Attaching battery to engine mount
 

I have a Kangke CAP232 120 and am running a Saito 180 in it. I'm guessing it will need 5 ounces of nose weight to balance. So I'd like to attach my 6 ounce 1700Mah NiMh battery to the underside of the engine mount. I'm thinking of just getting 4 longer bolts that thread into the the engine mount and use the excess thread on the bottom side to hold a ply deck to the underside of the mount/engine. I'll use lock nuts on the excess thread to attach the deck. I'll tie wrap the battery to the decking with foam under the battery. The question is will the stock aluminum engine mount handle the extra 7 ounces of weight from the battery and decking/foam? Should I instead attach one side of the decking to the firewall and the other side to the engine mount so I don't have the entire battery hanging on the mount?

Thanks

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

I had the same set up with a Sig Cap ARF and a Saito 180. Needed about the same amount of nose weight.

Do not mount your battery to the engine mount. Its not that the mount would suffer, but your battery could have a problem. That Saito 180 is a shaker. Batteries hate this. I mounted my battery up against the fire wall and added weight to the motor mount with some epoxy glue.

Tonyc

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

Yeah I agree, I'd hate to have a connection in the battery pack shake loose. Or worse, the whole battery vibrate off the mount and fall out. The firewall mounts seems like it would be more solid and fool proof. I was trying to get it as far forward as possible to not have to add any more lead but that would be pushing the reliability factor (and increasing the crash factor).

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

Nimh is more susceptible to vibration damage compared to Nicd, as per rcbatteryclinic

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

Depending on how you mount your battery, you might consider placing some silicone fuel tubing between it and the firewall to minimize shock from engine vibrations. Here's something I've tried for similar installations (not for batteries). There are many variations of this and this one is really simplistic, but you probably get the idea.

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

It's not the connection or the physical loss of the battery that's a concern. Batteries are susceptible to internal damage due to excessive vibration.

RE: Attaching battery to engine mount
 

Cool idea. I was just going to tie wrap the battery to the firewall with a piece of foam under it. The tubing is good too.