Van's Air Force
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New RV-10 fuel tank option....
- Thread starter jdm1248
- Start date
Building the fuel tanks was by far the most stressful part of the build for me (to date). BUT, it wasn't because it was technically difficult. It's actually very straightforward. Just another assembly that you rivet together. Having said that, there were two things that made it stressful for me. First, I'm a clean freak and spent a TON of time just trying to keep everything clean from the Proseal. If you aren't OCD about being clean, this will be a non-issue. And to give you an idea about how hard I tried to keep everything clean - I didn't even get one drop of sealant on my clothing.
The second stressful part for me was just the constant worry about the tanks leaking after all the time spent building them. As I was building them I kept thinking, if they leak, I'll have to cut a huge hole in the rear baffle to fix the leak. Does that rivet have enough sealant? Did I scrape too much sealant off the J Channel when I slid it in? Is that bead of sealant on the rear baffle too far from the rivet line? Did I cover up the drain passages on the ribs etc, etc. In the end, neither tank leaked so my worry was a stupid waste of time. Hey, I'm a new builder. Many new builders worry about this stuff.
If you can get past these petty concerns that I had, building tanks is no big deal. If you're a new builder and are worried about building the tanks and have deep enough pockets, buy the pre-built tanks - but only if they are guaranteed not to leak!
If I built another airplane and could get high quality pre-built tanks that were guaranteed not to leak, I'd pay the extra money for sure.
The second stressful part for me was just the constant worry about the tanks leaking after all the time spent building them. As I was building them I kept thinking, if they leak, I'll have to cut a huge hole in the rear baffle to fix the leak. Does that rivet have enough sealant? Did I scrape too much sealant off the J Channel when I slid it in? Is that bead of sealant on the rear baffle too far from the rivet line? Did I cover up the drain passages on the ribs etc, etc. In the end, neither tank leaked so my worry was a stupid waste of time. Hey, I'm a new builder. Many new builders worry about this stuff.
If you can get past these petty concerns that I had, building tanks is no big deal. If you're a new builder and are worried about building the tanks and have deep enough pockets, buy the pre-built tanks - but only if they are guaranteed not to leak!
If I built another airplane and could get high quality pre-built tanks that were guaranteed not to leak, I'd pay the extra money for sure.
If they leak the guarantee is worthless IMHO. If they leak the problem is you have to drain the tanks, then REMOVE them from the wing, then re-install them after they are fixed. That alone is the brunt of the work.
-Marc
I recently finished the skydesigns extended range tanks. Great design and support.
Yes it was stressful. Yes it took over a month. Maybe two (I do have a day job). But it was not as frustrating as the rudder or the #€#^+ trim tabs. And after I learned to take breaks and keep good ventilation, it wasn’t that off-putting. I’d do it again.
The stress was the leak test. I had difficulty sealing leaks from the test setup, and found one giant hole in a corner of the root that was fixable (using a borescope, tubing, coat hanger stiffeners, my pneumatic seal tool, and lots of tape. Gorilla tape over the filler holes helped.). After that no leaks! Yay!
Just realize that like the whole build, the worst case is you redo, and second worst is that you repair. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
If I had more money and less time I’d think about prebuilt tanks. You can probably buy tanks from someone who upgraded. (You can have my old tanks, but they leak. I didn’t build them. )
Yes it was stressful. Yes it took over a month. Maybe two (I do have a day job). But it was not as frustrating as the rudder or the #€#^+ trim tabs. And after I learned to take breaks and keep good ventilation, it wasn’t that off-putting. I’d do it again.
The stress was the leak test. I had difficulty sealing leaks from the test setup, and found one giant hole in a corner of the root that was fixable (using a borescope, tubing, coat hanger stiffeners, my pneumatic seal tool, and lots of tape. Gorilla tape over the filler holes helped.). After that no leaks! Yay!
Just realize that like the whole build, the worst case is you redo, and second worst is that you repair. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
If I had more money and less time I’d think about prebuilt tanks. You can probably buy tanks from someone who upgraded. (You can have my old tanks, but they leak. I didn’t build them. )
I was assuming the builder would leak test them prior to installing them. But yeah, if they leak tested OK then started leaking after flying for a month - that would be REALLY bad! I'd be ticked off for sure.
Let us know how the prebuilt tanks work for you.Thanks all! Being a bit OCD and a bit messy I think I will plan on leaving the tank to the factory for the sake of sanity
I've drained and removed my tanks many times. It's not very difficult - Van designed them with screws so as to be removable.
I have too. It's no picnic to R&R a tank. My arms get abused reaching thru the ribs to loosen/tighten the tank bolts. Then there's the 860 screws.... OK, there's not that many but there's a bunch. The first time I had to pull a tank one of the bolts galled and would just turn but not come out. That one took hours. Trust me, you don't want braggin' rights about having to R&R fuel tanks multiple times.
-Marc
Small batches and then put the pro seal in syringe and dispense that way. Two ribs max in one session. Easy clean up. I’ve done 4 sets of tanks now in my life, soon to be 5 and it can be made easier with the right setup. I’m an OCD freak myself. But doing it that way was kinda like a surgery and it went smoothly. First set of tanks was pro seal everywhere and cleaning for hours.
Yep, I used syringes even though I bought a Semco sealant gun. I started out doing one rib per day which I think took me 4 hours initially. I eventually was able to do two ribs per session. I built ER tanks so I had a few extra ribs to do.
