Ian, I haven't deided on final orientation of the batteries yet. I just set them up on the tray last night for a test fit of the hold down brackets. I was considering having them facing each other because of concerns with the front left battery's positive terminal hitting the hood and fender area. However, I don't think it will be a problem with the terminals I chose, and will also cover them with a terminal/post protective cover.

 

Doesn't the (+) of battery1 go to the (-) of battery2? If so, facing each other would mean you could use a bar, and no cable. I just ate lunch so it's food-coma time (that's my excuse for being stupid on this one)

 

Look at the picture, when the terminals face each other, its + to -. If you connected them like, you'd have lots of melted bar and exploded battery

 

Brendan, if you were making a 24v system, you would do it that way. But they need to be inline for the 12v system.

 

Rick is correct. Wired in parallel, not a series. Follow your stock cables and you'll see the two positive posts are connected together.

 

Just like a jump-start.

 

Batteries are in place, brackets finalized, and cables are done. Just need to get some loom today and I'll have some pics of how it turned out. I'm pleased at how it turned out, considering they're black and yellow plastic boxes with wires coming off them. Not a whole lot to be done different, other than completely relocating them to say under or in the bed...which I did consider doing, but had no need to.

Going to try and get the power distribution blocks in today and possibly start putting the front end back toghether. It might actually start to look like a truck again soon.

 

Have you considered relocating the batteries to under the truck, or in the box?

theres piles of room under the driver and passenger sides, under the truck.

apparently guys who move the batts out of the engine bay they last 2- 4x longer.

should be the same distance to the starter....

 

Yes, I did consider relocating them, but didn't feel like messing with it right now, as they would have to go in the bed somewhere. I just didn't see the need to relcoate them. Do you see something I'm missing and a potential problem with how they're setup? I am short on sleep, so I could have missed something obvious.

My passenger side of the truck on the underside is full of train horns, air tank, and compressor. No room for batteries under there. Trust me, I looked at it before I had my stock tray modified.

I'm also not 100% comfortable having the batteries down low, just hanging off the frame, exposed to whatever. I'd want to build a protective box for them if I moved them to the framerail.

Maybe in the future, I could get some Optimas and tuck them up tight under the bed or laying on their side under the tool box. For now, unless there's a compelling reason for me to change how they're setup, they're staying put.

 

Another reason to leave those batteries like that is because they cant be mounted sideways unlike the Optimas (which are also like 30% smaller!!) that can be mounted in any position.

 

Another reason to leave them: If you move them now that is that much longer before we get to hear it startup

 

Kinda off topic, but how is your compressor and air tank holding up from winter/road salt?? I've got the tank and compressor waiting to be installed. I'm thinking I want to intall them in my bed, probably the compressor inside the tool box to keep it out of the rain, and tank just outside. I don't want either getting eaten up from rust/road salt.

Oh yea... nice work on the truck! I'd be doing it exactly how you are, making it look like a factory install. But I don't know if I'd still have the patience you do!! Awesome job!!
When you make your road trip for the break in, head north!

 

My sentiments exactly. Nothing wrong with them in the engine compartment. That is where they are designed to go. They are better off away from the heat but only marginally so.

 

Visually, they are holding up fine. However, they have only been through one winter, and they haven't been run in over 4 months now. Also, I typically don't drive the truck when the weather gets slick, as to avoid the chance of some idiot hitting me. The Wrangler gets the call to duty when it snows & ices -- plus it fits in the garage, so no windows to clear off. Oh, and the other factor is they don't use chemicals on the road here in Columbia, but use cinders instead, which makes an awful mess of the vehicles and roads, but doesn't tear up the roads as bad.

Depending on when the rest of my parts get here, I may not have time for much of any trips to get it broken in before I head to Indy. I've got to get back to my parents house for sure, but I don't know if there'll be time for much more than that.

As for progress over the last couple days, all I can say is making and running wires and battery cables is quite time consuming. However, it's all done now. I got the batteries cleaned and all the tray parts painted. Makes a lot of difference in looks. Made all new battery cables, both power and ground.

I tied the batteries together, then ran one power cable from one side to the distribution blocks (see below) and the other power cable to the starter. I ran two more cables off the starter, one going to the alternator the other going to the relay on the passenger side fenderwell which is where the chassis gets all it's power. For ground, I took one battery to a existing ground on the driver's side fender and the other battery I took to the driver's side of the engine block. On the passenger side of the engine, I took a ground cable from the engine to the frame and then just for good measure I took one more ground from that same spot on the frame to an existing chassis ground on the upper passenger side of the firewall. So my grounds should be good. I also coated all the lugs and ground bolts in Noalox for a good connection and to help prevent corrosion. I did hook everything up to test it, and the underhood light came on, so it appears that things should be working.

Here you can see my cable ends, that were crimped, soldered, wrapped in rubber electrical tape, then heat shrinked. They should be pretty solid. The other pic is the final placement of the batteries.




I also got the power distribution blocks today. They're from Streetwires, and actually pretty nice. They have fuse holders built into them, so that means there's no more need for an inline fuse. That also meant I needed to run several new wires for power, taking the fuse out of them. I have several things that were pulling power directly from the battery that are all now coming out of the new blocks.

Here are the fuseblocks, looking at it from the engine side. The top block has a 2 gauge wire coming directly from the battery going into it on the left side. Out of the right side is a 4 gauge wire going to the smaller block. Out of the bottom of the big block is my sub amp wire on the left and the power to the Cummins ECM on the right. The small block has the 4 gauge wire feeding it from the big block, and the wires coming out of it are from top to bottom, fuel pump, headlight 1, headlight 2, fog lights, and air horn relay.




Tomorrow, if it's not raining, I should be able to get the radiator, IC, and the rest of the front end back together. Then I can get my radiator hoses hooked up and start figuring out the mount for my coolant filter behind the front bumper.

 

Looks good Jeremy. Are those block aluminum? If they are use some Nolox on the wires going into them. When you have copper and aluminum will cause electrolysis over time. You can also put a this coating over the block itself to help prevent the aluminum from pitting.