Hawker sbsJ16 in 170 ??

[MoonlightVFR]

I need a new battery for 170B

$Just read post on the Hawker SBSJ 16. Going back to 2004.

Advertising claims by mfg are tremendous. Power and long life. Four months w master switch inadvertently left on and was reborn w charger.

Alaska contingent loves them.

My question is why hasn't it been approved? How many years has the " gray market installations" occurred?

I want it but am highly reluctant to do anything unorthodox.

Past history has been purchase new battery and let it die by sulfating. Disuse.


Any comments ,suggestions


Regards

[flat country pilot]

Did you look at or consider a Concorde battery?

http://www.concordebattery.com/

[GAHorn]

Or a trickle-charger?

[blueldr]

For relative;y inactive aircraft batteries, a "Float Charger" from Harbor Freight sells for about five or six bucks. The only bite is that it muct be connacted to a standard 120vac source of power.
If you have an aversion to dealing with Harbor Freight, the same float chargers are available on ebay for a considerably higher price.

[ak2711c]

Its been my experience that the Hawker SBS J-16 battery has been relatively easy to get field approved. The only major requirement for using a sealed battery is you must have over voltage protection in your charging circuit. F. Atlee Dodge and Burl's Aircraft both sell STC'd firewall mounted battery boxes for them that are small and light weight compaired to the stock one. You can use your stock battery box as well if you like, typically we shim the battery to fit snuggly in the box with blue board insulation. They are a great battery with a long life to them. I too have had clients leave the master swtch on for months and have the battery still recover. In my book the best benefit though is how much weight you save by switching to them.
Shawn

[canav8]

Its been my experience that the Hawker SBS J-16 battery has been relatively easy to get field approved. The only major requirement for using a sealed battery is you must have over voltage protection in your charging circuit. F. Atlee Dodge and Burl's Aircraft both sell STC'd firewall mounted battery boxes for them that are small and light weight compaired to the stock one. You can use your stock battery box as well if you like, typically we shim the battery to fit snuggly in the box with blue board insulation. They are a great battery with a long life to them. I too have had clients leave the master swtch on for months and have the battery still recover. In my book the best benefit though is how much weight you save by switching to them.
Shawn

The 170B is not covered under Burls STC I believe at least the B model. It might have changed but F. Atlee is installed on my 170B. I shed 13 lbs over all. It was one of the best STC mods I ever did on 13D. Use a Battery Minder 12248-AA-S3 for a trickle charger and your in business. D

[ak2711c]

That could be, I spoke to Burl last spring at the FedEx trade show in Anchorage and he said he got the battery box STC'd but I didn't ask if it covered the 170.

[GAHorn]

The Harbor Fright "float" charger carries instructions that it is NOT to be left on continuously...nor is it to be used for anything other than standard, flooded-cell batteries. (I.E., don't use it on your aircraft unless you have a standard Gill or other lead-acid battery and even then don't leave it connected continuously.)

[blueldr]

George,
I use the Harbor Freight float charger on my ATV battery up in Idaho while I'm gone for nine months and it seems to work fine after about five years. My daughter, Nancy, uses them on her two BMW cars while she is living in Hong Kong and getting home every two to four months. When I go up to Idaho for the summer I put them on my two Ford Explorers and two Vespa motor scooters at home.
What is supposed to be the problem leaving them on? I can find no instructions on the box concerning leaving it connected for extended periods.

[GAHorn]

Perhaps you're using ordinary lead-acid batteries?
Without PNs it's possible we're talking about different models of chargers... but the two I've personally bought from HF carried the warning in fine-print....which I discovered after one of them burned up my two-month-old $130 Concord RG battery. (Concord also warns of this practice using ordinary chargers.) I don't think the HF "float" chargers really are... they are ordinary trickle-chargers.... In fact, I think they are actually cheap-tool chargers which have been altered to use alligator clips so you can connect them to whatever.)

I'll admit that I don't know all I understand about "float chargers". The old-man in me recalls the standard, cheap "trickle-chargers" (one of which I still have and use that I bought as a young groom from Western Auto) which produce about 1-Amp of unfiltered AC-rectified current to a pair of alligator-clips. Those are intended to top-charge or slow-charge an ordinary lead-acid battery.

Then about ten or so years ago some electrical engineering whiz-kids came up with a square sine-wave "float" charger or "de-sulfurization" charger which supposedly gives a shot of reverse-current intermittently (while keeping the battery top-charged) to upset the sulfurization which takes place inside inactive lead-acid batteries. I got lost reading the magic that supposedly makes that work and causes those devices to cost twenty-times more than my simple Western Auto trickle-charger, which along with the Fortune-Cookie fryer HF sells for $4, will burn up "gel cell" and RG type batteries.

I only wanted to warn others.... you still get only what you pay for ...even if it's imported via the quays of LA.... I don't think the HF charger is the same product as the Whiz-Bang $89 charger that expensive battery-mfrs want you to use. If you buy the Fortune-Cookie model, don't leave it conected to your airplane battery unattended for very long.

[bagarre]

Also, if you get the Concorde battery, respect the terminal torque value.
(That probably goes for all torque settings) 70in/lb isn't a lot of torque but don't think about 'snugging it up a little more'.
The terminals are bronze and they will split if over torqued.
Don't ask how I know

[blueldr]

I don't know anything at all about HF "Float Chargers" either except they seem to keep my small lead/acid batteries in my ATVs and scooters and the lead/acid batteries in my two Ford Explorers fully charged for up to nine months of inactivity.

[GAHorn]

I don't know anything at all about HF "Float Chargers" either except they seem to keep my small lead/acid batteries in my ATVs and scooters and the lead/acid batteries in my two Ford Explorers fully charged for up to nine months of inactivity.

I think the key is your "lead-acid" batteries....not RG or gell cell.

Another option might be the solar-cell trickle chargers that appear on the market at various places. If hot-wired to the battery, they might be a good alternative for airplanes parked outdoors for long periods, leaving the panel on the dash (if you don't have a windshield cover.) Again..be carefull not to overharge, but I doubt many solar chargers will do that.