Pultruded Carbon Rod - A re-designed spar was created to use pultruded carbon rods which reduced weight and allowed for a different wing configuration which is especially helpful for the tri-cycle gear.  The spar is designed in three overlapping sections.  It is built with a ten foot center section with outer spars that are bolted near the center and at the ends of the center spar. By using spar caps made from pultruded carbon fiber rod a weight savings of 20-30lbs can be realized.  Due to the added technical difficulty in manufacturing this spar is not available in the plans but is available from Pro-Composites.

 This Pultruded carbon rod spar can also be made in one piece for either the SP or EX versions for even greater weight savings; though additional shipping expense and extra room for building is required.

 What’s the big difference?  The trailing link suspension is much lighter by 20-30lbs and is tied into the spar where most of the load is already transferred to the airframe.  With the aluminum spring gear, additional internal support is required to reinforce the underside of the fuselage, which adds weight, to carry and transfer the load.  The trailing link gear is also out of the slipstream and is not as likely to cause as much drag that aluminum gear will.  The tailing link gear has a wider stance and is more stable on the ground. 

Pro-Composites has taken the trailing link suspension and updated the manufacturing with laser cut parts, TIG/normalized welding and the addition of poly-urethane springs/donuts.  The polyurethane donuts inherently provide damping and based on the load required it is simply a matter of selecting the size of the spring - even for loads of up to 3000 lbs.  Remarkably these legs weigh approximately 12 lbs each.  They have been statically tested on a 20 ton press to loads of 4g’s.