its more about changing, but adding is fun too!

bill, funny you mentioned that, we were just talking about airbrakes on our trucks at work, trying to figure out how to rig something up so we could just have the sound of purging air......lol

 

Bummer on the battery boxes. I have no plans of ever going away from my group 31 batteries! I am gonna be mounting my batteries above the t-pipe in front of my tool box. I just want some sort of protect from the weather but not completely closed in with the stacks due to heat.

 

i like the box that is pictured on the previous page. i'd like to see some more pictures of it.

 

X2 can we see some pics mounted under the truck? PLease??

 

i have been running several months without a box and amazingly they have stayed very clean. i have not once even rinsed them off. i was going to build a once i got them mounted but i dont feel the need to. granted my truck is used to pull and haul and not so much for offroad or farm duty. what i am going to install is a mud flap of sorts that fits right in front of the battery to help protect from stuff coming off the tire.

it was a gorgeous day here in GA and i while i was out playing i snapped a couple more shots of my truck and battery project.







-cutts-

 

wow, they sit right out in the open. hmmmm.... i like the idea but i dont like how they sit in there.... dangit...........

 

yea, like i said... thats my only and biggest complaint. i do plan to make an adjustable tray/box to move it down when i need to service the batteries and move it up and out of the way otherwise. i am not worried about them at all seeing as she's just a road queen. a buddy of mine did this same project on his dodge and he built a crossmember b/t the framerails and set the batteries in it. now yes it is nice and out of the way but to even bolt the cables down he has to fight the batteries under the truck. not worth it to me.

have any ideas i am open to them!

-cutts-

 

i really like the idea and thats a decent spot for them, i just hate to see it sittin so low.

 

Alright so I moved my batteries today. This is all in order to do on board air like Cutts. I have the compressor mounted but that is for another thread. I chose the area above my y-pipe of my stacks in front of my tool box. Its wasted space but it now holds my batteries. I built a support to set the group 31 batteries.

This straddles the pipe and attaches to the bed of the truck. I was concerned with heat so I screwed some aluminum flashing used on house roofs to the bottom of the bracket to shield the battery. Also the treated plywood in the bottom of the tray also helps. J-hooks and some aluminum straps hold the batteries down.



Up to this point this mod was free but now we look into the cable! I used 2 ought cable that ended up being welding cable with nice thin strand copper and REALLY thick insulation. I bought it used on ebay. 30 foot of cable for $70. Good price. I was thinking I was going to have some left over but I needed every INCH!! I ran the positive cable to the starter and then use the original starter wire to carry power up to the engine compartment. The negative cable is run up to the same lug at the timing cover that the stock negative cable goes to. So on my crew cab that took all of 30 foot of cable. I am undecided whether to leave the cable draped over the top of the front of the bed or to cut a whole in the front and run the cables through it to the batteries. Time will tell.

I haven't redone any thing in the engine compartment yet so that will come later. I am quite happy with how this turned out. And time will tell how the batteries fare in this area.

 

what about the right side under bed theres alot of room there to and yuo wouldnt see them there if its done right

 

looking good!

 

For me I didn't want to use that space cause if I ever put my topper back on I pull the stacks off and run my side pipe with goes right through that area and bolts to the frame and the bottom of the bed. Then on the left side is where I plan to put my air tank.

 

oh thats work good there to good point