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Issue with LG box weldment

M

Macca

I'm New Here
Hi all,
I was working on my RV-8 gear tower assemblies today and came across a potential issue with the outboard weldment on the right tower, WD-822-R-1.
I was about to match drill the #12 holes for the AN3 bolts when I noticed that the corner angle wasn't sitting flush with everything cleco'd together. It looks as though the weldment underneath has not been squared up and induces a bend in the bulkhead when it's assembled together. (Photos attached)

Has anybody else had this issue?
(Still waiting on a reply from Vans)

Cheers!
 

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Looks like a bad weldment.

Left and right should be mirror images. Put them side by side. If the left side is square and right side is not, you’ll see it immediately.

Vans customer service is stellar when an issue like this comes up and making it right.
 
Did you get a reply from Vans?
I have the same issue on both my Weldments.
 

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Last edited:
Thanks Webb!

Jonnyb; got a reply from Vans a couple of days ago. The issue is currently under engineering and manufacturing review and they are going to get back to me. Yours look exactly like mine, you've managed to get a better photo to highlight the problem. It looks like its only my R weldment that's affected unlike both of yours. I'll let you know what I hear.
 
This is my worst one. To make it all fit I would have to bend the corner angle or the weldment. Neither of which is possible as these are substantial components.
 

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Got the same response as you Macca. Will see what they come back with, looks like they have had a bad batch.
 
I just looked at my weldments. The fwd bend look close to 90 but aft bend look as others. I sent email/pics in to see what they say as well.
Thanks for the heads up on these parts.
 
I spoke with tech and the engineers are looking at the part(s) issue. The first step they are looking at is that the weldment part skin mating face does indeed have the twist it was designed and needs to have. They are looking for more details from the field to help them. The process is just beginning so any detailed pictures of fitment issues are what they are wanting.
 

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Just to follow up. I hadn’t heard back from any engineers as I’m sure they are swamped with the LCP issues. I figured that same issue is going to delay me for years as well so I might as well construct the lg box assy. I followed the instructions to the T. I was very concerned with the surfaces on the weldment piece not being snug to properly buck the rivets. I can say it all turned out well and the fwd floor and lg box rivets holes lined up as well. I did keep clecos in as many holes as possible for the entire build if that helped or not. So maybe my weldments were within tolerance or that’s how they are suppose to be, I don’t know and may never hear back from vans if in fact they are or not. But that’s my experience and they were only concerned at first with that twist in the weldment outer face which mine were good on. They did follow up asking for angles of many weldment faces which I was able to get relative angles; some were 90* and others were ~88*. I hope this helps others or everyone else has already figured it out and moved on.

Good luck
 
Some pics of the left and right lg box. The aft side of each are riveted to fwd floor but fwd side of each are not riveted at this step. The fwd lg box to fwd floor holes are matched drilled and cleco’d at every hole. I saw no gaps before or after riveting the 20 ish rivets at each weldment leg.
 

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I feel your pain. Maybe there is some comfort in knowing it isn’t a new to have difficulty with RV steel parts. A slightly different problem than yours from 2019. Confusing picture but In this case the plates that attach to the skins were welded on tilted in the opposite axis so the holes in the skins didn’t line up. Vans gave me new skins without these holes and I strap transferred the holes to match. Took about a month to correct.
 

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Some of mine are off by 1/4 of a hole but I just figured match drilling would fix those and I hope I don’t need to get clean parts as you did.
 
I didn’t know then and Vans didn’t offer but perhaps oversized Cherry Max rivets might have worked
 
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