Relocating the battery to the cargo area

[aintright]

i've got a question about this... ok so i understand why you vent the batter if it is in a sealed box, but where do you vent it to? do you have to run it outside of the cab.

i'm planning on doing this in my build but mine won't be in the cab, rather behind it after the chop, just trying to figure out where to vent the battery to.

 

[5-90]

i've got a question about this... ok so i understand why you vent the batter if it is in a sealed box, but where do you vent it to? do you have to run it outside of the cab.

i'm planning on doing this in my build but mine won't be in the cab, rather behind it after the chop, just trying to figure out where to vent the battery to.

Just vent it outside the passenger bay - the idea is that all rechargeable cells using a lead-acid basic chemistry are going to outgas hydrogen under charge.

Hydrogen isn't exactly conducive to supporting life (although it's a far more active gas than oxygen!)

Hydrogen is also lighter than air, so it's going to collect around your head first.

Most people that want to run the battery in the cargo area, I end up telling them to just run the vent line out through the wheelhouse and call it good. It just needs to terminate outside the passenger area.

If you're doing a "truggy" and you're going to have a bulkhead between you and the battery, you just need to nail the thing down. Ventilation solves itself when there's a bulkhead between you and the battery - since you're not in the same compartment.

 

[stumpXJ]

I did this for my dual battery set-up, and use 2 ga wire. I also ran mine through the passenger side rocker area. I just vented my battery out through my rear lower quarter panels, since i cut them any way (battery is in that pocket on the right side cargo area).

I use a Xantrex Pathmaker 100 for the charging/isolating duties. I run my front winch off the front red top, and I run my rear winch and all other non OEM accessories from my rear battery. Works very well for me, had it set-up like this for a little over a year now.

 

[StealthXJ]

Just vent it outside the passenger bay - the idea is that all rechargeable cells using a lead-acid basic chemistry are going to outgas hydrogen under charge.

Hydrogen isn't exactly conducive to supporting life (although it's a far more active gas than oxygen!)

Hydrogen is also lighter than air, so it's going to collect around your head first.

Most people that want to run the battery in the cargo area, I end up telling them to just run the vent line out through the wheelhouse and call it good. It just needs to terminate outside the passenger area.

If you're doing a "truggy" and you're going to have a bulkhead between you and the battery, you just need to nail the thing down. Ventilation solves itself when there's a bulkhead between you and the battery - since you're not in the same compartment.

Yes, that's correct about venting. You MUST vent it to the outside. The Optima's outgas and not only is hydrogen "not conductive to supporting life", that isn't the bigger issue, which is IT'S EXPLOSIVE!!.

Odyssey's (and the Sears Platinums' which are the same) are the only, normally retail commercially available battery, that you can safely mount inside without venting.



Fred

 

[aintright]

awesome! thank you. i kind of figured that when everyone was just talking about venting it, just wanted to double check.

when i do move the battery it'll be behind the new bulkhead, so i'll just get one of those $10 battery boxes from summit or where ever and make a mount for it. then it's just figuring out the routing and how many thru terminal connectors i'll need

 

[NDMstang65]

Yes, that's correct about venting. You MUST vent it to the outside. The Optima's outgas and not only is hydrogen "not conductive to supporting life", that isn't the bigger issue, which is IT'S EXPLOSIVE!!.

Odyssey's (and the Sears Platinums' which are the same) are the only, normally retail commercially available battery, that you can safely mount inside without venting.



Fred

There are other sealed AGM batteries that are fine to have inside of the vehicle as well..they're just expensive. Stinger has a dry cell that doesn't vent (or used to), Kinetik and Powermaster also come to mind.

Personally I use wire from Shok Industries 1/0 wire as it is bang for the buck hard to beat and beats paying big money to Jeg's for a 2awg kit with questionable jacketing. I use all Shok wire in pretty much everything I do car audio related, works just the same for winches etc.

 

[Explorer 1]

I added a second battery to my set-up to help with the power draw when I have the refg. running and also to power the 110 inverter. I used the dry cell model and had to lay it on its side in order to clear the platform when it's lowered.

These pics show the fuse and the isolator.

I ran the battery lines through the unibody frame rails which seemed to work well.

Hope this helps,

Fred
Explorer 1

 

[StealthXJ]

There are other sealed AGM batteries that are fine to have inside of the vehicle as well..they're just expensive. Stinger has a dry cell that doesn't vent (or used to), Kinetik and Powermaster also come to mind.

Personally I use wire from Shok Industries 1/0 wire as it is bang for the buck hard to beat and beats paying big money to Jeg's for a 2awg kit with questionable jacketing. I use all Shok wire in pretty much everything I do car audio related, works just the same for winches etc.

If you want the best get one of the Hawker SBS series (like the 60)
These are fully certified aircraft mainship monoblocks.


I have some that I got from work and will be setting them up later.



Fred

 

[dan89XJ]

I too want to go with a battery installed in the passengers compartment - I want to go with a big sears platinum battery. Great ideas here.. so far I am thinking of going with welding cables though the frame rails, and getting that ebay 400 amp circuit breaker - altho, those do look too good to be true for the price. Anyone have any opinions about them or other good known options ? Also I plan on running a winch up front, so I'll need more than 400 amps, how about 2 of those 400 amp in parallel ?

 

[falcon1235]

Side note group 31 optimas have a small spot to conect a peice of tube to vent the battery due to some heavy duty trucks mount the batteries under the pasanger seat IE d31a and d31t also have a 75 ahr capaicity as compaired to 55 ahr on group 34/78

 

[dieselenthusiast]

Excellent thread. Lots of good info in here. Subscribed.

 

[DanMan2k06]

Explorer 1, take some pics of your cargo area! I wanna see some more of that flip down cover.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

Explorer 1, take some pics of your cargo area! I wanna see some more of that flip down cover.

you might want to PM him, that post is almost 2 years old