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Vans Wire Conduit

S

sstellarv10

Well Known Member
For anyone that used the Vans wire conduit in their wings, did you leave the wire run holes in the ribs at 5/8 or did you have to increase it?


Steve Stella
#40654 Wings
N521RV reserved
 
Stiff tube here.

Hi.

Maybe alittle of the subject and I have a -7, but I guess this technique can be used in other RV-wings as well:

We installed a stiff tube through the HOLES in ribs in the wing, instead of drilling through the ribs.
The tube is bought in an electrical store and is installed with a clamp and a little piece of alu-angle.
The angle is riveted to the rib and the angles is riveted to every second rib.

You have to mount the rib low enough in the wing so it doesn't interfere with the aileron tube which goes from the bellcrank to the aileron.
On the pic, the wing is upside down, and you can see that the stiff plastic tube will be close to the lower wing skin.






 
I was able to find clear tubing that would fit inside the existing conduit hole (sans the grommet). I would feel real funny enlarging an existing hole in a rib, I just can't do the engineering to assure me it's okay. Lots of people say just drill it and move on but I'm nervous altering a structural part without knowing it's effect. I like the above as an alternative second choice, it seems to involve less altering of the engineering.
 
If you go to Van's website and search on wing wiring, you will find a pdf document with their guidance for enlarging the wing tooling and wiring holes.

Excerpt from Vans documentation:

1. The tooling holes in the ribs may be drilled to a maximum of 5/8? and plastic Bushings SB625-7 installed. These bushings have a 7/16? inside diameter and should be adequate for most needs. Of course smaller bushings can also be used.

2. An additional hole may be drilled in the lower 1/3 of the rib between the large lightening hole and the next one aft. This hole may be up to 3/4? diameter to accommodate our wiring conduit (DUCT NT 5/8-50) or Bushing SB750-10 (5/8? I.D.). The conduit is light and flexible. It?s .810 ? outside diameter means that when snapped into place, the corrugations hold it from
slipping out. If using the conduit, a dab of fuel tank sealant or RTV should be put on the conduit at each rib to prevent the conduit from being cut through over time from vibrations.

3. You can drill a small hole, #30 will do, near the edge of each lightening hole in the rib and use a cable tie to tie either wire or conduit in place. Be sure to protect the wire from chafing on the lightening holes.

I found the wing walk ribs the most difficult place to route the conduit. I think I may have enlarged an additional 1/32" in this area.

Mike Andresen
www.azcloudflyer.com
Working on finish kit.
 
At the recco. of one of Van's Technical Rep's (Gus F. as memory serves), I bought a coil of poly-pipe, as used in underground irrigation systems, from Home Depot. Much easier to install and run wire in. Don't forget to provide multiple conduits or paths with seperation for running wiring for strobes / wing-tip antennas.
 
LincT said:
Don't forget to provide multiple conduits or paths with seperation for running wiring for strobes / wing-tip antennas.
Click to expand...

Have always planned to run strobes and antenna wires in the same conduit, since both the strobe is shielded and the antenna is shielded too. Has anybody had problems doing this and had to go back and provide separation?
 
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