If you want useful load you want a 252 or an eagle. Both of those come with some serious gross weight increases that really allow the useful load to shine. When I got my eagle it had 970 pounds of useful load. over the years, I have documented anything that will lower the weight. That means lighter alternator, LED instead of regular lights since you get to lose the power supplies, light weight autopilot, getting a G3X so i can ditch the entire 6 pack, backup cdi, and jpi 900 all for one light weight touchscreen, newer radios, the acclaim type S prop or the MT prop, and for the eagle, the screaming eagle conversion. Doing all of this resulted in about a 245 pound difference between the higher gross weight and the lower empty weight. Right now, I'm at 1216lbs, and will probably gain some weight with the electronic ignition installation, but might hop over to an acclaim prop, and lose another 8 pounds. It takes time, but if you anal about making weight changes and logging them, it's fairly easy.