Grove gear bracket tri gear KF4

[WISDAN]

I'm looking for fellow members that converted a classic 4 bungee to grove gear with a tri gear set up. I've got the gear and brackets but find the rear fuselage attachment tab/ lower lift strut attachment is not allowing for the bracket to swing up to the bottom of fuselage. I have an email sent to grove and will call tomorrow but thought I'd ask the group.

Thanks! 🤔

[SkySteve]

I had to have a machinist custom make the attachments for the rear location for my Grove gear.

[WISDAN]

Wow thanks Steve, I thought they were available from Grove. There don't seem to be many of these setups so I could understand grove not producing them.
We'll have to see what Grove says tomorrow. Do you have a photo of your brackets? Thanks for the information!

[rv9ralph]

I have a Model 3 non tri-gear that I converted to Grove Main Gear, however, I had to have some milling done to the brackets to get them to fit. It seems not all brackets are exactly in the same location on all, or there may be some weld splatter or covering cluttering up the attach brackets. Grove just makes their brackets to be generic to the KFs.

Stick with it.

Ralph

[WISDAN]

Thanks Ralph

[Av8r3400]

I had to do some filing on my brackets to make them work on both of my planes that I put Grove gear on.

These were tail draggers, though. Maybe a different bracket for the tri-gear? Is the hole in the fuselage closer to the lower longeron on the back bracket than the front one?

[WISDAN]

The holes are of equal distance to the longeron bottom but the fuselage weldment that receives the rear portion of the bracket has a gusset formed into it which prevents the bracket to swing up parallel to tho fuselage bottom. It seems to me that these brackets will not work, hopefully Grove should have an answer. They are a special bracket made for tri gear but what model ???

Thanks

[WISDAN]

This is a better view of the interference with the fuselage

[SkySteve]

If I remember right, I think my issue was a difference in space between the rear brackets vrs. the the distance between the space between the front brackets. Not much, but enough so the Grove brackets would not work.

[Dusty]

I have a spare grove gear. It appears to have a groove milled to give the clearance required.
At the risk of hijacking this thread, does anyone have the grove mount for the taildragger version that they want to sell or swap for the rear mount brackets?

[mr bill]

I had to machine my brackets to look like Dusty's. Disappointed Grove had not provided a better design.

[WISDAN]

Thanks for the pictures and info! I was thinking it was going to be something like you had to do and appreciate your advice. Have you both had any issues with stress cracking and do you feel the strength of the bracket is ok? I really can't see any other way to make this bracket work.

[Dusty]

Cracking shouldn't be a problem if the corners are radiused,there is still plenty of material left

[WISDAN]

Thanks Dusty, my thoughts exactly on the radius.
Thanks everyone for helping out on this....this group is great!

[jdmcbean]

I will be doing some more research on this issue.. but if memory doesn't fail me.. the original Model IV actually has a slightly different bracket and does not require the notch.. The Lite*² lift strut bracket changed for use with the bungee tri-gear.. Therefore the gear mounting bracket would need to be notched.

[WISDAN]

That makes sense to me John, I can mill the needed clearance if you find this to be correct. Thanks

[jdmcbean]

Confirmed...
The reason the bracket is not notched is due to the differences of the lift strut attach mounting bracket on the fuselage. The Lite² is different from the Model IV. Therefore, if using the brackets on the Lite² it will require a clearance notch in the bracket and the Model IV does not.

[WISDAN]

Thanks John I appreciate you checking on this.