sealed battery- gel or acid ?

[GAHorn]

Bruce quote me correctly if you quote me. Go back and re-read my message. I didn't put words in your mouth or dipict you as you suggested. "You" can also mean "One" as in "anyone".
I did not say that you, Bruce, were "frustrated with the rules to the extreme". I said "to take ...(like if anyone were to take) your frustration with the rules to the extreme..."--(In other words, as if in order to make an example they'd take it to the extreme,...."that because (if one were to") consider (the rules) despicable...(would not justify violating them AND (yet) still (expect) to enjoy legality. Perhaps I used an unfortunate choice of wording in my earlier post.
Eric, call your FSDO and ask them to explain "owner produced" parts and you'll see why if you were an FAA guy you would not take the action you stated.
From the FAA website, regarding Owner Produced parts, :
Editor’s note: Many questions have been asked about owner produced parts. The following question is taken from the Assistant Chief Counsel for Regulation letter dated Aug. 5, 1993.
Question: Does the owner have to manufacture the part himself, in order for the part to be considered an "owner produced" part?
Answer: No. An owner would be considered a producer of a part if the owner participated in controlling the design, manufacture, or quality of the part.
As I stated earlier regarding modifying the purchaed box by acid-proof painting it or modifying it with a mount bracket or "... whatever it takes.....Once it conforms to the original it's an owner produced part as long as the owner did it, or ordered it done under his acceptable-data specification." Go back and re-read it.

[zero.one.victor]

Joe,here in Washington (aka waRshington) we prefer to have wild blackberry pie along with our mouse milk,not cake. But I have to admit I don't drink as much mouse milk as I should. I like it,but it's too darn hard to herd them little critters into the milkin' parlor........
And George,you're right,I don't know as much as maybe I should about the ins & outs of the "owner produced parts" issue. I was under the assumption that that applied to only unavailable parts. I have to admit that there may be some owner produced parts on my airplane,unfortunately I'm just a little behind with my documentation.

Eric

[doug8082a]

Joe,here in Washington (aka waRshington) we prefer to have wild blackberry pie along with our mouse milk,not cake. But I have to admit I don't drink as much mouse milk as I should. I like it,but it's too darn hard to herd them little critters into the milkin' parlor........

Eric

Herdin' 'em is one thing, but how do you milk 'em? Never mind, I don't want to know, but somebody must have very small hands...

[ak2711c]

Just a quick note for you guys about the Odessey battery. About a year and a half ago the feds quit giving field approvals on them. They claim that after years of service in a severe vibration enviroment, the internal plates could fail. I personally have never seen one of these fail and have never found any one who has heard of one failing ether. Not to worry though. Hawker is the manufacturer of the Odessey and they reworked it and beefed it up and gave it a new name. They still make the original Odessey but the new one is called an SBSJ16. This is the only (dry cell, gell cel or what ever you want to call it) that the feds will field approve. However there is one stipulation, you must have an over volt relay installed in your electrical system. Apparently these batterys are sensitive to over voltage. The new battery looks identical to the Odessey just with a new sticker and price tag. About $200 on average. These are really tough batterys and they last a long time. Personally I wouldn't even consider buying anything else. The other big benifit with them is since they are sealed they don't even require a battery box, and you can mount them on there side or even upside down. To give you an idea of how tough these batterys are, my dad took his cub off floats last September and flew it back to his house and parked it. The problem is he left his master switch on. He went out to fly his plane for the first time since then about two weeks ago only to find this out. Just on a wim he put it on the charger for a few hours and it came back 100%. That is over 4 months with the master on in the winter and we have had a lot of -10 to -30 temps this winter. I would have never believed it if I had not seen it.
Shawn

[rudymantel]

The rest of the story...
I received the generic battery box Model VB-25 from Spruce. A nicely made welded aluminum box - cost $130. It included one inch tabs along the entire height of the box, one welded to each rear side. This would not fit on my firewall because of a primer line running along one side of my battery box location. I cut these tabs off, leaving the box dimensionally suited for a -25 battery. However, the box is higher than the Cessna box, resulting in a very tight fit by the engine mount in removing the lid. I considered cutting the height of the box by about one inch but decide to heck with it and renewed my search for a used Cessna box. Most of the scrap yards said they were out of the boxes or had corroded ones.
However, I found and bought a used box in good condition (from a 172) from White Industries for $175. I sprayed its interior with undercoating, painted the exterior and installed it. Placed my new sealed Concorde RG-25XC battery in it.
Completed the annual yesterday and flew the airplane.
Havig "modified" the Spruce box I can't return it.It's a nice box- to fit comfortably in a 170 it should have its height reduced by about one inch.
*
Rudy

[GAHorn]

Ouch, Rudy! I'm sorry that happened. They have their HB model with horizontal mounts that should have worked better, and they also have a PN 11007 that I've seen installed (albeit with field approval) that fit pretty nicely via the original mounts.
It's hard to fault them for not accepting a return if it's been altered.

[N1478D]

"You wouldn't think something that's as heavy as lead, gives off highly corrosive fumes, vents explosive gases, and has the potential to make sparks, would ever be allowed in an airplane. But wet-cell, lead acid batteries (combining all of the above traits) have been with us for years. In spite of the availability of cost effective sealed aircraft batteries, flooded batteries (wet cells) continue to be the norm. Old habits die hard, ..."