DA150/170 Hyde Soft Mount

[mndless]

Started messing with the Hyde mount tonight. It is going on the front of a PAU 40% Extra and will hold a DA170.. Merl Hyde doesn't make these ahead of time, so it takes a month of so to get... but, he does a real good job with this. The outer diameter is around 5 7/8"...

The thickness is pushing 3/4"... The Extra firewall is anticipating 1/2" standoffs... so, I expect to have to address this extra 1/4" somehow... no plan for that just yet.

Merl said the mount would weight around 10 oz, but this one comes in at 8.5 ... inclusive of all the bolts shown..

It is comprised to two independent hard faces, separated by a firm rubber materail. The back side 'hard face' is bolted to the firewall with recessed heads. The front face has built in blind nuts, so the engine simply bolts to the face of the mount.. the front face is isolated from the rear face via the rubber material... pretty effective design.

Made a template to get things mounted up... the mount was slightly larger then the firewall would allow, so a minor modification is necessary on the Extra... I'll stiffen the firewall from behind..

Will post more when I get it all bolted up...

 

[mndless]

Got the mount installed ... impressive little mount. Looking forward to seeing how effective it is a reducing the levels of vibration.

 

[Pistolera]

Nice install. Please give us a full report after you've had some time to evaluate it.

 

[2robinhood]

Yep, I want to know too.

 

[djmoose]

Any updates?

 

[emack203]

Mndless--Yes Meryle does a fantastic job with his soft mounts and has since the 1980's for all different size applications. Just FYI, I installed one on the 100cc Extra 300 sp a couple months ago prior to Bryant (my son) flying it at XFC. In order to get the spinner clearance to the front of the cowl as I wanted, I actually routered out the extra thickness out of the front of the firewall so that the mount sits about .080" recessed into the front of the firewall. I then drilled and pinned the firewall in numerous places along the sides, top and bottom and added additional triangle stock on the back side. Works awesome and through the 3d abuse you can see in the boys flying at xfc.

I will tell you the best thing about these mounts is the LACK of wear and tear on your radio equipment, particularly in servos, gears etc etc. After first installing the Hyde Mount (over two years ago on another freestyle plane with a 120), I have not replaced gear sets in standard 8711 servos once as compared to replacing gears at least once a season (between 200-300 flights). This lack of wear and tear is also seen by reduced battery consumption from the flight packs. (i.e. The airplane used to consume 400 mah per A123 flight pack with the hard mount, now it is down to just over 200 mah per flight) Just goes to show the servos are not fighting to keep center due to lack of the same vibrations through the airframe as when it was hard mounted.

 

[mndless]

Emack203, thanks for the info. That is certainly what I have been told and a big factor in wanting to use the mount. However, this mount is going to have to wait for the next airplane or the next major renovation to this one.

The Extra instructions call for a 1/2" stand off for the engine. The hyde mount in approximagely 5/8" to a max of 3/4" thick.... so, I thought I would have an extra 1/8" to 1/4" clearance between the spinner and the cowl. As you can see form the picture, really didn't work out that way. So, I took the hyde mount back off... haven't yet flown it. Really was not wanting to modify the firewall on the new PAU Extra... not yet anyway.

I have a dalton in the works for this winter and will add the hyde mount to that one. Mark Boguszewski (@Mark B) was kind enough to include me on his list for this winter... if he is ok with working the hyde mount in (possibly modifying the firewall) we'll give it another try on the next plane.

So... will report back when I have something to report... hopefully in February/March of next year.

 

[IMAC FANATIC]

Was wanting one of these in mine, keep us posted on results... still want one.