Curious if a 2012 or newer sr22 could work for my family of 5. This would entail getting the bench seat in back with 3 belts. I have a young small family and we would obviously outgrow it but I would like to utilize a cirrus maybe for 2 years or so. All 5 of us are only about 485 lbs and we rarely all fly together. Can anyone comment on how much fuel i could take on and what range that would be? Ideal trip is TYS to FLL.

you will need to move to a recent model. They increased the weight.
but 485lbs should not be an issue. that is not a lot of weight for 5 people

but you are looking around 1200lbs max useful for most newer SR22, with good equipment.
Some may have more, but no AC, no this, no that..
2017 and older, you are looking closer to 1100 useful.
Fuel consumption is basically the same as A36. so same math

Even our 2004 SR22 has a useful load of 1030 pounds with the TKS tank full. The plane holds 81 gallons. Allowing 1 gallon for start, taxi, and takeoff; that's 480 lbs. of gas. That leaves 550 lbs for people and bags. But I only have 4 seats.

For long trips I tend to fly up around 10,000 +/- 1000'. At that altitude I burn about 12.3 GPH with a TAS of 160 knots.

Figure 8 gallons/100 NM (no wind) plus 2.5 gallons for the climb. So for example 400 miles would require 32 + 2.5 = 34.5 burn + 13 reserve = 47.5 gallons.

You can do the math to decide how much gas you can carry with your family and luggage.

You should be fine weight-wise.

I don't think there will be room for 3 car seats in the back seats; I've only had one car seat in there at a time. You may have more issues with "he/she is touching me!" with three kids that close to each other.

When our kids were in middle school and high school the four of us would travel in a SR22 together. We weighed around 520 lbs total and packed light, so full fuel was usually fine; it was a 2002 model with over 1100 lbs of useful load.

TYS - FLL is easily 4 hours of flying. You may need to plan for a rest stop along the way, which means you could carry less fuel (if needed) and fuel up at your stop as well.

2014 and up Cirrus have five seats and 200 bs more gross weight (3600 lbs). You will find useful loads of 1100-1250 pounds in these models. Normally aspirated clean wing (no TKS) are the lightest and fastest, making 170 to 180 KTAS at gross weight and 7000 to 9000 feet.

TYS to FLL is 3.5 hours, 60 gallons plus 17 gallon reserve gives you about 680 to 730 pounds cabin load. There are earlier 3400 GW models with five seats but then you cabin load drops accordingly.

The absolute lowest useful I've seen on a G5 or G6 SR22T is 1,096 lbs. - i.e. with every available option. Non-T's, I think, about 80 lbs more. Forgo A/C and TKS and add another 100+ lbs. Remember TKS fluid cuts into useful...as much as 60 lbs., IIRC.

Thanks every this is some really awesome info. I would strongly prefer turbo and tks-hence the cirrus. I think we would fit as big brother would ride up front and only one car seat in back with mom and a booster for the 4 year old. Ill try to find a tks and a/c cirrus listed and consider the outcome. It looks like I am in the same boat as the a36 I have essentially.

Adding tip tanks to the a36 might help eliminate the stop easier than anything else..

I have a 2016 G5 turbo with AC, FIKI, and all the fixings. Useful load is 1089. With your combined weight you will easily be able to take everyone and 60 gallons of gas (to the tabs) and have 100lbs left for baggage. That won’t be enough fuel for your mission with reserves. And if you fill it to the tops at 92 gallons, you won’t have the weight for all 5. So you’d have to monkey with the fuel in the middle of those two.

I traded my TN A36 (with tip tanks) for the Cirrus and am happy with the trade due to runway length of my home airport plus modern avionics etc. However if you have the runway length, tips and club seating for the family can’t really be beat. Three across the back is REALLY tight. Last time I went up with my four year old in a car seat plus the seven year old in a booster and it didn’t seem like there was room for a third even if there was a seatbelt.