Rosen Sunvisors

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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Joe Moilanen
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Rosen Sunvisors

Post by Joe Moilanen »

My girlfriend bought me some Rosen sunvisors for Christmas. The installation instructions for the 170 shows the "L" shaped bracket mounting to the carry thru spar with the vertical leg in front of the spar and the horizontal leg pointing back. It is only held up by two 8-32 Cap screws into the bottom of the spar via A8K75 Rivnuts. Does anyone know the thickness of the spar? I question how thick of a material that an A8K75 Rivnut can capture with sufficient strength. Also, the "L" shaped trim piece that covers the headliner front alligator teeth would not allow the Rosen bracket to go back far enough to allow the two Rivnuts to be back far enough on the bottom of the spar. I suppose that I could mill off the vertical leg of the Rosen bracket so as to move the mounting holes back far enough to center them in the spar however. I understand that some people have mounted them horizontal leg forward, but I don't want to cut a hole in my headliner for the vertical leg and this would put them too far forward in my opinion. Rosen instructions also call for them to be installed "bracket back".

I did a forum search awhile back and seen several pictures and posts but now for the life of me I can only search out 17 posts and one picture. If I knew the thickness of the spar I could install some A8K75 Rivnuts in some scrap material and experiment with their strength. I really don't want to drill any holes in my spar until I am "for sure for sure".

TIA,

Joe Moilanen
4518C '53 170B
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johneeb
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by johneeb »

Joe, this is how they were mounted in my airplane. 15+ years and working fine.
Rosen right 2.jpg
John E. Barrett
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Joe Moilanen
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by Joe Moilanen »

johneeb wrote:Joe, this is how they were mounted in my airplane. 15+ years and working fine.
Rosen right 2.jpg
Thanks John,
Unless I'm looking at the picture wrong, it doesn't look like yours will swivel around to cover the sun coming in your side window? Also, your mounting bracket looks flat instead of "L" shaped . Do you know if the angle was cut off or did it come this way? They may have changed them slightly over the years.

Joe
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johneeb
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by johneeb »

Your rite Joe you cannot swivel them around to the side window, however my sitting position has my eyes shielded on the side by the wings. Yes they did come with a L shaped flange that does seem to have been milled off. I have been happy with their function.
John E. Barrett
aka. Johneb

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hilltop170
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by hilltop170 »

Joe-
Mine are mounted per the instructions. Never considered them “too close” to my face. I think the spar carry-thru hat section is about 1/8" thick. When my plane was disected for restoration, my spar carry-thru looked like someone had shot it with #2 goose shot. In other words, lots of holes already there. I wouldn't worry about 4 holes and rivnuts if you have to. I used the nutplates from the original visors to install my Rosens.

Mounting the horizontal arm aft per the instructions is correct in my opinion. If mounted forward, there is a gap between the visor and top of the cabin that always has sun shining thru which can't be blocked out without compromising the effectiveness of the visors and is very annoying.

As you probably know, there are two styles of Rosens, fully articulating and simple rotate and tilt. Mine are the simple rotate and tilt and I find them very adequate even with an Atlee Dodge heavy duty float plane V-brace in my C-180.
Rosen visors installed per the instructions into existing visor nutplates.
Rosen visors installed per the instructions into existing visor nutplates.
Last edited by hilltop170 on Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:39 am, edited 6 times in total.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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n2582d
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by n2582d »

Joe Moilanen wrote:Does anyone know the thickness of the spar? I question how thick of a material that an A8K75 Rivnut can capture with sufficient strength. ... If I knew the thickness of the spar I could install some A8K75 Rivnuts in some scrap material and experiment with their strength. I really don't want to drill any holes in my spar until I am "for sure for sure”.
Joe, The carry-through spar on my ‘52 model measured between .074” and .076”. Looking at the A/C Spruce catalog I believe the spar is .071”. I was measuring a layer or two of paint as well as the spar thickness. As you’ve probably read there are a couple of nut plates on the outboard ends of the spar. Mine has two on each outboard forward face and one on each end of the lower face. On mine the holes are there for the nutplates on the lower face but no nutplates were/are installed. You can see pictures of these on page five of this thread. Would hate for you to drill if you don’t have to or, worse yet, drill near an existing hole and compromise the strength of the spar. Probing with a pick through the headliner should locate those nutplates.
Gary
hilltop170
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by hilltop170 »

