Difficulties with Hinge-Based Retractable Gear

I'm trying to build a jet aircraft using retractable landing gear, assigned to an action group, but I can't seem to get them to work properly. I've attempted the following setups, and gotten the following results:

• Assigned to action group: Hinges are unresponsive
• Assigned to action group, AG (#) assigned to rotator input: Gears retract as they should when the corresponding action group key is pressed, but do not extend (pressing action group key after retraction has no response).
• No action group assigned, AG (#) assigned to rotator input (as used on the Wasp 2.0, which has functional landing gear): Hinges traverse double their assigned range, and will automatically travel to the extreme of their range opposite of their intended direction upon spawning (for example: gear intended to fold into wings will switch between flush facing inward, and flush facing outwards, with input from the action group key).

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

EDIT: Creating subassemblies from the Wasp's landing gear and then putting them onto another vehicle seems to mostly work, but the action group is automatically triggered on spawn. So the gears automatically start to retract as soon as you start a flight and you're still sitting on the runway, which is a little inconvenient.