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I have an older kit which came with 3/4" x .125" aluminum bar to make the fuel tank straps. I made them to plans 17 7/8" from bend to bend for the aft straps and 17 5/16" for the forward. I bent them pretty close to the contour of the fuel tank, but they seem to be more than half an inch long each. When clecoed to the longerons, the straps touch at the ends and have to be bent to put the bolt through. When the fuel tank is set in, the straps hang a good bit lower than the tank but the ends are touching. I have the yellow colored plastic tank. Do the strap lengths seem correct? Does the flat portion on the forward lower part of the tank sit flush on the cross tie? The plans make it look like the sides of the tank at the widest point, where the angled top sides meet the curved bottom, is about flush with the longerons. For my straps to work, the sides of the tank would have to be about an inch lower than the longerons. Any ideas?

Thanks

The side edges of my tank are certainly below the longeron, maybe an inch or so. I used spacers between the straps and the bottom of the longeron. I suggest dont get to carried away until you have tried fitting the glare shield, things could change to get that to fit with the tank in place.

Why not shorten the straps at the longerons?

I had to shorten mine when building. I built from plans and my tank is about 8 years old. Not sure if they changed them since then. My tank sits up flush under the glareshield. A number of early scratch builders used to use steel pallet striping in place of the aluminum straps when they had to redo them because the plans called out the wrong length. If you look in the old Yahoo group archives you should find some discussions on the issue.

Keith
#554

I reworked the bends in the straps and they seem to be still just a little long, but they might work with very little gap between them. I have attached some pictures to show how far my tank is below the longerons. Does this look right?

You need to fit the glareshield to tell if is right. The tank should fit up against it.

Keith
#554

I have fit the glare shield. There is a bit of a gap. Maybe 1/2 - 3/4 inch. If I adjusted the straps to take up the gap, then the front of the fuel tank would not rest on the cross tie. The fuel tank instructions say that a gap on the slanted portion of the fuel tank is ok, but does not say anything about the top. I assume the top of the tank is supposed to contact the glare shield? And if so, is that more important than the flat part of the tank resting on the cross tie? Thanks.