I already have a brass tail wheel and, since the Stemme is certificated
and the charging system is designed for lead/acid batteries, there won't
be any LiFePO4 batteries installed.Â* I am, however, looking at using a
LiFePO4 as a portable battery which I can plug in when needed, isolated
from the other batteries and charging system, of course.

On 11/16/2018 6:36 PM, Michael Opitz wrote:
At 00:25 17 November 2018, Mike the Strike wrote:
On Friday, November 16, 2018 at 11:45:04 AM UTC-7, Dave Walsh
wrote:
At 17:37 16 November 2018, Emir Sherbi wrote:
A plastic container with concrete?

Eh? What is wrong with just leaving the existing battery in the
tail? I've several "dead" lead acid batteries from the days I
owned a DG400: they're now nearly 20 years old, all are
perfect physically, no swelling, no leakage....
Yep - my Discus 2 tail battery sat unused in the Arizona heat for
ten years
and remained intact with no leaks. Using that weight is a lot
easier than
reducing the mass ahead of the CG!

Mike

When I went to a LiFePo battery for my main power because of the
current drain from the modern instruments, I found that the lead
acid tail battery didn't provide enough power to last as long as I'd
like for a true backup to last. My solution was to buy a second
LiFePo battery and install it next to the main one in the wheel well
area battery compartment in my D-2b. I have looked for a LiFePo
battery that fits in the tail fin, but the only ones that I found were
frightfully expensive. I also imagine that a LiFePo tail battery would
be a lot lighter than a lead-acid one as well, and that would
necessitate adding other weights somehow. What I did, was to find
a used solid brass tail wheel hub on the German want ads, and
utilized that to replace the SH plastic hub. This moves the tail
weight to a lot lower point on the boom, which is a good thing in
case of a ground loop. The only bad thing is that the glider weight
and balance is now set up just for me, and if I want to let a lighter
person fly it, then we have to add seat weights. If I were still using
the tail battery for weight, then all I'd have to do would be to
remove it, and the lighter pilot wouldn't have to deal with extra
weights in the cockpit.

RO


--
Dan, 5J