I have a IO-320 with Hartzell c/s and on paper I am nose heavy. I placed my ELT in the tail. I also have a pitch servo and the trutrak All-Trim box behind the baggage compartment. I did NOT have to add lead to the tail.
I too was concerned about over weighing the nose gear so I called Van's with my W/B scenarios and talked to Ken Scott. They were publishing a different max nose weight for the 9A & 7A (due to the weight diff between the 320 & 360) and he was unaware of this and didn't see the need for that, so I used the max nose weight for the 7A. In my worst case scenario, I was over the nose limit by @30 lbs and he didn't think that was an issue as long as I didn't practice carrier landings.
(Here's my rant on nose heavy landings)
I've flown 53 hrs since Nov 2011 and I pride myself in that I can easily keep the nose wheel off the ground on landing until it simply won't stay up any longer. Mike Seager beat that into me during my transition training. Every time I thought it was done, he showed me there was still another second or two left that I could keep the nose up. I've found that even though you are well below stall, it's just a matter of balance to keep that nose off the ground. The RV9 really has good pitch authority at slow speed, so use it!! For me, it's just a matter of balancing the nose.
Before I bought my prop, I inquired if Whirlwind had a c/s prop for the 320 and I could never get an answer from them. At that time, their website only had info for the 360 and they wouldn't respond to my email inquiries. If they actually have a c/s for the 320 and you have an extra $3500 to spend, go for it, they seem to be a good quality prop. But don't be too concerned about being too nose heavy. Mine flys fine and it certainly doesn't fly or feel like it's nose heavy. If Van's was really concerned about it, you would see a Whirlwind on their nose instead of the old trusty Hartzell.
