Fuel Tanks

Tonight we got the tanks pretty near complete before installing the rear baffles. This basically involved painstakingly triple-checking each rivet, and inspecting all the proseal bead lines for consistency and removing any metal chips that might have gotten stuck in there with tweezers. Lastly, it was time to install the capacitive probes I had made. I've chosen to go 100% custom with these, and the plates I've made are similar to (but smaller than) the kit that Van's sells for the RV9 that several others have adapted and converted to work on the RV10. I'll also be designing and building my own controller for these, but that will come at a later time. Basically, installed into each tank is a pair of 1-1/4" wide strip of aluminum sheets positioned vertically near the baffle. One strip attaches to the inboard-most inner rib (#2), and the other attaches to the outboard-most inner rib (#6). They are fastened with three #10-36 nylon screws going into #10 nutplates installed in the ribs, and a few nylon nuts/washers serving as spacers so that the plates are approximately 7/16" away from the ribs. The nylon screws provide electrical isolation from the rest of the tank. On each plate is another #10 nutplate, used to attach a ring terminal and 22-gauge wire to connect the plate to the electrical connector. For the connector, I've chosen a Switchcraft 17280-2PG "Micro-Con-X" available here from Digikey. These are weatherproof/waterproof connectors constructed of nylon, which is not affected by gasoline. After installing the plates and roughing the wires into place, we ended up with this:

The R-inboard capacitive plate installed on its rib

Photo showing the separation of the plate from the rib

The backside of the rib, showing the nutplates with nylon screws coming through

All that's left now is to solder/crimp these connectors into place, and then install the float senders... and we'll be ready to close these babies up for good!