Is a carbon fiber battery tray really a good idea?

[fox88gt]

Noob here, please go easy on me.....

My AQ Revolt 30 is gonna need a new battery tray by the end of this season. Part of me wants to get a nice CF battery tray to replace the thin plastic tray. I am worried about the potential for CF to carry electrical current in case the battery connectors short out on the tray if things go wrong. I've raced on-road RC for quite a while and we do our best to protect our lipo connectors from shorting on the carbon fiber chassis plates on our cars.

Part of me thinks I should build a try out of another material such as balsa.

Whats your take? Do you use a CF tray? Thanks in advance:)

Jeff

[tlandauer]

Balsa is too easily damaged, I have had no problem with CF trays, if CF bothers you, get the FG ones, they are heavier, though.

[fox88gt]

Good call on the balsa, it would have to be really thick sheet to get any strength out of it. Seems like the carbon fiber is the way to go for strength and good looks.

[Rocstar]

The inside of all my hulls are carbon fiber. Use battery caps and just be aware of the the fact that it is conductive and you'll be fine.

[tiqueman]

Fox, welcome to the forums.

Some of the highest quality boat hulls are made completely of carbon fiber so do not worry about a tray. they look great, light and strong. I use the cf trays in all my boats, either from OSE or custom fit trays ive made out of sheet stock. never had one issue.

[Doby]

No tray required....just use good quality velcro attached directly to the hull...thats what my Revolt has.

[Peter A]

I didn't have any cf, but I did have some 5mm acrylic sheet and made myself a battery tray with that. It looks cool being a grey tint with cf in the bottom of the boat. I drilled holes in it to lighten it and epoxyed it in my Pursuit.

[HTVboats]

Much like the insulating coating on wire, the resin that saturates the carbon fiber won't allow the flow of electrons.

[iridebikes247]

If you ever have a boat with an inlay be careful you could short a battery very very easily when putting it into place.

[fox88gt]

Thank you all for the great advice. It sounds like as long as you are careful, the carbon fiber presents no issues. I do also inted to do a CF inlay in this hull when winter hits.