Dual Battery Tray solution (home brew fab)

[Chuck Brown]

Evening Fellas,

Well, it was a heck of a day as I took a few hours off from the Tremclad paintjob to tie up some other loose ends, including electrical and trim installation. I'll try and keep this one brief, as I know I tend to run sorta long in the tooth in some of my explanations, but during the last hour of the night as I was staring into my engine bay and smoking cigarettes trying to come up with a solution as to how I'm going to find the real estate to install my second Optima battery, it came to me.

See, I had been looking at the problem wrong...I had been looking for available space that would fit the battery and not interfere with anything else. What I needed to do was CREATE real estate where none presently existed. While most guys would have cut a drop-in hole in an inner fender, I wasn't feeling full on confident about the sheet metal's ability to suspend the weight of a yellow top amidst the force and impact of sudden vertical motion.

So, here's what I did and it required no modification to existing sheet metal. Now, keep in mind, its not exactly "slick" looking as I really had no plan moving forward, and was letting this thing build itself based on: A.) Required Battery Size B.) External Space Limitations C.) Available Mounting Points.

Using a bunch of short flat stock I had laying around the shop, I took out the battery tray from the passenger side and used it as a "mold" to build up a mounting bracket. The tray was popped out and put back into service and I was left with a perfectly dimensioned new frame which could be taken out when I need to access hard to reach components like the fuel filter for example.

I'll close my yap now and wheel out the pics:



I dont know if you can make it out, but there are three tabs, each with a mounting hole that will allow this frame to bolt right up to A.) the existing upper radiator mount B.) the existing bolt hole that ties in the inner fender front to the inner front grill support panel and finally C.) a short 1" drilled tab which will bolt directly to the top of the wheel well (after the only hole to be drilled is made).

Heres what Im talking about:



The end result is a unit which can easily come in and out, requires the creation of just one new hole and is as stiff and rigid as a prom nite ride home.

I hit it with a coat of Tremclad Black Matte (because I have an oversupply of the stuff these days) and will post pics of the finished install tomorrow, so even if this doesnt work for any of you, maybe it can inspire some budding young FSJ'er to look at the problem in a new light and come up with their own way around this problem.

Thanks for the read Gents,

Chuck Brown

[HD_JEEP]

Looking forward to the end result..

[Brizio]

X2!

[SnowShoe]

Likin this....give us more.....

[Chuck Brown]

Thanks as always Fellas, I''ll try and keep the fabrication talk short and too the point so I don't put anybody to sleep, although I'm sure battery tray discussion is prolly exciting to somebody in the battery field, I fully respect that it may not be any of you.

Here's what I did, since this was my first time building one of these and I sort of did it on a whim and without any planning.

In order to get the tray shape, I actually used my original battery tray from the passenger side as the "mold" and just marked and cut flat stock around it and then framed in the sub supports and tack welded the upright that bolts into the radiator support in order to get the right angle and fit. Its not an exact 90* fit, as I wanted one side of the "tray" portion to sit on the inner fender. You'll see why.

I then drilled a hole in a length of the same flat stock and cut it down to about 1.5" on the horizontal band saw. This will serve as the mounting tab at the corner closest to the driver.

With the completed tray, tab and upright rad support member tack welded together, I placed a longer piece of flat stock from the corner closest to the power steering pump and ran it diagonally from the lowest point of the rad support mount and marked/trimmed the excess.

The only mod I made to any factory sheet metal was to drill a single hole in the inner fender for the short legged mounting tab.

Now, because words are boring and pics are where the real action is at, lets stop with the chatter and make with the pics:
Hopefully you fellas can see whats going on here and see where the assembly bolts into the existing holes.



Here it is fully loaded with the weight of the battery. Along the way, whenever I had to mark out for drilling, I would first load up the tray to make sure everything was where it *should* be, so that I wouldn't have any rattling and chatter once this rig goes operational in the rough stuff.



Is she pretty? Naw, not really...think of it in terms of being a functional prototype and I figure Ill have to eventually make another one when I do the J200. In the meantime, even though this version isn't quite polished, maybe it might give somebody inspiration to do it themselves, rather than take the angle grinder to perfectly good inner fenders.

