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RV 7 engine mount question

meloosifah

Well Known Member
Good afternoon all,

A quick question for the brain trust - I emailed and called Van?s 3 days ago and haven?t heard back -

I have heard rumor of an engine mount with both the Taildragger and Nosedragger sockets for a -7A / -7. Anyone know if this exists? If so, what is the part number? I have searched my packing lists and ?the list? and Vans site to no avail.

Conversely, anyone know of a shop near Indianapolis that could correctly and safely modify this one by adding the correct sockets for a TD to the tricycle mount?

I am hanging and plumbing an engine so this is the time to make the switch, from what I can gather of the work required.

I figured that if I had both on the mount, someone could bolt the main gear receptacles back in and return it to nosedragger status in the future if desired, with minimal effort. Am I crazy?
 
Crazy? No.
Is it practical? For just a maybe situation some day in the future, not in my opinion.
Especially since the tail dragged gear sockets protrude slightly outside of the cowl profile. Who would want a tri gear with tail dragged gear sockets sticking out the aft bottom corners of the cowl?

As far as I am aware, there has never been an official part number for this mount. It was done on a custom order basis.
The only purpose it was originally intended for was people building airplanes to put on floats, that intended to fly as a tri gear during times that the floats were removed (the tail dragged gear sockets are used as float attach points).
 
Thanks for the reply, Scott. I guess I was just thinking that in the future simply bolting the gear assembly back in and removing a few cover plates would result in a fairly easily convertible gear system. Maybe I should just close my eyes and jump full in on the conversion to TW.
 
When I changed from the 7A mount to the 7 mount the engine moved forward about 3/4". I believe it is for CG. The empty CG after the mod was exactly the same as before the mod to taildragger.
 
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