RV-6A Nose Gear for BD-4

I have a VAN's RV nose tube and a RV nose caster and wheel. I am very pleased with it's performance, and it has no shimmy. You might be able to make an RV caster work depending on the size of your nose gear tube.

I was able to buy the caster, nose wheel pant, nose gear faring and wheel assembly including all the hardware needed to assemble, which included the drawings for all the assemblies. They have 2 different set of drawings. One is for reference only and not fabrication. The other drawings have detailed info for building. I also used their drawing to modify my motor mount for the fabrication of the structure needed to house my RV nose gear.

I visited an RV builder to get some of the measurements and get a feel of how the whole thing was put together. I made a mockup of the nose gear tube out of black gas pipe to get the length and angles right for my BD. I then made a drawing of what I needed and had Harmon Lange (Van's gear vender) make me a nose gear to my drawing. There was little change from a RV-6A nose gear.

Here is a drawing I used to have my nose gear made. You would have to make the angles and length fit your bird. This drawing was made to fit my bird and might not fit yours or anyone else's.




Click on image for a larger view

Information supplied by Ron Vance and used with his permission. This information originally appeared on the BD-4 Mailing List supported by Northwest Aero