Thorp Air Command - T18.net

I thought this would be good to post here- "borrowed from another forum"

Very interesting . From the write up sounds like some other sort of electrical problem was in the mix...voltage reg (failed) , Alternator (failed)...probably stopped when the field was no longer energized . I thought these batteries had a built in "battery monitoring system" that sent pwr to a lite on the panel (you have to install the lite) to notify you of impending doom ! In addition to the warning lite I also thought (I put a lot of thought into this) that the battery would "disconnect in the event of trouble . Maybe not ? Either way good thing he didn't have a thermal runaway !

RB

The article says he did have a thermal runaway, Rich. He also had no overvoltage protection. He didn’t hook up or utilize the warning light system built into the battery. He didn’t turn off the alternator field with the master switch. I’ve sent you a new pair of reading glasses, Priority Mail.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

I installed an EarthX battery when I removed the battery/box/contactor/aux power recepticle from behind the baggage compartment.
LiFePo4 batteries should be mounted outside of the passenger compartment. Fortunately, T-18's vent everything forward of the firewall (engine heat and battery fumes) out the sides. So I mounted the EarthX high on the left side of the firewall.
I'm not done yet, but I will hook up the warning light and add over-voltage protection.
The firewall is getting full with the addition of the battery and the Airdog filter mount...
I should be spending more time on the wing panel replacement, but these upgrades are the fun stuff.

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Scott Emery
EAA Chapter 326
T-18 N18TE

John : Say again LOUDER ! Having trouble hearing you , let me put on my reading glasses and see if that helps ?

RB

As the article says, any battery can be expected to give similar results if given similar circumstances. My introduction to what happens when a battery gets overcharged happened about 40 years ago when my brother and I blew up a standard 6 volt lead acid tractor battery trying to jump start it with the pickup. It didn’t take long and it was a pretty amazing explosion. Dad was not pleased.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Very good article in last months Kit Planes magazine on the Earth X battery. From what I read they are very good batteries if you do the installation correctly like pointed out in the above document. Save a lot of weight. Was a good, informative article.