I started to notice some weakening of the battery tray on my Velox after only 14 flights, and then on flight 15, the wood broke off near one of the straps. I'm definitely guilty of strapping my batts in nice and taught, however I do think there could be a little more wood on the battery tray to better support the common (and big!) 6s5000-5300 battery packs used on this plane.
First, prior to mods today:
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You can see from the arrow the piece that broke, and also that the center wood piece isn't even the same width as the Velcro.
So, I pulled up my Velcro to get ready to improve... And then started thinking what I could do.
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Out of the corner of my eye, sat the broken front end from my first 92" Edge... With it's nice ply fuel/battery tray:
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So I cut off the center piece to reinforce the Velox, and laid it on top to test fit. Perfect!
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Then, I put some painters tape over the holes I'd use for my straps, and then covered the Velox tray with epoxy, and put the new plank down, and rested a few batts on it for some weight to keep it flat and in contact:
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Getting the straps back through was a challenge, but having a flexible pick-up claw helped greatly, as I was able to use it to grab the strap and feed it through:
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It came out perfect!
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I feel MUCH better about my batteries staying in my plane now, and only gained MAYBE an ounce of weight.