Hi Paul,
While battery location is a pretty hot debate, if you're talking about an angle valve IO-360, then I'd bet the universal answer will be to put the battery in the aft location. The Grove gear will help, but since the location of the gear legs isn't that far forward, it won't help much.
I've had two O-360 RV-8's now. The first had a Sensenich prop (not much lighter than a Harzell), inverted oil system, and a big Concorde battery in the aft location. It was great for solo and aerobatics, but you could easily exceed the aft CG with heavy passengers or aft baggage.
The current plane has a blended airfoil Harzell, no inverted oil, and an Odyssey on the firewall. This puts it right at the forward CG limit when solo, but you can put any size passenger and baggage up to the max gross weight, without quite exceeding the aft CG. This plane will be a bit better off when painted, since paint tends to shift the CG aft a bit.
Often, the "best" location boils down to the mission you have in mind. If you lean toward nose heavy, then you have more capacity for heavy passengers, and bags. Leaning toward aft makes for a better flying solo configuration, but you have to be careful with aft loading.
Cheers,
Rusty
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RV-8, SN-80587, built, flown, sold.
RV-3B, SN-10751, rotary engine, built, flown, sold
RV-8, SN-82470, built, flown, sold.
RV-3B, SN-11351, purchased, , flown, sold
A&P - 2018
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