A friend of mine is thinking of doing a firewall-mount Odyssey battery in his 180, and I'm wondering what's out there for him. Atlee Dodge has an STC'd box, Burls has an stc'd tray, Odyssey sells a firewall suitable bracket, and Bill Reid sells a field-approval type arrangement. My 180 has a field-approved home-made box, but he's more interested in buying something that's ready to bolt on.
Dodge's website has a photo & price, Spruce has a photo & price of the Odyssey bracket. I tried Burl's website but no photos or price for his set-up. Maybe someone can post a photo if they've got one. And maybe Bill Reid can post a photo of his. Pricing info appreciated also.

Hotrod...

Cross posting to a thread with an Atlee box that he is selling..

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/community/forum/latest/fs-fa-dodge-firewall-battery-box-reduced-16424

Brian.

I saw that thread, that's kind of what got me thinking about this. I was gonna post my question(s) on there, but decided it'd be bad form to poach on a for sale listing.
Personally, I kind of like the Odyssey bracket-- light, simple, no moving parts. Cheap too at about $30 as I recall. But then there's that field approval thing to go through, which may or may not be a PITA depending on your IA or your FAA inspector.

I don't think it is worth a field approval for a battery box when you can by an STC approved part.

I put the FA dodge box on my 180. Looks good and super easy.

I have done three of them. The first was in about 2002 on a 182B that Bill Reid installed for me. Sold my half of the plane without getting the paper work done. The second was a Burl box complete with STC also in a 182B. The third in a 1956 182 and it was the latest and greatest Bill Reid addition and we did it as a minor alteration with weight and balance change.

Tim

Quickdraw1 wrote:I don't think it is worth a field approval for a battery box when you can by an STC approved part.

If the field-approval-required box or bracket is lighter simpler cheaper (or all of the above) and/or otherwise better than the STC'd box, then I'd say yes it's worth it. For example, the Dodge battery rack is $365, the Odyssey bracket is $39. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Dodge part, just that IMHO simpler is usually better and you can't get much simpler than the Odyssey bracket.
I'm hoping that Bill Reid will speak up and tell me about the set-up he sells.

This is a good discussion.

I installed the Odyssey bracket on the firewall of my pacer as part of a field approval for the Sutton exhaust, it's been working great.

Now with the data contained in AC43-2B being "Approved" it wouldn't be much of a stretch to install the Odyssey bracket with a logbook entry. Sure is a simple setup.

Sam

hotrod180 wrote:

Quickdraw1 wrote:I don't think it is worth a field approval for a battery box when you can by an STC approved part.

If the field-approval-required box or bracket is lighter simpler cheaper (or all of the above) and/or otherwise better than the STC'd box, then I'd say yes it's worth it. For example, the Dodge battery rack is $365, the Odyssey bracket is $39. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Dodge part, just that IMHO simpler is usually better and you can't get much simpler than the Odyssey bracket.
I'm hoping that Bill Reid will speak up and tell me about the set-up he sells.

Hotrod-

Bill Reid installed his firewall forward battery setup in my '57 182 about 4 months ago. I don't have any pics of my install, but you can see it here; http://www.edmaircraft.com/p_ss102-14.htm. When he installed it for me it sounded like he was getting out of the battery box business, but you can check with him. We had to do a Field approval, but it was a breeze and Bill handled all the paperwork.

I did the burl box on my 182. Pretty sure I posted pics in my 182 refurb thread. The 182 is on burls stc was one reason I went with it. One cool part about the burl box is you can install a seaplane mount with the vertical tubes and the battery box will clear it. That is if you buy the seaplane version. I would assume the dodge mount works with seaplanes as well. The Reid mount won't work with a vertical tube float plane mount. Deal killer if I had a 180 or 182 I wanted to floatplane.

PAMR MX wrote:I did the burl box on my 182. Pretty sure I posted pics in my 182 refurb thread......

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/images/ ... 6bcbc3.jpg

I went & found that thread, here's a link to the photo of the Burl's battery box. Interestingly, the battery box on my 180 looks suspiciously like this Burl's box, although the field-approved 337 for mine (installed in 2001) just says "installed .032" stainless steel battery box tray...." -- no mention of Burl or anyone else. I just researched the Burl's STC-- looks like it was issued in 2009, so back in 2002 it woulda been a field approval show. So although the seller told me it was an Atlee-Dodge box (it's not, Dodge's looks completely different), I'd guess mine is a pre-STC Burl box.
I've seen several Odysseys installed (on a Pacer, GlasStar, Scout) with the "clamp" Spruce sells, and I do have to say it's a lot simpler (as well as cheaper) than any of the other mounts I've seen. In my book simpler is usually better, so if I was to do it over again, that's probably how I'd go.
Just for the sake of knowing, I'm curious as to what Burl get's for his box? I checked his website but couldn't find it.

I'm interested in installing one on my 182. I also checked Burls website and couldn't find it.
May have to call them. Their web site may not be updated.

$375 for the seaplane or regular version. Just called reeve air motive who stocks them.