I’m done. Its mounted in my trunk and its not going anywhere. The front has a nice big spot where the battery used to be and my trunk is a little bit more full.
Unfortunitally I don’t have a digital camer here at home, so pictures are going to have to wait until tommorrow when I can use my coworkers camera. BUT THERE WILL BE PICTURES.
I’ll describe how I did it then too, since pictures a worth a thousand words, I won’t have to type that much. Total cost was around $30 for 15 feet of 1 guage wire (NAPA didn’t have 2 guage, next size up was 4) and two more battery terminals plus the piece of sheet metal I bought from ACE. The stock battery box works great for holding the battery.
Well the pictures will show you best but I’ll try to tell you how with words. ACE sells a piece of metal that is about 2 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick. They sell it in lengths of 3 feet and 6 feet. It also has 1/2 inch holes down the center the whole length of it.
What I did was bend this into a “U” shape over my battery and just bolted it the trunk floor. Thats it. The battery moves very little, and is held down very firmly.
Originally posted by AMERIKAN Steve, why didn’t you just use your whole original battery setup with the holddown brackets and all?
Because the rods that hold the stock battery tie down have a curve at the end. I figured it would be easier to do what I did than to try to rig up something for those rods to latch into. Plus it was corrodded and well…just plain yucky poo poo.
Steve, I am going to do this soon and I took out the battery holder from the engine compartment so I could use those holddowns. I think I may just get them powdercoated black because I have a red GSR and that would look ‘yuckie poo poo’ in my hatch area. I was looking into the spare tire compartment (don’t drive my car past my free AAA+ 100 mile tows anyway)
but I think it is too shallow for my Optima. Has anyone put theirs in there?
I got the box from summit and test fitted it where the spare tire would go and like you said… it’s kinda tall. I don’t know if my optima will fit in that box either… I still have to test fit that…
I was considering putting mine in the spare tire compartment too. I believe I could fit it in and keep the spare tire. But, as Amerikan said, the depression where the spare tire sits is not as deep as a battery. But w/ a little creative thinking I’m sure an adequate solution could be reached. This would get the battery even lower to the ground. nice! Otherwise, regular trunk level is still lower than it sits under the hood.
Anyway, I’m going to do this too soon so I’d like to see the pics!
Eric, I got the box from Summit too. The Optima will fit in the box but the box will not fit in the spare tire area. It will fit nicely on the very right side in back but I want to hide it. Still at the drawing board:rolleyes:
Originally posted by AMERIKAN Eric, I got the box from Summit too. The Optima will fit in the box but the box will not fit in the spare tire area. It will fit nicely on the very right side in back but I want to hide it. Still at the drawing board:rolleyes:
Do you have a box back there or a any kind of carpentry back there? I will try and incorporate that box with my audio setup back there. Thanks for the heads up on the optima fit. I was being lazy on pulling out the battery
Eric,
I do have a sub box back there but will be taking it out when I go to the track.I took my battery out to put a filter on my turbo. I was thinking about Leif’s idea about getting it even lower but I don’t think I can cut into that because the exhaust is right below it. Decisions, decisions, decisions…
i was thinking of doing solely for weight distribution. is that futile? i barely have any mods… only suspension. i just noticed one day when i had the trunk full i cornered a lot better…
Originally posted by AMERIKAN Eric,
I do have a sub box back there but will be taking it out when I go to the track.I took my battery out to put a filter on my turbo. I was thinking about Leif’s idea about getting it even lower but I don’t think I can cut into that because the exhaust is right below it. Decisions, decisions, decisions…
I wasn’t suggesting cutting a hole in the bottom of the spare tire depression. I was thinking about just mounting the battery in there. Then the top of the battery would stick up through that piece of board in there. I’m just thinking of ideas. I’ll wait for steve’s pics before I make anymore poorly developed contributions:p
I’ll wait for steve’s pics before I make anymore poorly developed contributions:p