In keeping with the never ending debate on which marginal back country airplane is the best marginal back country airplane it begs the question; how much of that fancy interior can you take out of there and store in the hangar or garage?

Stinsons have pretty marginal performance with the 150hp Franklin at customary ramp weight but the floor is approved for 350lbs evenly distributed in the back seat area. It also has all that fancy interior back there. Can you rip all that stuff out right down to tubing? Same question for the 145hp 172 and the various tri pacers.

When I lived in Alaska I knew an air taxi guy with a 180 and there was nothing inside that thing beyond a little rubber mat to protect the floors. The seats had some sort of canvas rough and ready covering. It carried full loads out to the homesteaders into short strips.

I remember reading a Budd Davison article one time about how he took 50 pounds out of his S2A just in excess interior.

How light can we get a 172 or a Stinson?

I will weigh my Stinson interior (rear) when I get home. I can't imagine it's 50 lbs. In my re-build, I'm replacing the old padded interior with the station wagon woody interior for lightness and looks. Since everything's on the floor now, I can throw it on a scale very easily. Mine is a Voyager model, so I don't have the reinforced floor which is 2-3 thicker than the Voyager rear floorboards.

Don G.

Outside of ensuring you're within legal load limits I wouldn't spend too much energy getting academic about this. The Stinson is a no-brainer with the rear sling seats - just pop them out and there's room for anything you can get through the door.

Emory Bored wrote:How light can we get a 172 or a Stinson?

When I bought my '59 172, the wheel pants were in the back seat, and they are now in the corner of my hangar. I vaguely remember they were about 5 lbs. apiece. The back seat is hanging on the wall next to them, and it weighed exactly 30 lbs. on my mechanic's fish scale. After that, stripping things out has a diminishing level of return.

There are some things you can do that will lighten the plane by a few lbs. and lighten your wallet, too. The old generator is supposed to be quite a bit heavier than the new alternators for which STCs are available. New radios tend to be quite a bit lighter than old ones.

The best place to look for weight savings is usually the oversized nut behind the yoke.

Stinson 108 rear seat slings weight check:

rear seat slings+rear seat cushions+sling crossbar = 20-21 lbs.
vynil covered side panels = 11 lbs.
1 front seat = 15 lbs.

Measured with a zeroed cheap bath scale and a cheaper fish scale.

Don G.

The best place to look for weight savings is usually the oversized nut behind the yoke.

Years ago, I was seriously considering investing in a new very light weight bicycle for the Ride the Rockies. My son suggested that I should instead invest in a good diet plan--I'd lose a whole lot more rather than trading off my very functional Trek 550 on a lighter bike.

Cary

I weigh 150 with my boots on. Big sucker. Pure gristle.

That's good on the 45 pounds savings. Gotta leave the right seat in though. So we save lots of room for coffee grinders and coffee makers anyway.