Battery move

[kentuckycucv]

Well I took those big batteries out a couple of years ago and put civilian car batteries in....Recently one of my batteries went bad and while I was messing around I decided to put both batteries on one tray to make some extra room for maybe a veggie oil fuel heater water separator...or something.
Anyway has anybody else tried this or had any bad experiences doing this. Hopefully it will be a helpful mod.

 

[kentuckycucv]

Sorry about the bad pic...but as you can see I moved both batteries to the mount closest to the firewall. They dont quit fit but they seem to be pretty secure.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Slapped myself in the head last summer for not doing that when my original Group 31's died. I put a cold air intake in and had to reorient the front battery. No way you're doing that with Group 31's, have to be a smaller battery like you have.

 

[Recovry4x4]

There is a 1009 near me with 2 Optimas in each tray for a total of 4 batteries. He mentioned something about a gigawatt stereo system inside.

 

[kentuckycucv]

Im thinking just 2 Optima batteries are sufficient... I have one Optima and a regular 800 cca small battery installed. Im planning on getting another Optima,

 

[rodman68]

I am planning moving both group 65 batteries to the rear battery tray myself. Would like to install small metal svo/wvo tank in the front battery tray area with electric fuel pump and a heated filter.

 

[Tnrobocop]

Very nice.

If you could get a better picture it would be much appreciated.

I want to do this to mine.

 

[kentuckycucv]

I got a sharpie and marked the battery cables + and - so that I wouldn't mess anything up... but it didn't help, I turned the batteries a couple of times to get the best fit and of course the cable I grabbed I touched it to the wrong pole and got a big spark! I am so glad I didnt cook anything or blow a fusible link.

 

[rodman68]

We shall call you sparky. remember you should have some space between batteries to keep them cool, looks like in your picture you have a space in between them.

 

[kentuckycucv]

Just got my webb 525 fuel filter/heater/ water separator...It is going where my battery tray was. I might even install an electric fuel pump next to it.

 

[rodman68]

are you going wvo with a small tank also in the old batt tray? Moved my batts to the rear tray but ran out of time trying to figure out how and what to secure them with. Shoot some pix if and when you have a chance. Pretty impressed with this m1009 its been sitting for two months and started up no issues. Need to get moving on this early hunting season getting here real fast. How much was that filter is it coolant heated of electric?

 

[MARCO1031]

I was adjusting my alternator belt and got to thinking about this thread. After looking mine over for a while I decided to give it a shot. I figured it would clean up the engine compartment a little and free up some space for storage under the hood. Here are some pics of of the batteries before the mod.

 

[MARCO1031]

After pulling the batteries out I could see the small tabs on the rear tray that helped hold the original batteries in place. After a test fit it was obvious these would need to be ground or cut off or they could rub a hole in the bottom of the new batteries.

 

[MARCO1031]

Grinding the tabs down was pretty easy. If you try this watch out for the wires going to the blower motor resistor...an angle grinder can make quick work of them. After grinding down the tabs I went ahead and painted the tray. If I had planned more in advance I think I would try some of the spray on bedliner to give the tray a little better protection from corrosion.

 

[MARCO1031]

With the batteries in place I tried to install the hold down bracket...no go. I had to cut away metal on several areas of the bracket in order to get clearance for the cable clamps. Several cuts later and it was good to go. Again I painted the bare metal before final install.

 

[MARCO1031]

After getting the bracket in place I had to make a few changes to the routing of the cables. The front battery ground cable has no problem reaching the new location but it has a bonding lead that is attached to the radiator support that was too short. Rather than extend the lead I decided to relocate the lead to one of the battery tray mount bolts above the fenderwell. That provided enough length to properly attach the battery ground clamp.

 

[MARCO1031]

This is what the tray looks like with all of the cables in place and tied down. There are a few more changes I plan to make before I call this finished. First, as I mentioned earlier, I want to repaint the tray and bracket with a bedliner type coating to give additional corrosion resistance and insulation. Secondly I think I will add some hose around the bracket to provide additional grip between the bracket and the batteries. They seem pretty secure for now but I think more could be done to make sure they don't move when things get bumpy. Third, after reading a suggestion in this thread I need to come up with a way to make some space between the batteries. Right now they are setting right next to each other. I am not sure how necessary this is but it is worth checking into.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

1/4" plywood would work.



Looks good. Those are Group 31's, correct? I need to do this.

 

[MARCO1031]

Now onto putting that newly freed space to work. I want to have additional storage under the hood for spare parts. I grabbed a couple of 50 cal ammo cans to see if they would fit. Bingo! they fit almost perfectly. After adding a piece of pressure treated 5/8" plywood under the cans and turning the bonding leads on the radiator support, so the cans wouldn't rub them, I was able to install the original battery hold down bracket to secure the cans in place. These cans will work great for holding spare parts I don't have to get to often. Not bad for a 2 hour afternoon project.

 

[MARCO1031]

These are group 35 batteries with a dimension of 9 1/16" long by 6 7/8" wide by 8 7/8 high. The group 31 batteries are bigger. They measure 13" long by 6 13/16" wide by 9 7/16" high. The group 31 batteries are more heavy duty and would probably be better in a cold climate but may not work in this configuration. I am in Florida and can get away with the smaller batteries. As for the plywood...the reason I used 5/8 ply was to act as a spacer under the cans. The cans by themselves are too short for the bracket to properly secure so the plywood makes up the difference.