N546RV
Well Known Member
OK, so it's getting to be wiring harness time. I have my schematics and routing diagrams done, just a few more details to hammer out. I've read leok's excellent thread about nine hundred times, and I've always envisioned building beautiful harnesses on my workbench as seen in this photo of his:
But the more I think through the mechanics of this, the less feasible it seems. That is, it doesn't seem possible to me to build something like that and then actually install it into the airplane. I'm thinking specifically of routing the portion of the harness that will go under the seat floors and back to the stuff behind the baggage area.
While that run should be fairly compact, and go through the conduit easily, once it's out of there it'll split off into several drops (ELT/xpdr/ADS-B receiver/rear seat accessory runs) before continuing to the tail. I feel like about the best I could do for this area would be to cut the assorted wires to length, temporarily bundle them into once nice trunk (but loosely to help them negotiate the conduit), and then split/lace/terminate them after going through the conduit.
But even that's only half the fun; I still have the drops for the wings and a few other items, which will be ahead of the conduit but behind the center section. Overall, it just seems unmanageable in my head to do anything but string the wires behind the center section one at a time, but that idea bothers me a bit too. On the other hand...seems like the wire count should be roughly the same, so maybe this just has to be the same as the aft avionics, where I'm just lacing and terminating the drops inside the plane.
Am I overthinking this? Anyone care to share stories of how they constructed their harnesses? Are you Team Build It On the Bench or Team Lace It Up Inside the Fuse?
But the more I think through the mechanics of this, the less feasible it seems. That is, it doesn't seem possible to me to build something like that and then actually install it into the airplane. I'm thinking specifically of routing the portion of the harness that will go under the seat floors and back to the stuff behind the baggage area.
While that run should be fairly compact, and go through the conduit easily, once it's out of there it'll split off into several drops (ELT/xpdr/ADS-B receiver/rear seat accessory runs) before continuing to the tail. I feel like about the best I could do for this area would be to cut the assorted wires to length, temporarily bundle them into once nice trunk (but loosely to help them negotiate the conduit), and then split/lace/terminate them after going through the conduit.
But even that's only half the fun; I still have the drops for the wings and a few other items, which will be ahead of the conduit but behind the center section. Overall, it just seems unmanageable in my head to do anything but string the wires behind the center section one at a time, but that idea bothers me a bit too. On the other hand...seems like the wire count should be roughly the same, so maybe this just has to be the same as the aft avionics, where I'm just lacing and terminating the drops inside the plane.
Am I overthinking this? Anyone care to share stories of how they constructed their harnesses? Are you Team Build It On the Bench or Team Lace It Up Inside the Fuse?