I am one of those who believe that the battery works out pretty well in the aft location on an RV-8. The only little problem with this is that it's under the rear baggage compartment hat shelf, making access a matter of taking out about 20 screws - not an enjoyable task when crouched in the rear seat area. (This is not, however, a big deal if you use an Odyssey battery - you rarely have to go there!) I built my -8 with an external power plug, so I don't have to access the batteyr for charging or a jump start, but it is also a pain to inspect the elevator bell crank and pitch A/P servo.
At a recent fly-in, I took a look in the back of Danny King's "Beautiful Doll", and saw that he'd installed a hinged hatch, big enough to install or remove the battery. What a great idea! I took one picture, and from tat I duplicated the hatch on my own plane using some leftover aluminum scraps, hinge, and an extra Hartwell latch I had laying around. The Mod probably took me about 4 hour of work - well worth the effort for the access it provides. I found that I need to add some small aluminum angles underneath each edge of the opening to keep it straight, otherwise the hat shelf bows, and with the door flat, you have a little gap. I used some 0.040 aluminum I had for the door, which is thicker than the shelf material, so I needed to shim the flange down a bit to make the top surface flush. I also needed a thick piece of aluminum under the contact point for the latch as a "striker", and to bring the thickness up to where it closes tight. the pictures are pretty self explanatory, and my only question is why I didn't think of it when I was building....
Arrange the hinge so that the door can open fully and stay out of the way:
Size it so that you can get the battery out!
Looking up from underneath:
At a recent fly-in, I took a look in the back of Danny King's "Beautiful Doll", and saw that he'd installed a hinged hatch, big enough to install or remove the battery. What a great idea! I took one picture, and from tat I duplicated the hatch on my own plane using some leftover aluminum scraps, hinge, and an extra Hartwell latch I had laying around. The Mod probably took me about 4 hour of work - well worth the effort for the access it provides. I found that I need to add some small aluminum angles underneath each edge of the opening to keep it straight, otherwise the hat shelf bows, and with the door flat, you have a little gap. I used some 0.040 aluminum I had for the door, which is thicker than the shelf material, so I needed to shim the flange down a bit to make the top surface flush. I also needed a thick piece of aluminum under the contact point for the latch as a "striker", and to bring the thickness up to where it closes tight. the pictures are pretty self explanatory, and my only question is why I didn't think of it when I was building....
Arrange the hinge so that the door can open fully and stay out of the way:
Size it so that you can get the battery out!
Looking up from underneath: