skunk39,

Thanks for your compliment about My DV retract setup. The DV is a good candidate for Ã* first retract experience in my opinion. You have plenty of room, more than enough wing aera to tolerate the weight increase and the setup goes straight and forward.
I decided to go with a robart pneumatic instalation with 605 HD (3/16 wires) for the main and a 607(5/32 wire) in the nose.

I selected that strong unit because I had already the main gear laying in the workshop so I had only to buy the nose gear.

I will describe the best I can with my poor english how I instaled them.

first the main gear

everithing turn around two 1/2 square spruce spars
one of the spar is instaled in the notches made for the fixed gear hardwood rail, the other is instaled 3.5 inches backward of it.
3.5 inches allow you to install 3 inches weels, make a thin balsa weel well and have a little less than 1/4 clearance between the wheel well and the weel
I made 4 1/8 plywood ribs doublers to support the spars on w2 and 3 (see picture above)
the plywood doublers are 1/4 less thick than the ribs in order that the 1/4 plywood gear mounting plate can rest on them and be flush with w2 and w3 (I hope you understood what I mean)

the plywood gear mounting plates are glued to the ribs, ribs doublers and spars with epoxy.
I also made some "congere of epoxy/micro ballon to reinforce on the back of the plate (see pics I will post)
be sure that when you make your gear mounting plates, the cuts for the unit are made so that your legs are the same lenght than the fixed gear version and that the weel is aproximatly 1/4 from w1 (with gear retract). if done like that, your legs will be the same lenght than the stock ones and the distance between the two weels (gear extend) is aproximatly the same than the fixed gear version.
the main gear is so more than 1/2 inches more backward on the wing than the fixed gear version, but I don't think that the ground steering will suffer of that situation (Bruce Tharpe agree with me on that point)

The nose unit is set so that a half of the 2.75 inches weel will extrude the engine box when retracted. I made this in order to keep the nose wire as short as possible (I fited the one provided by bruce tharpe for fixed gear) and also to protect the belly in case of gear up landing.
In order to be able to balance the plane without lead, I shortened the engine box 3/4 inches. this mean that it's impossible to install a 3 inches nose weel (it would retract in the wings spars and f2) but a 2.75 weel wil be ok.
if you go for a stock engine box you will be ok with a 3 inches weel

the nose unit is mounted on a 1/4 ply plate. I made two 1/8 ply engine box triplers and the plate rest on them. I also instaled some tri stock .

I am sure that in case of hard landing, the retracts units will broken and the wires will bend Before that my instalation will broken. It's STRONG.
be aware that in case of retract instalation you will be forced to install the tank behindF2 (good idea) or install a very small one (not a good idea). steering and throttle servo will have to move backward also. I will post pics about all that. As I said in the begining of my post, you have plenty of room and it's easy modifications



this is a part of a email I Received from Bruce tharpe


"From what I can see, your retract installation looks sound and strong. Very neat!

Bruce"


I will post some close view of the instalation and will continue to post the progress



Salmonbug