[sglynn]

Thanks for your time describing how you do this. How do you put wires into the middle of the electrical duct? Do you just make a hole in the duct? Do you worry about chaffing wires on the edge of the hole? Do holes in the duct cause a problem when pushing other wires through the duct? How do you hold wires from wiggling just outside of entering the duct?

It looks like some wires go from fuselage to wing tip but others like, landing light, heated pitot, roll servo need to enter the duct in the middle. Right?

Thanks

 

[Greg Arehart]

Steve,

Not sure what you mean by "electrical duct" and where this is located. If you mean in the wings, many people add some sort of plastic conduit through which the wires run from the fuselage out to the wingtip. This conduit can be added by enlarging the holes in wing ribs. Similar conduit can be added in other places (I put some running from the spar to behind the baggage bulkhead, for example). For my wings, I ran a couple of conduits, one to the bellcrank bay for the autopilot servo and another to the wingtip for wingtip lighting.

greg

 

[BuckWynd]

Steve,

Most of the items you mentioned are actually nearer to the end of the wing than you think. I think it would be wiser to just run the wires to the end of the wing and use the full length of your conduit, rather than punch a hole in the conduit in the middle. As you said, there would be all kinds of chafing issues to overcome.

The autopilot servo wires could be run in a separate conduit that only goes halfway out the length of the wing, or they could be supported with Adel clamps attached to the ribs.

 

[sglynn]

Greg, sorry I didn't clarify. Yes, I'm using the flexible duct in the wing as you described. My question is concerning how do you insert wires into the middle of it and the consequences that might have to be dealt with. thanks

 

[Rick6a]

Thanks for your time describing how you do this. How do you put wires into the middle of the electrical duct? Do you just make a hole in the duct? Do you worry about chaffing wires on the edge of the hole? Do holes in the duct cause a problem when pushing other wires through the duct? How do you hold wires from wiggling just outside of entering the duct?

It looks like some wires go from fuselage to wing tip but others like, landing light, heated pitot, roll servo need to enter the duct in the middle. Right?

Thanks

Almost all wire runs are usually fed through the entire 10' length of conduit. I prefer to run accessories such as heated pitot and landing light wires out to the wing tip then through the conduit. The one and only time I ever had reason to punch a hole into the side of electrical conduit was when I decided to install an OAT probe located in the outboardmost wing inspection cover about midpoint on the conduit. Since it is Van's famous black conduit that also serves double duty as blast tube, it was a simple matter to punch a small hole into the conduit and then feed the OAT wires through, exiting at the wing root displacing the existing wires as it went. If I were concerned about chaffing issues, a few twists of strategically placed wire wrap should do the trick.

 

[scard]

In the places where I exited the vans wing conduit, mid-run, I put a dab of red RTV at the exit point. I use that stuff all over the place to stick a random wire in place where a full attach point (clamp, zip tie pad, etc) would be overkill.

 

[Greg Arehart]

Steve,

Yes, my solution was two tubes rather than one (but I also have a camera in my wing that required a number of wires - power, signal etc.). As noted by others, you could probably punch a hole carefully in your tubing and snake a wire out that way. Downside might be trying to mess with this after installation in the wing or if you have to do any repair work later.

greg

 

[Amit]

I have the corrugated conduit running the span of my wings, and in both wings I have a little hole in the conduit for stuff I needed to exit in the middle of the wing.
On the left wing it is for the pitot tube heating element wire, on the right it is for a gimballed camera mount I test for work. I just made a hole in the conduit with an exacto knife. Threading a wire after the wings are done is a little more challenging, but piano wire and tape help.