There was some discussions early in 2015 about Forced Aeromotive Tech in Denver and they developed a supercharger, although earlier they did not have an STC for a 180 or 185. I have recently learned that they are now getting field approvals without any problems for 180 / 185s.

http://www.forcedaeromotive.com/product.htm

Anybody had experience with these yet and if so, how did they work and how did you like it?

Thanks!! L

Hey Larry
I think Ernie Smith, Straight Flight, at Centenial, Colo has one stc'd for the 180 also, unless he has sold it. I rode in his 182 with one and it did good.
Happy New Year
Gary

Somewhere there is thread about this. I think bottom line is more weight, more moving parts, and less money in your avgas account.

They caught my attention too. Where I live, it could turn my 182 into a legitimate IFR machine. I rarely file because most of my routes out of here are 14-15k. Oxygen is cheap but horsepower is expensive. Not as expensive as upgrading to a Centurion though.

There was a thread, but not a lot of actual experience. One anecdotal account only. Was hoping there was a little more actual experience to go by since they have indicated to me that they have done a number of installations to date.

G thanks for the other source. Will track that down. U find a 180 yet?

If anyone has done this mod, especially in 180 or 185, would like to hear about it.

Thanks! L

Seems like there was a member on here, Lowflyin G3 or somethin like that, who had a supercharger on his 180 and posted about it some years back.

The TAT STC for my 185 appeals to me, but I'm having a hard time reconciling the price. $40K? It's on my want list, but it'll be a while!

all other things being equal, turbochargers are more effecient than superchargers... however, more power is better than not enough power

Agreed! I'm thinking of selling the T210, but weaning myself off the turbo is holding me back from listing it!

What's the advantage of a mechanically-driven supercharger vs a turbocharger on a flat engine?

I believe Turbo Tech and Tornado Alley offer turbo mods for 180/185's but don't know much about either of them. I have an old issue of Air Progress (March 1979) with an article about an early C180 with Rajay turbo(s). The writer was pretty impressed with the performance, esp up high, but did mention a fuel burn of about 18 gph at the max continuous power setting of 27" / 2500 (whew!). Unfortunately the article doesn't give much info about the turbo mod, or even what model engine it's mounted on. Dunno if it's still flying, at least with the turbos, but the tail number is N7757C in case anyone wants to look into it.

Hotrod:

I would actually prefer the Ray Jay over this. You can turn the Ray Jay off an on. But the Ray Jay is not STCd for my 180, so it would have to be field approval. My discussions with local mechanics in the past have indicated that it would be very difficult to get the field approval.

The guys from FA indicated they are having no problems with field approvals on theirs. Wouldn't agree to doing it unless they would guarantee that they could deliver.

The advantage of belt driven is that there are no internal gears or bearings to go bad and if there are problems it is easily accessible. As pointed out earlier, that also poses difficulty at times though because of other modifications that get in the way of the alignment.

The guy who contacted me from FA was not quoting 40k?? 24k instead.

L

88H wrote:The advantage of belt driven is that there are no internal gears or bearings to go bad and if there are problems it is easily accessible.

That's actually kind of the opposite. Turbos (unless the ray jay is some weird set up) don't have gears, just a connecting shaft that runs through internal bearings. Belt driven centrifugal super chargers require gear ratios, but positive displacement blowers typically do not. All will require internal bearings.

You can get a field approval for an alteration before it is done. If you can't get the field approval then your not stuck with an in approved mod. You might be able to negotiate a nominal fee for the field approval paperwork exercise.