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Replace tie-down rings

MacCool

Well Known Member
I have the Cleveland SS tie-downs installed on my airplane, need to exchange them, or at least the tail tie-down, for a conventional SS ring bolt so that I can mount a GoPro using my rotating swivel mount (MyPilot). The swivel mount won't fit on the lower-profile Cleveland mounts.

Probably dumb question, but do these tie-downs just unscrew from the airplane? Or do most builders secure them with a nut at the time of construction? Can I just unscrew the Cleveland mount and screw in the tie-down ring?
 
Cleavland tie downs

If you want to sell the Cleavland tie downs, let me know.
Or perhaps you might be interested in trading for my stainless eye bolts.
 
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If you want to sell the Cleavland tie downs, let me know.
Or perhaps you might be interested in trading for my stainless eye bolts.

Thanks. I'm only going to replace the Cleveland tail tie-down with a stainless steel ring bolt for the camera mount. I think I'll leave the wing tie-downs and mount the wing camera with an N/Fight in one of the wingtip screws.
 
I believe most do not leave the tie-down rings installed, we just keep them with us for situations where we do need them. Just extra drag, a very bad word around RV's!
 
I believe most do not leave the tie-down rings installed, we just keep them with us for situations where we do need them. Just extra drag, a very bad word around RV's!

I always leave the tail ring on, just in case it tips back when I get on the step. Better to hit the ring than the rudder. I do remove the wing tie-downs.
 
I believe most do not leave the tie-down rings installed, we just keep them with us for situations where we do need them. Just extra drag, a very bad word around RV's!

To each his own. Even though I fly 100 hrs. or so a year, my RV-7A is on the ground the vast majority of the time, either tied down in the shade port where it normally lives or on a transient ramp somewhere. I just keep them in all of the time.

I used to occasionally remove them for flights. But my bottom rudder fairing was damaged when my passenger and I went to step off of the wings at nearly the same and the plane rocked back and hit the rudder. After that, the tail tiedown ring stayed in all of the time.

A couple of tiedown rings in the wings get bent when a particularly strong wind gust came up after I'd flown without them, screwed them in on the ground and didn't get the jam nuts securely tightened.

My cast iron eye bolts painted with the same Acry-Glo paint as the rest of the plane hold their paint really well, especially when I keep linemen from scratching them with their bonding/grounding clamp when fueling the plane.
 
Not the Cleaveland but a traditional tie down ring made of stainless steel.


West marine or a boat store will have them. Even a decent hardware store.

My tiedown rings are steel. I bought un-machined forged rod-ends and drilled them to size. The ring portion is very small, just big enough for a rope. They work very well.
 
A couple of tiedown rings in the wings get bent when a particularly strong wind gust came up after I'd flown without them, screwed them in on the ground and didn't get the jam nuts securely tightened.

What jamb nuts are you talking about? On the wing tiedowns?
 
I use thin jam nuts screwed onto the tiedown rings before the tiedown rings are threaded into the wing. Then I tighten the jam nuts to keep the tiedown rings aligned with the airflow. I forget whether they are specified on the plans or not. I also opened up the hole in the skin slightly so they jam nuts are directly tightened again the threaded tiedown ring mount not the skin. A ground down a 9/16" box end wrench gets the job done tightening them without scuffing the paint on the skin.
 
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