How to stretch your roll bar.

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:11 pm

This is how I stretched my RV-8's roll bar to match my fuselage.
I had to stretch it 1/4 of an inch. To do that I had to stretch it between the poles almost 3 inches.

I first stretched it apart about 1", then relaxed and measured. Then continued to stretch it about a 1/2" more each time until I got the desired movement I wanted, which was 1/4".

Hope this helps other 8 builders.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:13 pm

Boy, that woulda made me awefully nervous!

Three inches? Did the powder coating hold up without cracking?

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:16 pm

Powder coating is fine. No visible distortion or out of round occurred either. You would never no the difference looking at it now, except that it fits great.

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:55 pm

You were lucky the roll bar on my RV-6A was to large and I tried everything I could think of to change it. However I was unable to change it. I had used bar clamps and tried bending by having my 6' 5" neighbor who wieghs about 280 bend it by pushing down on it all to no avail. I telephoned Van's to see if they had a narrower one in stock but no such luck. Van's suggested to force it narrow enough to drill & bolt it to the frame. I believe it was 3/16th's of inch to wide. The fuselage hasn't gottend wider.