How to stretch your roll bar.

A forum in which to discuss topics specific to the assembly of the RV 8/8A
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Wicked Stick
Class B
Posts: 1000
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:00 pm
Location: KEWB

How to stretch your roll bar.

Post by Wicked Stick »

Image

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.
Dave "WS" Rogers
RV-8 (125 hrs & counting)
N173DR

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cjensen
Whiskey Victor
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Post by cjensen »

Boy, that woulda made me awefully nervous! :o Three inches? Did the powder coating hold up without cracking?
Chad Jensen
Missing my RV-7...
Vertical Power support
920.216.3699
http://verticalpower.com

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Wicked Stick
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Location: KEWB

Post by Wicked Stick »

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.
Dave "WS" Rogers
RV-8 (125 hrs & counting)
N173DR

Bob Barrett
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Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:37 pm
Location: Sartell MN

Post by Bob Barrett »

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.

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