To conduit or not to conduit?

[Paul K]

Please help me out here. I am ready to wire the wings of my 7A and can't decide if I will install conduits or not. I have seen it done both ways, with good results. The question is, why would I want to install conduits or why wouldn't I want conduits. Beyond the obvious, will I really be changing or adding additional wires in the future? Would it be impossible without conduits? Is the added weight of the conduits worth the ease of future wire changes? Is it better for the wire to be in conduits? Wouldn't it be better to have the wires hanging in air and not rubbing on the inside of a conduit? The questions go on and on.

I would be very interested in what others have done and why. Help

[Vlad]

Paul I vote for conduit. Easy to install, lightweight, cheap. Leave a string inside for your future wire runs.

[Jim Percy]

I didn't use conduit and have no regrets. I've added a wire or two without incident. The only "challenge" is near the root with the closely-spaced ribs. Just tape the wire to a leftover piece of hinge pin and poke it through (make your holes in a straight line!). No reason you couldn't leave a piece of string there too for that matter, even without conduit. Bear in mind that future wire runs may not extend full span- say for an autopilot servo or heated pitot. Conduit wouldn't help you much in that situation. I assume it goes without saying that you DO need snap bushings in the holes.

[Phil]

Just getting to the conduit section myself and I vote conduit.

You don't know what you might add later. It's much easier to pull a string and not worry about fastening the wire down.

[Paul K]

OK, so if I go the conduit way, what did all of you use? Did you get the stuff from Van's or did you go to the big box aircraft store? I would think that thin walled and very light would be best. I can also see leaving a small gap mid way through the wing for the pitot or auto pilot servo. Perhaps in the area of an access cover?

Any reason to worry about flame retardant materials away from the cabin?

Come on, there has to be a lot of opinions out there in Forum land!

[N941WR]

Conduit, use the stuff Van's sells and then pro-seal it at each rib so it can't move and get cut.

Simple & light.

[Phil]

I am currently installing the Home Depot version of both of these.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...UPC&lpage=none

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...UPC&lpage=none

At Home Depot, they were 25' lengths.
1/2" = $8ish
3/4" = $12ish

Phil

[Greg Arehart]

I used the black plastic irrigation pipe. Allows for some flexibility if you can't drill the holes in a straight line (like me). I put two in each wing - one that goes to the wingtip and a second that goes to the bellcrank bay (servo in L wing and camera in R wing).

greg

[hydroguy2]

Depends on what you are doing. How much stuff are you putting in your wings? Are you a tinker? are you planning on upgrading?

I have simple wiring. Vans tip lights, LED nav & strobe. A/P servo. Dynon AOA pitot. So while I didn't need a lot of room, my 2/side snap bushing are full. No conduit for me.

Could I pull in more wiring?....probably. would it be tough?...definitely. Do I care?...NO

[Rick6a]

Originally Posted by Paul K

OK, so if I go the conduit way, what did all of you use? ......Come on, there has to be a lot of opinions out there in Forum land!

I would install conduit for no other reason than to have it available for potential use at some future date. Whether you choose to use it or not, Van's conduit weighs next to nothing. How much weight does it really add to the airplane? Well for my particular installation, I weighed it and that included all associated installation hardware. If per Van's suggestion you simply drilled a large hole through each wing rib to route the conduit through, the total weight would be even less. I posted the findings here:

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...ad.php?t=14523