Conversion to single seat?

I understand the 4 has a pretty small cockpit, and the 3 isn’t much better, despite being single-seat (correct me if I’m wrong). But I’ve read of some 4’s being converted to single-seat to give the pilot more room. Is this a difficult/expensive process, especially for someone not too mechanically inclined? Is it something that you could hire a pro to do?

Also, how much extra room would it give? I’m 6’3” at 190 lbs., so while I’m on the tall side, I’m fairly narrow. And perhaps the 3 wouldn’t be too bad for a pilot that’s not too wide? And I realize there exists other Vans models with more room, but the 3’s and 4’s tend to sell at more budget-friendly prices (not ALL of them, but most do).

Have you sat in a -4?

You may find you can do minor changes to a flying -4 and be just fine. I'm 6'1" , 200 lbs and perfectly comfortable in mine. The back seat removal isn't the issue, it's the roll bar and side frames that are not easy to move unless you are building. Others will likely chime in on simpler mods to make room.

I’ve had two RV4’s and on both of them, I’ve moved the pilot seat back aft 3”. This involved moving the roll bar aft, and the canopy crossbrace aft the same amount. The sidewall support structure below the roll bar also had to be modified to carry the now displaced roll bar loads. This was actually not that difficult. On mine I only moved the seat bottom hinge back 2”, which made the seatback slightly more tilted, which for me was more comfortable and gave me slightly more head room. Back seat comfort was worse of course, although my grandkids loved it. Most of the time I considered it a single seat RV4 with a large baggage/cargo area.
The Vans construction manual mentions this possible change, but not in any detail.

I've owned 2 RV-3's so far and I'm living proof that the RV-3 is more tolerant of "big" guys than it is of tall folks. I flew my first one when I weighed 250#. Thankfully, I'm a little less than that now, but I am still not small by any stretch of [my] imagination. I have plenty of headroom to spare and I've actually built up the seat bottom, but I don't think there would be much wiggle room to accommodate a long-legged person over 6' tall. I'm 5'10".

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