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Old 04-17-2015, 07:57 AM   #1
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House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

Need some help on this one. How can I make the battery cradle easily accessible to check the water in the batteries every month or so? and my mount turned up a little short of the bolt holes. Any suggestions? nothing obvious is coming to mind. I really do not want to cut a hole in the floor.







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Old 04-17-2015, 08:03 AM   #2
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

If you have not yet purchased new batteries, I would recommend AGM type batteries. Mount anyway you want and never have to check water levels.

Maybe someone else has a solution for a drop down. I have given serious thought about an access hatch through the floor.

Interested to see what ideas float on this.
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Old 04-17-2015, 09:49 AM   #3
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

There are battery tender caps that keep a reservoir of water so you don't have to check levels as often. If you already have regular batteries to use, check those out.

How about welding some pipe sections on both the frame and battery support, then slide a rod through to support - like a big hinge pin. That way you could pull the pins and lower it with a floor jack.

You could also build a side frame with slots for the whole thing to drop down using a similar concept to this:


You would just have to have one on each side in your case.
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Old 04-17-2015, 12:22 PM   #4
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

My vans PO attacked the problem from another direction, now I can service the batteries standing up.







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Old 04-17-2015, 01:51 PM   #5
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

^^ that is cool! I assume it's properly vented and sealed?
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Old 04-17-2015, 03:24 PM   #6
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

Viejo nice setup on batteries what is the material you use on the flooring?
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Old 04-17-2015, 04:06 PM   #7
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

All of this work was done by previous owner.

It appears he just cut thru the SMB flooring and saved the cut-out for the door on a piano hinge. Then he cut thru the van body floor and used a sheet of some random sheet metal to cover the lower hole with a screw in each corner. The whole thing closes up flush with the floor under the rug; you never know it's there.

Venting? Well, it's open to road air underneath. They sure collect enough road dust to be sure of that. Although none of the 3 layers on top, (tin cover, 1/2" wood door, rug), are perfectly air tight I think it's sufficient. The interior is usually well vented because of propane appliances and wet dogs. It's been 5 years and 44k miles and no hydrogen explosions so far.

If anyone needs more detailed images of the floor cuts, I can do that.
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Old 04-17-2015, 05:09 PM   #8
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

I thought about doing that Viejo. That is a cool set up, if you don't have a cabinet there already.

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Old 04-17-2015, 06:20 PM   #9
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

Second the AGM and never check the levels. My house battery tray is similar but unbolts, however it's a jigsaw to get it in and when you're dealing with 110lb 4D batteries (or 220 in my case!) dropping them and putting them back is no easy task.
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Old 04-17-2015, 10:13 PM   #10
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Re: House battery tray mounting -- suggestions needed

You could try these:

http://hydrocapcorp.com/info.htm

or https://flow-rite.com/battery-watering/ ... /qwik-fill
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