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Looking for wire routing pictures.

Desert Rat

Well Known Member
Does anybody have a few pictures of what it looks like to run wiring down the outside corners of the cockpit floor on your way aft?

I'n my mind, I had always planned to run everything down the center tunnel (if I had room) But my prefabricated avionics bundle has most of the stuff going aft already tied up in snakeskin anti-chafe in two branches that are coming off the trunk in such a way that they were clearly envisioned to be routed outboard.

It's an RV7. Not that it matters for concept purposes.
 
On my RV-9, I ended up disassembling the nice wire bundles, removing the D-sub connectors on the wires that had them on the aft end. I then used the Van’s spar drilling templates and used those bushed holes to run all the wires aft. There just wasn’t enough room in the elevator push rod tube channel.
 
In preparation for that possibility, I templated and drilled the extra spar holes way back when I was building the cabin center section.

Also, my avionics guy left all the aft wiring unterminated so it would fit through wherever I was going to eventually route it, so I'm good on both those counts.

Maybe I can do a better job of asking my question;

My prefab bundle has a "trunk" that runs laterally across the bottom of the sub-panel. Various branches come off that in the approximate location of where I mounted the boxes.

On each end of that trunk, coming out in the general location of NACA vents, there is a branch about 15 feel long of chafe protected stuff that runs aft. Wiring for stuff like like fuel senders, elt, magnetometer etc. It's logically separated into left and right.

I could make those branches do a U turn and bring them down next to the heater box per Vans vague electrical wiring optional print, or I can figure out some way to run them vertically down the cabin side walls near the outboard side of the rudder pedals, then aft along the floor to the spar cover plates, then through the spar at the optional holes that are already there.

This seems like a much cleaner solution, but I don't have a clear vision of how to route the bundles without getting them tangled up with rudder cables, fuel vent tube, or worse, stepping on them. they are too big to tuck under the gussets back where the the gear weldments would be on an A model.

I'm sure I can figure this out by sitting on a shop stool and staring at it for a while, but it would be nice if I could see what other folks have done rather than reinventing the wheel.
 
Thanks Mike. So everything went down the center tunnel?

No, the only wires to go down the central tunnel were the flap wires.

The wires described in the video went through either the left or right conduit shown in this photo. These conduits are not in the plans.

All spar penetrations followed the Van's guidelines.
 

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I found it difficult on my 7 to route wires down the side of the forward cabin. A few were done up under the longeron rail, but I would not recommend it or do it again. It was most easy to route down the L/R of the center, unto the tunnel, then spread at the wing spar to the multiple locations depending on the final destination. It gets crowded going under the fuel pump and neatly routed around the fuel valve tubing. I did route certain wires down the center tunnel aft of the spar. This is where the zip tie bases were riveted or screw fastened to be very sure they remained attached. I used lacing tape 80% in the tunnel as I could not get a zip-tie tool in there.

Static line routed under the cabin rail on the left side. ELT wiring under rail on right side. Pitot down through the spar.

The conflict with side panels down the sides was a concern, YMMV depending on selection. You might get some skin clearance information from your interior people. I did make a plan for where all things would be routed, but not fancy, just a spreadsheet to know how much stuff would be expected to go in each spar hole.

I have a center exit 4>1 exhaust that tends to heat the center, so it was insulated on the exterior. Again YMMV

Have fun.
 
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