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RV-6 Manual to Electric Trim Conversion

M

MeGiron

Active Member
All,

Was looking to add electric trim to the elevator as a retrofit.

I've been through all the posts on the pros/cons of manual or electric so I don't want to re-hash that debate.

What I'm looking at is:
*Van's kit, which requires getting inside the elevator.
*I also noticed post for a Gretz Aero trim kit, which the company no longer offers (I contacted them Friday). I think this kit would be excellent, if you've got one lying around, lemme know $.

Has anybody invented a new way, or developed a good technique to get the electric trim retrofit done? Any help, pics, dwgs, etc. would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
 
Rv-10 parts

Mark

If you try to retro fit the standard electric unit you'll have to remake the trim tab as its actuator hole is in a different place and also you'll need to rebalance the elevator.
Another option might be to buy one of the rv-10 trim cables and remote mount the drive unit as its done on the rv-10. Then you wouldn't need to remake or rebalance. This basically the same idea as the gretz.
Check one of the many RV-10 builders sites and you'll see how it works.


Peter
 
Last edited:
kiwipete said:
Mark

Another option might be to buy one of the rv-10 trim cables and remote mount the drive unit as its done on the rv-10. Then you wouldn't need to remake or rebalance. This basically the same idea as the gretz.
Check one of the many RV-10 builders sites and you'll see how it works.

Peter
Click to expand...

This would be the direction I would head. If you look at Randy Lervold's RV3 build, you can see how he did it with the servo mounted to the aft deck of the fuse. This would lend itself well to a 6.http://www.romeolima.com/RV3works/
 
kiwipete said:
Mark

If you try to retro fit the standard electric unit you'll have to remake the trim tab as its actuator hole is in a different place and also you'll need to rebalance the elevator.
Another option might be to buy one of the rv-10 trim cables and remote mount the drive unit as its done on the rv-10. Then you wouldn't need to remake or rebalance. This basically the same idea as the gretz.
Check one of the many RV-10 builders sites and you'll see how it works.


Peter
Click to expand...
Does anyone know the length of the RV-10 trim cables (CT Q-43 )?

Thanks, GH
 
Wow - you have me thinking about doing this too. I think a custom (shorter) cable might be a better solution so you could mount the servo closer to the trim tab attach point. I'm going to go measure mine to see how short it needs to be. Come to think of it - you might be able to use a hard linkage for such a short run if the push/pull angle change is not too much.
 
kiwipete said:
Rv-10 parts

Mark

If you try to retro fit the standard electric unit you'll have to remake the trim tab as its actuator hole is in a different place and also you'll need to rebalance the elevator.
Another option might be to buy one of the rv-10 trim cables and remote mount the drive unit as its done on the rv-10. Then you wouldn't need to remake or rebalance. This basically the same idea as the gretz.
Check one of the many RV-10 builders sites and you'll see how it works.


Peter
Click to expand...
Peter,

Currently I am looking at how to also convert my RV-6 manual pitch trim to electric. The Van’s kit seems very labor intensive. Could you explain what parts and how to do the RV 10 conversion to put the servo behind the bulkhead of my RV-6? How would this work?
 
JonJay said:
This would be the direction I would head. If you look at Randy Lervold's RV3 build, you can see how he did it with the servo mounted to the aft deck of the fuse. This would lend itself well to a 6.http://www.romeolima.com/RV3works/
Click to expand...
Wow, old post, but this is how the Gretz kit (previously mentioned in this thread) worked. Servo mounted on the aft deck with a short cable actuating the elevator trim tab. That cable is/was routed through one of the lightening holes in the HS, through the rear HS spar, then to the trim tab. I suspect the hardest part is getting the correct length cable. Of course, you could get a "close enough" cable, then mount the servo to work with that cable.
 
Here are some photos of the Gretz kit that Kyle mentioned in the previous post. The servo is the same RayAllen servo Vans uses inside the elevator….and not part of the Gretz kit. I believe the Gretz kit only included the push-pull cable (wwwwaaaayyyy too long ago to remember all the details). Think the cable is about 18” long, but don’t quote me on that. The clevis ends on the cable were from RayAllen.

IMG_0675.jpegIMG_0674.jpegIMG_0673.jpeg
 
Sadly, Randy’s site is now down after years he spent maintaining it. It was such a great resource and Randy kept it up way, way, beyond reason as his life moved on.
 
JonJay said:
Sadly, Randy’s site is now down after years he spent maintaining it. It was such a great resource and Randy kept it up way, way, beyond reason as his life moved on.
Click to expand...
Yes it was a good resource. I wish I had made a PDF copy of some of the items that I have used. I remember where the idea came from but sometimes forget the details.
 
Wow I really need to figure out how to retrofit mine to make this work. I have Stien building my G3X setup and need to get this moved from man to electric. I’m guessing that kit is no longer available?
 
JonJay said:
Sadly, Randy’s site is now down after years he spent maintaining it. It was such a great resource and Randy kept it up way, way, beyond reason as his life moved on.
Click to expand...
Archive.org has it, but you'll have to go back to about 2016 to find the last capture. At least that's the most current I could find. There are other more recent links but they map to a "not found" page.
 
I did this previously and posted the how I did it and parts. It has wouked well. Like you I didn’t want to open elevator. I mounted the servo on the deck forward of the horizontal and routed a custom cable to the elevator. My other post has the cable source and P/N. If you use the search function you should find it.
 
RVDan said:
I did this previously and posted the how I did it and parts. It has wouked well. Like you I didn’t want to open elevator. I mounted the servo on the deck forward of the horizontal and routed a custom cable to the elevator. My other post has the cable source and P/N. If you use the search function you should find it.
Click to expand...
Dan anyway you can post a link to the post? I want to go,source the parts, I couldn’t find that exact post after Looking tonight, unless I missed it or searched it wrong
 
Scott

This is a very old thread. Personally I much prefer the manual trim in my -7 to the electric trim in my -10.
Anyway I only mentioned the trim cable as an option in the original post. I’ve not done this myself.
You would need to measure the cable length and then look where you could remotely mount the trim motor and anchor the cable end. Also you would need to confirm the correct travel requirements are meet as the electric trim normally uses a different hole on the trim tab to the manual one.

regards Peter
 
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