"Aaron Coolidge" wrote in message
...

I think Piper did it this way because the battery is in the tailcone, not
just on the other side of the firewall,

Many Cessna's, including my 182, have the battery behind the baggage
compartment.


As other have pointed out, Cessna airplanes have a small fuse right next
to
the battery to run the clock and the hobbs meter

I found this out the hard way. I had a leak in the rear window. It rained
and the water ran down and onto the master contactor, shorting it out and
turning it on, rendering the master switch on the panel useless. I learned
from this that my battery will run the turn coordinator and some instrument
lights for about 19 hours before it goes dead.