On Mar 21, 11:29 am, Newps wrote:
I replaced a bladder a year ago. 42 gallon tank in the left wing. Bo
bladders cost the same as Cessna bladders of similar gallons when you
buy from the three main aftermarket sources like Eagle or Floats and
Fuel Cells. No idea what Beech charges, probably horrendous. But
nobody buys a bladder from Beech or Cessna. That would be stupid,
they're buying them aftermarket, why pay the up charge? Labor for a Bo
is less than on the 182 I had by several hours. First reason is because
you are standing on the ground and not always going up and down the
ladder. Second is all the snaps are easily reachable. Third all the
connections are easily accessible, no dissasembling the headliner to get
at the sender, etc. Fourth the tank is easily removable. How do you
get a Cherokee tank out? Derivet? Remove a wing?


"that would be stupid, why pay the up charge"

Well, let's see. Based purely on personal experience, the life of an
aftermarket tank is usually about half that of an OEM tank-primarily
depends on how good of a job the aftermarket boys did in "engineering"
the new tank. The other reason might be that there are aftermarket
Bonanza tanks out there that will NOT fit in the applicable make and
model of A/C. Really neat thing to find out after you have spent the
time (and tied up a hangar bay) to send out a bladder for eval, find
out it's junk (big surprise), purchase an aftermarket tank ("why
should I pay the extra $$") and find out that either the tank sump
drain nipple OR the main fuel feed nipple will line up and poke out
through the little hole...

A basic older Bo tank is a little easier than a 180-twice, BTW, I've
allegedly done both. A King Air is a piece of cake, the size of each
fuel bay/bladder is a lot smaller in relation to the size of the
access panel. You still have to remove all the old tape and glue
residue and re-tape. Aztecs suck rocks.

Despite Jay's tale of woe, pulling a Cherokee wing tank is a matter of
removing some 10-32 structural machine screws and sliding the whole
thing out (in one piece) out of the wing. Repairs are just like any
other "wet-wing" structure, but you have the piece of wing laying on
the workbench, with ready access to the majority of the rivets.
Getting the screws out can be a real bitch, but it doesn't involve any
rivets, snaps or duct tape. The composite Cherokee tip tank is another
story-I'd rather have a bladder any day of the week.

BTW, why did you charge yourself labor for changing out a bladder?

TC