Surprised the inspector passed that Drew. The battery contactor is
supposed to be located at the battery. It's true that heavy wire such as
4 awg or thicker will usually melt enough aluminum away to disconnect
any short circuit that might occur on it. Unfortunately the arcing tends
to start fires while that is occurring. Properly installed heavy wires
are low risk anyway except in a prang.
Generally up to a 5 amp (fused at the battery) circuit is considered
acceptable for feeding a clock, electronic keep alive circuits, etc. and
some folks put a battery maintainer on that line. I like the Schumacher
1.5 amp units for about US$20. from Wall Mart. A cigarette lighter
socket on that line can be useful for powering hand held devices.
Anything larger than 5 amps and the recommendation is to put another
relay at the battery. Some guys place a mini $4. automotive relay at the
battery that closes any time a battery charger is connected to the
"extension cord" that is in place to charge the battery. That way those
wires are also zero risk in the event of a prang or fire. This can even
be wired to a cigarette lighter socket but then you might want to wire
the relay to close when either the master switch was on OR a battery
charger was plugged in to make it more useful.
Now if we move into the modern world of engines that require electricity
to run then it makes a lot of sense to put fuses at the battery for
whatever the electronics requires as I don't like extra relays,
contactors, or failure points between me and the computer/fuel pump that
keeps my engine running. With an aft mounted battery I personally would
consider it reasonable to have the battery contactor forward and take
the battery circuits to the engine off the live side of the contactor.
So maybe you are just way ahead of the game Drew and have subconsciously
prepared for one of these new fangled EFI engines :)
Ken
On 14/02/2012 11:12 AM, Drew Dalgleish wrote:
My battery is in the back to but I put the master solenoid on the
inside firewall and that's where I hook up charger or booster
cables.
On 13/02/2012 9:28 PM, John R. Davidson wrote:
Hello group, My Rebel's battery is way back in the tail cone for
wt&bal reasons.This makes it very inconvenient to get to, to put
the charger cables on when wanting to trickle a little charge on
while getting ready to fly on a cold winter morning. I was thinking
of running an "extension cord" from the battery to just behind the
pilot seat, where it would be easier to reach and attach the
charger cables. Any thoughts, alternatives, suggestions? Thanks in
advance. John
-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at:
https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe:
rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator:
mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