The downside, I'll have to relocate the rad overflow jug, but I dont plan on losing any sleep as Im using one from another vehicle seeing how I couldnt figure out how the one that came with my rig could possibly bolt up in the previous configuration, anyway. (It looked like it was built for the right hand side, anyway based on the contour.)

Thats all I got, boys. Thanks for the read.

Chuck Brown

[Stupified]

Cool stuff as always Chuck. Is there enough clearance under the P/S pump bracket when the motor torques ?

[Chuck Brown]

You make a darn fine point and admittedly the issue of flex only occurred to me midway through, but by that point I was pretty much committed-LOL!

As it sits now, I'm guessing I've got maybe between an inch and 1.5" between the two, and am still not sure how much lateral movement I can expect when I punch the skinny pedal. If it is going to lead to a collision, I may be able to cut some relief slots in the bracket bolt holes to gain a little room and move the bolts forward. If that's not enough, its really not all that hard for me to bang out a nearly identical copy in just over an hour. (Add another hour to polish and trim.)

Something I didn't mention yet was that depending on where in the tray that the battery sits, Ive a couple inches of play in all directions, not knowing for sure if the round hood stiffeners would interfere, since I couldn't really place weight on the prototype until it was bolted up.

I'll follow through like you pointed out soon, and let you know the results!

Chuck Brown

[Chuck Brown]

If I CAN make the design work, Im also considering this. I dont want to get ahead of myself, so lets see if she survives the flex test first!



Chuck Brown

[Stupified]

With the AMC motor, you should keep that space for the extra quart of oil
If it works out, can you share the dimensions ? I just cabled up for dual batteries this weekend, but haven't cut yet. Your design looks great.

Originally Posted by Chuck Brown

If I CAN make the design work, Im also considering this. I dont want to get ahead of myself, so lets see if she survives the flex test first!



Chuck Brown

[Chuck Brown]

LOL, that is actually genius!!!!!!!!!

I'm prolly down about a quart and a half with the truck sitting idle in the shop for the past 2 years (with occasional startup) with tranny fluid being the REAL geyser!

Seriously, it makes perfect sense, and I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. Not a problem on the specs, give me til the weekend and I'll measure everything out, as I really only did it by eye and I'm sure that I could do better if I could find my tape measure.

Chuck Brown

[serehill]

I 've seen a J 10 that had a mod similar to this where the original battery box was removed & a dual side by side was added there to minimize battery cable but this one is a great idea. especially if you're swapping sides.

[Aaron707]

Wow thanks for sharing this great idea! I have been thinking about adding a second battery since I got my jeep and now I need to get out there and try this.

[COLOFIREMAN]

Great Idea!!

[ki4alb]

Awesome I love it

[Chuck Brown]

Evening Fellas,

Between the routine headaches of life, project setbacks and getting sidetracked by some recent travel, I managed to find some time tonight to scratch out the layout for the V1.0 auxiliary battery tray. Now, before you scroll down to look, be warned that I'm a ham fisted, technical simpleton when it comes to using a mouse and keyboard for the purpose of sketching out fabrication drawings...seriously, so you have my deep apologies in advance.

I tried my hand at Google Sketchup, but after burning through an hour of frustration, I threw in the towel and just went with the old standby...Microsoft Paint. Since I'm used to just sketching out my plans on a giant 4x4 sheet of cardboard with a sharpie and a straight edge, you'll notice the crude resemblance to some of my earlier stuff that I drew while sitting on the shop floor.

Also, some dimensions are missing, partly because I forgot to take pics (I'm no Annie Lebowitz, either) and partly because I scabbed together and built this design within the space of 90 minutes and dont think I even picked up my tape measure once-I simply built everything to fit. In any event, I promise that Version 1.2 will be a lot better and the final product should be a bit tighter...again, this one just happened to turn into a functional prototype.

With all the babble out of the way, here goes:



The next version may have a narrower tray and maybe I'll incorporate some sort of battery hold down system, but to be honest I really haven't invested too much time in thinking about it lately. If the next version is something I feel like I can stand behind and not have to hide my face in public, I may take a night to pound a few out if anybody here is interested.





Thats all I've got for tonight boys, I've got to go work on the plow truck now.

Chuck Brown

[Stupified]

Thanks for the drawing ! That makes more sense now as to the mounting of it. Nice work as always.