Eliminate conduit under baggage floor?

[Moondog]

After fabricating conduit brackets for future wiring under the baggage floor and seats, it occurred to me that brackets might work by themselves without the use of conduit.


The brackets take a ?? ID plastic grommet which pops securely into the hole. Sturdy but extremely light. So I?m thinking--I could eliminate the conduit by using 5 brackets per side instead of 3 to support the wiring, as long as the brackets were aligned for an easy feed.

Is there a downside to eliminating the conduit?

[longranger]

Originally Posted by Moondog

... Is there a downside to eliminating the conduit?

The only downside that comes to my mind is that not having the conduit would mean you would need to pull the floors out to add additional wiring later.

[airguy]

Leave a pull string in place for future use. I put conduit under there in my 9A.

[Moondog]

Originally Posted by longranger

The only downside that comes to my mind is that not having the conduit would mean you would need to pull the floors out to add additional wiring later.

Sorry I wasn't clear. The original plan was to install brackets and conduit as others have done so as not to have to pull the floors for future wiring. The new plan is to install the brackets to hold future wiring but eliminate the conduit.

The brackets will hold the wiring. And eliminating the conduit would save weight and get rid of a lot of plastic I don't want in the airplane.



Would like to know if the wiring would be ok threaded through the brackets without any conduit around the wires. Would either leave a string as suggested or use an electrician's wire to run future wires.

[airguy]

The wiring will be fine - what was meant was that if you build the plane this way, and 5 years down the road something happens that requires you to add a wire in that wire run, now you will have to pull the baggage floor up to be able to do that. If you had conduit there you could simply push another wire through. Another option would be to leave a pull-string in place through the grommets (without conduit) to pull a wire through in the future if needed.

[CharlieWaffles]

Forget 5 years, it could be a month after the floors are down and you realize something needs to be routed differently, to a different place, or upgraded to a different size wire. There is so little weight associated with the conduit, best to use it in places that are inaccessible. Save weight and eliminate the conduit in other places you could reach without surgery to your plane.

[airguy]

I put the conduit in under the baggage floor and seats, and down the length of the wing spars - but not the entire length of the fuselage. I only installed it where it would be a serious convenience later on.

[Don Jones]

Originally Posted by airguy

I put the conduit in under the baggage floor and seats, and down the length of the wing spars - but not the entire length of the fuselage. I only installed it where it would be a serious convenience later on.

I did the same, 2 runs of conduit under the seats. They are both full now

[airguy]

Originally Posted by Don Jones

I did the same, 2 runs of conduit under the seats. They are both full now

I have 4 - and they are all full.

I put my battery behind the baggage compartment to keep my CG a bit aft, and the large cables just about completely fill the conduit. I've got one each dedicated to power and ground, one for electrically "noisy" wiring (strobes, transponder antenna, etc) to keep them seperated, and one for everything else.

[Walt]

Originally Posted by airguy

I have 4 - and they are all full.

I put my battery behind the baggage compartment to keep my CG a bit aft, and the large cables just about completely fill the conduit. I've got one each dedicated to power and ground, one for electrically "noisy" wiring (strobes, transponder antenna, etc) to keep them seperated, and one for everything else.

Probably not a good idea to bundle the transponder cable with the strobe wiring:

From trig and Garmin install manuals concerning antenna cables:

"Route the cable away from potential interference sources such as ignition wiring, 400Hz generators, fluorescent lighting and electric motors."