Joe-
I didn't install the Rosens on my 170 so don't know if the holes for the original sun visors line up with the Rosens or not but on my 1958 C-180 the original holes did line up and I simply screwed the Rosens where the original visors had been. I installed them per the directions and they work great even with the seaplane V-brace in the windshield.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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170C
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by 170C »

I don't remember exactly how my Rosen brackets are mounted, but they are as shown in the instructions (mine is a '56 172, but would be the same as later B model 170's). Those two attaching bolts/screws make them very secure. I have had mine for almost 14 yrs with no problem, strength wise. Initially I didn't get the articulating option, but after a while I purchased the articulating items and for me, they are much better. The visors do come around to the door windows.

I do have one issue and maybe someone can offer a suggestion. The pilot visor, which gets used a lot more, will sometimes not stay up against the headliner when put in that position. I have tightened the allen screws about as much as I dare, fearing I might shear them. Any idea what I am not doing to fix the issue?
OLE POKEY
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Joe Moilanen
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by Joe Moilanen »

Thank you everyone for the info, will go forward with the installation when I get some time and report back on my experience.

Joe
hilltop170
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by hilltop170 »

170C wrote:.................I do have one issue and maybe someone can offer a suggestion. The pilot visor, which gets used a lot more, will sometimes not stay up against the headliner when put in that position. I have tightened the allen screws about as much as I dare, fearing I might shear them. Any idea what I am not doing to fix the issue?
Frank-
I'm not exactly sure how it's designed but I would suspect it's a shaft with a friction fit into a socket. If any lubricant ever got in there, that could do it. If it's just worn, you might try taking it apart and gently scouring the shaft with Scotchbrite to increase friction a little. Other than that, if the gap in the clamp is closed up when the screw it tight, you might try opening the gap up a little to provide more pinch.
Last edited by hilltop170 on Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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170C
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by 170C »

Thanks for the suggestions Richard!
OLE POKEY
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rusty
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by rusty »

My thoughts on Rosen visors may be quite a bit different than every one else. Put mine in flew for about 3hrs with them. Hated the Rosen visors they came down to low for me. To close to my face, not dark enough. Don’t wear glasses or sun glasses while flying. Like the old solid Cessna factory ones.
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lowNslow
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by lowNslow »

rusty wrote:My thoughts on Rosen visors may be quite a bit different than every one else. Put mine in flew for about 3hrs with them. Hated the Rosen visors they came down to low for me. To close to my face, not dark enough. Don’t wear glasses or sun glasses while flying. Like the old solid Cessna factory ones.
Agree. Had these at work and really didn't like them, as you say they are not dark enough. We would end up wrapping paper around them. I'll just wear sunglasses and a ball cap and stick with my original 170 shades.
Karl
'53 170B N3158B SN:25400
ASW-20BL
hilltop170
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Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by hilltop170 »

rusty wrote:My thoughts on Rosen visors may be quite a bit different than every one else. Put mine in flew for about 3hrs with them. Hated the Rosen visors they came down to low for me. To close to my face, not dark enough. Don’t wear glasses or sun glasses while flying. Like the old solid Cessna factory ones.

Hey Rusty-
Those Rosens of your's would make a great auction item at the Cody convention! Just a thought.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
rusty
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Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:13 pm

Re: Rosen Sunvisors

Post by rusty »

Frank, the Rosen’s are in Jay Pratt’s 185.
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