I have had several requests that I should post the details of my nose gear modification to use a RV-10 nose gear, so here goes. The reason I did the conversion was due to the lack of clearance between the ground and the nose fork nut as well as the wheel pants. This is not a factor when flying off of hard surfaces. I got about 1 1/4 inches more clearance after the modification, I was hoping for more, but it's better than it was. The gear leg is unchanged. I purchased a new RV 10 fork. It is exactly one inch taller than the 9a fork(at the main part of the fork where the gear leg goes through). I took this new fork to a local machine shop and had them remove one inch from the bottom portion of the fork. Removing one inch from the bottom rather than the top gives the most ground clearance. The hole in the fork where the gear leg goes through is larger in diameter so I had the guys at the machine shop cut me some new oilite bushings to make things fit. You will also need the part that mounts to the gear leg just above the fork, the part that the bearing rides against that has the little ears on it for travel stops, this needs to be bushed to fit the gear leg as well(you can use one of the original oilite bushings that came with your -9A fork, it fits perfectly, just trim off the shoulder). The nut and cup washers are the stock -9a parts. It uses the same size tire as the main tires used on all of Van's two seat models, 500x5. No change to the wheels. The stock -9a wheel pant will not fit.
The mains really weren't necessary. I found a tire that was one inch larger in diameter that would still fit on the stock wheels. In the end I only got 1/2 inch more clearance at the mains. My stock main wheel pants still fit nicely with these larger tires, I only had to trim the opening a little where the tire sticks out of the bottom of the pants.
The whole reason I did this was that on my very first taxi test with standard size tires and beautiful wheel pants, I hit a soft spot in the grass. Fortunately I was going very slowly, but it damaged my front wheel pant and upon closer inspection I could see that the nut on the bottom of the gear leg had contacted the ground. This could be catastrophic if done at take off or landing speeds. Since I have done the conversion I have not had any clearance problems. And, to be honest, this is the reason I am selling the plane. I have decided to find a tail dragger, something more suited for rough fields. I just hate the thought of hitting a really large soft spot, even with the larger gear, at higher speeds and what it will do to my brand new airplane. I hope this helps answer your questions. Again, in the end, I did not get as much extra clearance as I had hoped for but if it saves me from a collapsed nose gear and all of the damage an incident like that would cause, then it was well worth it.
I want to make it clear that this modification is untested by Van's aircraft, so, any builder wanting to make this modification is on his own. Any body concerned with tricycle geared airplanes on soft airstrips should consider a taildragger instead. I talked to Van's Aircraft about this today. They made it clear that they do not want builders trying to contact their venders to build a part for them that has not been designed and tested by Van's Aircraft.
http://lloydsplane.50megs.com/index.html
Lloyd
The mains really weren't necessary. I found a tire that was one inch larger in diameter that would still fit on the stock wheels. In the end I only got 1/2 inch more clearance at the mains. My stock main wheel pants still fit nicely with these larger tires, I only had to trim the opening a little where the tire sticks out of the bottom of the pants.
The whole reason I did this was that on my very first taxi test with standard size tires and beautiful wheel pants, I hit a soft spot in the grass. Fortunately I was going very slowly, but it damaged my front wheel pant and upon closer inspection I could see that the nut on the bottom of the gear leg had contacted the ground. This could be catastrophic if done at take off or landing speeds. Since I have done the conversion I have not had any clearance problems. And, to be honest, this is the reason I am selling the plane. I have decided to find a tail dragger, something more suited for rough fields. I just hate the thought of hitting a really large soft spot, even with the larger gear, at higher speeds and what it will do to my brand new airplane. I hope this helps answer your questions. Again, in the end, I did not get as much extra clearance as I had hoped for but if it saves me from a collapsed nose gear and all of the damage an incident like that would cause, then it was well worth it.
I want to make it clear that this modification is untested by Van's aircraft, so, any builder wanting to make this modification is on his own. Any body concerned with tricycle geared airplanes on soft airstrips should consider a taildragger instead. I talked to Van's Aircraft about this today. They made it clear that they do not want builders trying to contact their venders to build a part for them that has not been designed and tested by Van's Aircraft.
http://lloydsplane.50megs.com/index.html
Lloyd
Last edited:
