Edo floats on a 12 with 18 gear

[CubDriver218]

Richard, you are worrying too much. Just use the -12 gear with a -18 upper front fitting. I have Citabria 7GCBC gear on my -18 clone and it works just fine. I just lengthened the fitting for the rear strut. The only difference with those two -12 gears is that the float step will be about 1/8" difference in it location.

So are you saying my best bet is to purchase floats off a stock PA-12 and figure it out from there?
I do have the opportunity to buy some edo 2000s locally that came off of a PA-14. Does anyone know if these will work? I'm waiting for the guy to send me measurements.
I'm told the "fish mouth" (the angle between the top of the floats and the bottom of the wing?) needs to be correct for the plane to perform well on floats. You need the angle of attack.

 

[Eddie Foy]

Ricky,
Are you still in the military?

 

[CubDriver218]

No. I got out in 2008.

 

[TurboBeaver]

Rich,
Just to simplify this alot for you, the only part you actually
Need to bolt up to Edo 2000 floats that you don't have is the front fitting, and who ever told you that is the same on
a PA14, knew what they were talking about. So you will need that piece, They are the same. Get the best deal you can on ANY set of 2000's, cut the struts to the know set of
Factory struts that you already have the lengths. Bingo your golden. Because the correct Edo struts are so dam short on a 12, Almost Any other factory struts are going to be long enough to cut down to factory specs. There are lots of combos of front and rear lengths that can work, however be very careful the the airplane stays in the same
Position over the step of the float, if the diagonal isn't cut
Correctly and winds up moving the plane forward or backwards, you are guaranteed to have undesired results.
I had 14 front fittings on my 12, and wanted it to sit up like
An 18 for both head clearance, and it just looks better! And because Atlee shared his "secret figures" lol, I didn't have to do the math.......... worked fantastic. I flew two fisherman in it and all the junk for a couple of seasons and never had a problem........we replaced it to haul 3 people with a Maule M7 when they first came out.( 1984 prices was $44,000 delivered to Anchorage with King Radios and 3 position Strobes!) It would haul two guys out of the same short places the 12
did. They are both excellent floatplanes.

 

[skywagon8a]

So are you saying my best bet is to purchase floats off a stock PA-12 and figure it out from there? YES
I do have the opportunity to buy some edo 2000s locally that came off of a PA-14. Does anyone know if these will work? I'm waiting for the guy to send me measurements.
I'm told the "fish mouth" (the angle between the top of the floats and the bottom of the wing?) needs to be correct for the plane to perform well on floats. You need the angle of attack.

That is why you want the PA-12 struts. The -18 attachment provides a much higher angle of attack. If you used the -18 gear (struts and fittings) on your -12, your -12 would have a slower cruise speed than other -12s because opening that "fish mouth" (as well as having the fuselage sit higher on the floats) creates drag. My -18 is set at 3.5 degrees between the top of the float and the bottom of the wing. Normal -18 gear set this at a much higher number. Your flaps will help the take off performance and the smaller "fish mouth" of the -12 gear will provide good cruise speed.

I misread your dimensions. The numbers highlighted in red control the step location. The rear strut controls the "fish mouth".
Edo 2000 ........ ...... Front .......... Rear........... Diagonal

PA-18..................... 37 7/8"...... 32 1/4" ......... 52 5/8"

PA-12 .................... 34 3/4"........ 29" .............. 50 3/4"

PA-12 with 18 gear ... 34 3/4" ...... 28 1/2" ........... 50 3/4" This one will have a slightly larger "fish mouth". I suspect that whoever set up this attachment gear wanted a slightly larger "fish mouth" than a stock -12. Scale these dimensions out on a piece of paper to see just how much of a "fish mouth" angle change there is with a 1/2" difference in rear strut length. Compare all these numbers with the ones you are getting from a -14.

Bear in mind that since you have welded on rear float fittings, the fitting which connects these to the strut will be an aftermarket (home made) fitting with no published or approved dimensions. You will be able to alter your "fish mouth" angle just by making these fittings with a different dimension between the strut and the fitting.

 

[CubDriver218]

OK,I have the opportunity to buy some 2000s
With the following measurements

Front is 37" Diagonal is 52" and the Rear is 29"

I believe these will be able to bolt up, and if I undertand correctly, because the front is higher and the rear is still 29" my angle off attack exceeds the normal configuration, but wouldn't this help with take off performance? my cruise speed would just suffer?

 

[skywagon8a]

OK,I have the opportunity to buy some 2000s
With the following measurements

Front is 37" Diagonal is 52" and the Rear is 29"

I believe these will be able to bolt up, and if I understand correctly, because the front is higher and the rear is still 29" my angle off attack exceeds the normal configuration, but wouldn't this help with take off performance? my cruise speed would just suffer?

Let's compare:
. ...........................front. . . . . rear . . . . . . diagonal
Some 2000s with.......37"............ 29" .............. 52"
PA-18..................... 37 7/8"...... 32 1/4" ......... 52 5/8"
PA-12 .................... 34 3/4"..... 29" ............. 50 3/4"
PA-12 with 18 gear .. 34 3/4"..... 28 1/2" ........ 50 3/4"
It appears that the "new some 2000s" are -18 front and diagonal and -12 rear. Not a good combination since the angle of attack will be way more than even an -18. It maybreak water sooner but the rest of the performance will be inferior due to the excess opening of the "fish mouth".

 

[C-FIJK]

Now with the floats and rigging you found can you not cut them to length?

 

[CubDriver218]

I could get someone to do that, however they seem so darn close. also that front measurement I think is actually closer to 37 3/4 as she measured from the bottom bolt to the actual attach point on the block at the top rather than just the top bolt (if that makes sense).
9500 without float lockers.

 

[CubDriver218]

Below is the image with the measurements I got from the owner of the 2000s I'm looking at. They wrote me back that between the bolt on the top front strut to the hole on the top front block is 2 1/4" which makes these measurement's almost perfect for what I'm looking for.
I think my last question here before I buy them is - is there anything else I should look out for? Are there different spreader bar lengths or am I really now starting to over think it?
Can't wait to do some float flying next summer and now I'll have all winter to figure out getting float lockers installed. Hope that's not super hard or expensive.

 

[C-FIJK]

Ed Peck sells floats locker lid Kits !!!