455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
How did you route yours thru the rear bulkhead? Pictures welcome.
182 Owners: routing of battery maintainer pigtail
- Thread starter 455 Bravo Uniform
- Start date
swingwing
Pre-takeoff checklist
Small hole in the side of the hat shelf
455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
That's a good idea, keeps it out of harms way up there.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Seems easiest. The whole back hat shelf thing / bulkhead is just a big piece of plastic in ours and is just held in by Velcro anyway. Could just stuff it through anywhere around the edge but a little hole would be cleaner.
Just don’t forget to poke it through there if you’re pulling the rear hat shelf plastic doohickey out.
Bigger issue will be routing it out of the battery box in such a way that it couldn’t chafe with vibration and cause a direct short to something. You’d want it attached to something to basically immobilize it. At least coming out of the box.
Whether you want it just flopping around somewhere after that is up to you, but fusing it right at the battery end, would be smart.
saddletramp
Line Up and Wait
I've never put mine on a maintainer. Last winter we got fairly cold (15F or so) & it fired up every time.
I did plug in the oil pan heater & the oil was hot to the touch prior to start. I'm sure that helps.
Concorde battery in a non-heated hangar.
I did plug in the oil pan heater & the oil was hot to the touch prior to start. I'm sure that helps.
Concorde battery in a non-heated hangar.
swingwing
Pre-takeoff checklist
I did the hole instead of pinching it at the Velcro because of the sharp bulkhead edge. It could easily cut the wire with movement or vibration.
GMascelli
En-Route
For extra protection I used a rubber grommet to pass through the rear bulkhead and exit the battery box on my Beech Sundowner.
Last edited:
denverpilot
Tied Down
Dan Thomas
Touchdown! Greaser!
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That right there. I wish I knew why the manufacturers don't have an inline fuse on it to begin with. A short on that line could easily cause a fire at any time, whether in flight or in the hangar. There goes the airplane for the price of a fuseholder and fuse. Probably illegal, too.
denverpilot
Tied Down
I’m not going to lecture anyone about the legality of it... I just want them to do it intelligently if they’re going to hook a wire directly to a battery that’s not connected to something and could get pinched, rubbed, or otherwise molested by the vibrations in an aircraft.
Practice safe dongle. LOL.
Mark Ebben
Filing Flight Plan
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MrMark757
My 182P. Sorry I don't have a photo with the back panel off.
weirdjim
Ejection Handle Pulled
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weirdjim
You already have a 5 amp (or thereabouts) fuse right at the battery box. Or at least you should. We call that the "keep alive" circuit for the clock and such that need to run when the master is off. The FAR specifies that it should be located as close to the battery box as possible and not exceed 5 amps. The clever way would be to remove the cigarette lighter or whatever it is called these days and install a 2mm power plug that fits in the same hole size and run to the aforementioned keep alive bus. That way your floater is a plug in with no holes or having to remove it every time you want to use the airplane.
Jim
Jim
JohnAJohnson
Cleared for Takeoff
I installed a female cigarette lighter socket on the bulkhead. I used a standard trickle charger pigtail with inline fuse permanently attached to the battery terminals. I tie wrapped the fuse holder to keep it from vibrating or otherwise coming apart and jamming a flight control pulley, and made sure there was not enough slack to cause any issues. As others have suggested, you want to make sure there is no possibility of a short, since you can't get to it in flight. Of course you'll need a male lighter plug on the charger side, but this combination has proven to be the easiest and best solution for me.
I no longer own this airplane but here's a picture:
I no longer own this airplane but here's a picture:
455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
Nice clean install John. What did you do when you needed to remove the bulkhead, as far as the wiring disconnect between the batt and the female charger receptacle?
JohnAJohnson
Cleared for Takeoff
Thanks 455. I used one of the connectors that come with all the trickle chargers, the two prong types that slide together. That allows for a quick disconnect when the bulkhead has to be removed. I've attached a [not very good] picture, where you can see the battery side of the connector in the top middle of the picture above the battery. You can see where it attaches to the battery, then the inline fuse (tie wrapped with a yellow tie wrap), then it continues up to an adel clamp, then it just hangs there. The opposite connector comes from the female lighter plug on the bulkhead. When they are connected together, I also tie wrapped them together to keep them from vibrating apart. Zoom the picture in to see the connector details.
JohnAJohnson
Cleared for Takeoff
My [ex] Cardinal's Hobbs was located just inside the oil level access door, and it and the clock both ran off that keep alive circuit. The fuse is right next to the battery, as you stated. It would be easy to install a connector of some type right off the Hobbs, and to insert your charger's connector into it through the oil access door, dependent on Hobbs location in the 182, of course. If memory serves, it's not a big wire, maybe 20-22 gauge, so you'd have to calculate if it is up to the job.