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Permalink Reply by Chris Beebe on April 22, 2021 at 10:04am

Zenith has prices and documentation. It's not that difficult of a job. I added them to a set of wings a few years back. 10 gallons each tank. Nice setup and happy with the install. I want to say the price was somewhere around $800 to $1,000 maybe zenith can tell you. That was for a complete kit, two tanks fuel line fuel selector replacement ribs Ect.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Latimer on April 22, 2021 at 12:06pm

I converted from a header tank and 2 baggage locker tanks to 2 leading edge wing tanks on my HDS.  It wasn't too difficult.  You have to open the leading edge, remove one of the leading edge ribs and replace it with another rib at different location.

Tanks have a 10 gallon capacity each.  The usable capacity is 9.5 gallons.

I was using a sight gauge on the header tank as my fuel gauge with no gauges on the wing locker tanks.  The wing locker tanks were used to transfer fuel to the header tank.  The motor ran off the header tank.  

Therefore I had to add gauges to new leading edge tanks.  This meant that the instrument panel had to be modified.

I've been flying with the leading edge tanks now for 4 years.  The biggest issue is that I've had to open up the wings 3 times to repair really small leaks in the tanks.  The 2 biggest advantages was getting gas fumes out of the cockpit coming from the header tank and getting back the storage space in the wing lockers.

I did not buy my tanks from Zenith.  I inherited them from another builder that had decided to put the newer style leading edge tanks with the flush mount gas caps.

I've attached the documentation that I have for the install.  

  Zenith used to offer a kit to do this.  You would have to check with them if they are still offering it.

Attachments:

• 601hds-le-wing-tanks.pdf, 181 KB

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Permalink Reply by Scott Tyler Bragg on April 22, 2021 at 12:37pm

It was your video that reminded me of them. I'm still building, working on fuselage now but wings are about 80% done. I was planning same as you, two removeable tanks that feed a header that feeds the engine, but I like the idea of the LE tanks if they're still available. 

Seems like the simple thing to do before the LE skins are even on the wing, gets fuel out of the cockpit and simplifies the fuel system a bit, plus storage in the wings and space behind the panel.

Thanks!

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