Kitfox 5 Gross Weight Increase

[adam.rigden]

I recently purchased a Series 5 Safari that has yet to registered.
The paperwork that it came with says that the gross weight is 1400lbs.
I was wondering if anyone can tell me what design modifications were made to increase th GW to 1550 lbs. My eventual goal is to put it on a set of Zenair amphib floats as I am surrounded by water....
It is the long wing version with a rotax 912 ul 80hp Serial number starts with S9406...I'm guessing June 1994????
Any info would help greatly.I have tried to contact Kitfox directly but some people get to go to Oshkosh......

Adam
(proud new Kitfox 5 owner)

[kmach]

Hi,

The thickness of the spar determines the gross weight.

The lift strut attachment bolts at the spar are different as well.

What model zenairs are you thinking or have ?

it has always been my pipe dream to have amphibious floats.

[adam.rigden]

Hey, thanks very much for the quick response. I will have to look at my spars and go from there.
I am looking at the Zenair 1450A floats. I actually fly out of Midland Ontario (CYEE) and Zenair is on the field. Like you said a bit of a pipe dream just now but......
I take it you have a Series 5 do you??

[kmach]

Hi,
I have a Kitfox Outback , which is a series 5.
You can go to the kitfox website , then kitfox history, model 5.
It explains the gross weight increase time period, mid 1995. And then the name change from Safari to Outback.

[jdmcbean]

Sorry... It is not simply the wall thickness of the spar. There are other changes that occurred as well as the spar wall.

[OliverR]

Hello John,

I am currently in the market for a Kitfox. While I was originally looking for a finished plane, somebody offered me an untouched Kitfox 5 Speedster Kit, in which I am actually interested.


Sorry... It is not simply the wall thickness of the spar. There are other changes that occurred as well as the spar wall.

I do not yet have the serial number, but the seller bought it in 1996 with a factory gross weight of 1,400 lbs. He later bought longer wings with the thicker spars and was told by SkyStar that the thicker spars and medium weight Stits fabric would be all that is needed to make it a 1,550 lbs plane.

I searched this forum and the old e-mail list, but couldn't come up with a definite answer if this is true or not. I found a few posts in which people said that they were told to also replace some bolts, one guy claimed that the wing strut attachment points in the fuselage would have to be reinforced and you mentioned a couple times that the thicker spars alone would not do the trick.

I was therefore wondering if you could possibly elaborate on that? Some kind of documentation regarding the required modifications would also be really helpful.

Oliver