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Looking for Ideas: -7 bag area tie downs

R

RV7ator

Well Known Member
My buyer says Canada wants hard points in the baggage area for lashing stuff down. He could not provide criteria for meeting the regulation, so two questions:

1. From the knowledgeable, what is the requirement, if any?
2. How would you implement tie downs in a side-by-side?

I'm of the mind now to replace four 8-32 platenuts in opposite corners with 10-32 and screw in small eyebolts, such as I've seen on Cessnas.

What would you do?

John Siebold
 
Depends

When I imported my -4 the inspector did not require these "hard points". However consistency is not the strong point of the inspection system, so another inspector may require something different.

Your plan to change out the platenuts and screw in some eyebolts for this seems reasonable to me, although I would do all 4 corners.
 
How about cutting some slots in the baggage floor and having a steel eye pass through the floor and attach to the side of the baggage rib with a doubler to spread the load. They would look like one-half of a seat belt ancor.

For forward tie downs, you could buy some extra seat belt ancors and attached them on the aft side of the rear spar carrythrough using the same bolts as the seat belt ancor (longer bolts of course).
 
I used 4 of the tie-downs from Van's. One in each corner of the baggage compartment of my -6A. They work great. The base is aluminum and of minimal weight. They come with 10-32 threaded screws, but I used 8-32 size to keep the plate nut size down.

Northern Tool has several size elastic cargo nets. I found one that fits just right. The split ring on the removable tie-down part can be opened and allow the net material to be inserted into the ring.

Except for the round aluminum mounting plate, my entire net is easily removable when not needed.

This same type of hardware is available in steel elsewhere, but is considerably heavier. This type of hardware is also available in many different configurations online and as motorcycle as tie down solutions.
 
Hinges

I used hinges and a thick (.060) piece of aluminum. Rivet half of hinge to floor. and other half to aluminum with hole in it for tie downs. They can also be removed (half of it) when desired as well. Thought I had a pic of it but cant find it.
 
Tie down rings are actually very easy to install.

Scroll to the bottom of this page of my website and you will see how I installed them without removing the floor.
 
For those of us who screwed our baggage floors down, why not just use a stud/ring (essentially an eyebolt, as shown on p. 136 of 43.13-2B, linked above) screwed into an existing #8 platenut on the baggage floor rib?

Or, for those who riveted their floors down, use some pulled rivets to attack a small piece of angle through the floor into the rib. Then you can drill a hole in the angle to attach some webbing clips or something.

I'm sure there are many variations on this, some described in the posts above. The expensive things Vans sells seem to be a bit of overkill, with no additional benefit. (?)
 
I'm working on the baggage floors now so I've been reading this thread and links with interest. I noticed that the motorcycle accessory store at Bill R's link also carries the exact same item as Van's tiedowns but at a different price :) and in colors.
 
jimgreen said:
Bill, how heavy are your Pit Posse tie down anchors? Steel or Aluminum?
My 7 is already tail heavy.
Click to expand...
Based on my kitchen scale, each anchor and ring is around 60 grams (2+ oz). That does not include the screws or the riv-nuts.

The round anchors might be slightly lighter.

The anchor and tab section are aluminum. The ring, pin, and spring are steel.

Just make sure to get the keyed riv-nuts, if you go this route. They tend not to spin like a normal riv-nut.
 
Picture

Not a very good pic but this is what I made. Wouldnt put alot of load on them but should hold anything I put in there.
IMG_0548.jpg
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Simple tie downs

When I imported my RV6 all I did was mount a simple tie down at each corner of the baggage compartment. These tie downs are store bought but simply a small piece of stainless rolled around a small "D". ring. There is a hole in the stainless where you attach it to the floor either with an existing screw or rivet. This system works nice as the "D" ring lays flat when not in use. It is one of those items the inspector barely looks at if at all.
 
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