Cable routing under seat floor

[rjtjrt]

I am posting this for a builder, with his permission. It was submitted to a local site but there may be more information and hopefully photo's on VAF.
John

Hi All,

I am just about to rivet down the seat and baggage area floors and am worried about cable access to the aft area of the aircraft.

In between radio aerials, ELT?s, lights, servos, remote compass sensors, etc etc I foresee the need to get a lot of lectrickal cables down the back, but no clear way to route the cables there, nor can I find clear directions in the instructions.

I was thinking of just bunging in a length of ?? conduit (got heaps of it) between the under seat/baggage area bulkheads, but that involves drilling BIG holes and the possible need to secure the conduit between the bulkheads. OR putting in a couple of SB407 plastic grommits into the same ribs which generates the need for more cable supports between..

Anyone got any thoughts or experience on this??

Regards, Mike

[N131RV]

Originally Posted by rjtjrt

I am posting this for a builder, with his permission. It was submitted to a local site but there may be more information and hopefully photo's on VAF.
John

Hi All,

I am just about to rivet down the seat and baggage area floors and am worried about cable access to the aft area of the aircraft.

In between radio aerials, ELT?s, lights, servos, remote compass sensors, etc etc I foresee the need to get a lot of lectrickal cables down the back, but no clear way to route the cables there, nor can I find clear directions in the instructions.

I was thinking of just bunging in a length of ?? conduit (got heaps of it) between the under seat/baggage area bulkheads, but that involves drilling BIG holes and the possible need to secure the conduit between the bulkheads. OR putting in a couple of SB407 plastic grommits into the same ribs which generates the need for more cable supports between..

Anyone got any thoughts or experience on this??

Regards, Mike

In my case, there are 3 paths back to the rear of the airplane.

• Under the right hand baggage floor, I put in two 5/8" grommets, one on each side of the second rib. I also nibbled in an access plate so I can reach down there to pull the cables through. My starter cable and main power cables run there.
• Using adel clamps, I secured two pieces of 1/2" ID plastic tubing in the control tunnel, just under the "lip" on each side, with grommets that come out just behind where the aileron trim is mounted. The tubes are well clear of the elevator controls.
• Static line is routed just under the left longeron and under the left edge of the control panel.

As for support of cable in between grommets, good point. My main power cable is #6 tefzel and the starter cable is #2 tefzel. They hardly move, but I did add a dollop of red silicone to help with vibration.

[chris mitchell]

When I came to install the transponder antenna in the -8 (just behind the rear baggage area) I tried to steer/poke a variety of wires, sticks etc through the grommets that I had put in (holes were pre-drilled). After several sweaty and increasingly curse-filled hours I gave up, took the floors out (took less tha an hour) and installed conduit both sides, supported with some cable ties held in place with those little stick on patches. A couple of days later I changed my mind about the GPS antenna location (from front to rear) and guess what - it took about a minute to push the wire through. So even if its just potential "future-proofing" next time (hah) I'd plan on doing it from the beginning.

My $.02 worth

Chris