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Permalink Reply by John Austin on December 3, 2018 at 4:43pm

My STOL 750 Ed. 1 with Ed.2 upgrades was built 2011-1012.  My Ed. 1 came with a fork with 90 degree bends on each side - in other words, bent from flat stock.  It also had a separate doubler to try to add rigidity to the bends, but I understand there is still some lateral flexing of the forks with this design.  During 2011, Zenith came out with a single piece, curved fork that is considerably more rigid (and looks a heck of a lot better!):

This fork required sending the nose gear strut back to Zenith for installation of a curved mounting plate to match the curvature of the fork.  As I said, it's extremely rigid with absolutely no lateral flexion when taxiing.  I brushed mine and clear-coated it with "Protect-a-Clear" and have been very pleased.

I don't know if there have been any further changes in the design since Zenith came out with this in 2011.

John

N750A

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Permalink Reply by Don Morrisey on December 4, 2018 at 9:41am

I used the STOL nose gear on my Cruzer because I wanted bigger tires. It is the same fork as John has pictured. I added extensions to give the tire more clearance from the attach bolts on the top of the curve...pretty much copied what Walt Snyder did:

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_log.php?user=n2charlie&pr...

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Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on December 5, 2018 at 2:29pm

Thanks for responding...I have the curved fork and think it's fine for it's intended design use.  In the back of my head, I'm thinking with the addition of an extension, should it be stiffer, should the firewall attachment or nose tube be "beefed up" a bit?

I guess flight testing and long term use will eventually tell the story...

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Permalink Reply by Robert Riat on December 12, 2018 at 7:41pm

David, 

  Just curious if you have received your cylinder yet?  Seems like it’s been a month, or so, since

you pulled your engine apart.  I realize it probably had to come from Belgium, but I can’t imagine

why it’s taking so long.  I only have about 75 hours on mine and like the engine, but hope the

service is good when we need it.

Robert

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Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on December 12, 2018 at 8:02pm

Robert, the cylinders cleared U. S. Customs last week, and got shipped out this Monday from Ray Lawerence.  He had an order coming over and I was able to add my stuff to his shipment.  I should have my eager little mitts on the parts this Friday (scheduled delivery) and hope to install on Saturday.

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