill to the neck. 5 years in I don't regret the coil vent.
 
Hi Dan,
I had a landing incident last week and require new gear legs as well. Is the option with the one piece gear leg still available or do you still look for a number of paople to order them with Grove?
Thanks for answering
Stephan
PH-LRV
damaged
 
I ordered mine as a single

It has been a few years, but when I ordered my one piece gear from Grove they made it as a single unit and I did not have to get a mass order together with other people. For a while, they were making the RV-8 airfoil/non-airfoil 2 piece gear in mass batches, but now I don't think they are making them for the RV-8. You will have to call them about the one piece gear for the RV-8, it does not have an airfoil, but is a work of art.:)
 
Hey Jim,
thanks for answering. If you have any name or contact with Grove I'd appreciate. I sent them three emails but didn't get a response so far.

Can you remember the price for the one-piece?



Best Regards
Stephan

PH-LRV
AOG until 2021
 
Contact info

Yep, same price as Jeff, $2,400 but that was Nov-2014, finished and shipped March-2015

https://www.groveaircraft.com/contact.html
619-562-1268
(Monday-Friday 7:30AM-4:00PM Pacific Time)

Sorry to hear about your issues, Stephan - I read your other thread...Good luck on a speedy recovery back to the air!
 
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