Battery relocation [Merged 3-8]

[TRBOBLU]

1/16" aluminum with a brace welded on the underside. You can stand on it with very little deflection. Its been sprayed with etching primer then painted so no bare aluminum is exposed.

 

[Gamble97]

I can't tell from the pic but are those vent holes or bolt holes? I would do the same, I'm thinking about doing that for part of my hatch because I still need access to under there just in case.

 

[Talesin]

I just went with a dry-cell Odyssey 925 myself. Not NHRA legal, unfortunately, as a vented battery box is required even for batteries that DON'T off-gas. Which was the purpose for that type of battery box in the first place. Much smaller and lighter than any lead-acid out there, for comparable output and duty-life.

(edit) Also, the battery negative is just grounded to the chassis up front. Shouldn't matter much if it's grounded to the chassis at the back, too. Running a second wire just to ground out at the firewall specifically is just extra pointless work... grounded mine to the chassis at the back, and have no electrical funkiness happening.

 

[TRBOBLU]

I can't tell from the pic but are those vent holes or bolt holes? I would do the same, I'm thinking about doing that for part of my hatch because I still need access to under there just in case.

Which holes? The vent tube is not pictured, its on the passenger side of the box.

 

[Gamble97]

I am referring to the holes on the aluminum not on the box.

 

[TRBOBLU]

Those are the 1/2" SS bolts that hold the plate to the frame.

 

[99gst_racer]

I would skip the kit from Summit. The gauge wire is almost too small I would go with 1 or 0.

2 gauge is fine. I have this exact same kit in my car and I have zero issues.

Plus they only include the + cable. You should be running the negative back to the front as well to do it properly.

No, they include a ground wire as well. And your battery ground should NEVER be longer than 3 feet. Anybody that has ever competed in car audio SPL competitions knows this as well.

I didn't know what type of track he meant. I just assumed the box was needed so he could vent.

Nope. As BrokenTsi pointed out, it's in the rule book. For a hatchback style car that does not have a separated rear area (ie. trunk), you much have the battery contained in a vented box.

VanIsle, I just think grounding it way in the back on a unibody car is not going to be a good engine/chassis ground.

The rear is just as good of a ground point as the front. What makes the front of a unibody different for grounding than the rear?

There is a frame rail that runs by each side of the spare tire hump. That would be a prime battery grounding point.

 

[Gamble97]

Is 4g wire too small? Also, how does everyone connect it to the stock wiring? Just looking for more pics for ideas and good ways to hide things.

 

[TRBOBLU]

Is 4g wire too small? Also, how does everyone connect it to the stock wiring? Just looking for more pics for ideas and good ways to hide things.

I personally would not run 4 gauge. I would run atleast 2 but I chose to run 0 because it was cheap for me. I just ran it to the front of the car and connected it to the factory power wires that run to the fuse box. When you do a cutoff switch make sure it kills the alternator too, not just the batter power.

 

[Gamble97]

So do you have to run a wire from the alternator all the way back as well then? I would think that the + on the battery would kill the power to the alternator too, no?

 

[99gst_racer]

Is 4g wire too small?

Yes. I wouldn't use anything smaller than 2 gauge.

Also, how does everyone connect it to the stock wiring? Just looking for more pics for ideas and good ways to hide things.

I used this distribution block. It's mounted under the hood where the battery used to be.

 

[TRBOBLU]

So do you have to run a wire from the alternator all the way back as well then? I would think that the + on the battery would kill the power to the alternator too, no?

Yes I ran a wire all the way back from the alternator. My fuel pump, battery, and alternator are all tied into the cut off switch. Make sure to use fuses or breakers when needed. Dont just run a wire with no fusible link.

 

[Gst18]

I relocated my battery to the trunk and now for some reason i have a lighting problem. When i connect the battery i have all my ext. lights come on except by brake lights.
Anyone have any idea what might cause this?
I took the starter wire and the 2 white fuse box wires and ran them back with a 4 gauge wire to the battery. I ran a ground wire from the battery to the body of the car (in the trunk). I dont know why it would cause all my lights to stay on.
I tried pulling the relays and fuses to figure out where its shorting but i found nothing.
Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Gamble97]

Isn't a fusible link where the wire breaks if there is too much current? why use that instead of a regular fuse?

 

[TRBOBLU]

Isn't a fusible link where the wire breaks if there is too much current? why use that instead of a regular fuse?

The idea is the same, they both open the circuit when too much current flows. Yeah I guess I should have used the word fuse or breaker. Sorry, insert the word "fuse/breaker" where I said fusible link. That should make more sense. I use the word fusible link sometimes instead of the shorter word fuse. I dunno why.

 

[Gamble97]

Is there any performance benefit to relocating it on a awd car aside from clearing out the engine bay?

 

[MrBoxx]

Some will say putting the extra weight of a battery over the rear axle will help evenly distribute weight, giving a bit more traction to the rear. Others will say that it makes no difference. Still others say that they'd rather just install a super-lightweight racing battery in the stock location (or lower) instead of adding the weight of the extra length of wires that would go to the hatch area.

Yes I ran a wire all the way back from the alternator. My fuel pump, battery, and alternator are all tied into the cut off switch.

On that note, did you have to run a smaller ground wire all the way from the switch to the alternator as well? What's the smaller black wire in the following picture?

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Reason I'm asking is because instead of a two-pronged switch, I'm thinking of using a four-pronged switch that's specifically for a battery+alternator shut-off. But if using just a two-pronged switch works, then maybe I'll just do that also. I'm also going to try to mount the switch sorta where you did, but on a 95 GSX, there's a hole behind the license plate, and behind that about two inches is the wall of the trunk. If it works the way I want it to, the switch will be below the lift-floor of the hatch, but still accessible from the hole behind the license plate. I have a little measuring to do to see if this will work.

 

[pnishr]

Some will say putting the extra weight of a battery over the rear axle will help evenly distribute weight, giving a bit more traction to the rear. Others will say that it makes no difference. Still others say that they'd rather just install a super-lightweight racing battery in the stock location (or lower) instead of adding the weight of the extra length of wires that would go to the hatch area.

I have a flat sheet of aluminum in the back now too, with two braces. I was actually going to do both: use a race-battery (11lbs) and mount it in a box on the OUTSIDE of the cabin between the braces under the hatch area. still saving weight (even with heavy wires), moving it to the back, AND lowering it to the ground.

I've seen a few people running 4ga speaker wire just fine... also heard of people using wire from a welder (WAY cheaper than speaker wire) Any ideas about that?

I though another somewhat cheap solution would be something like Heavy Duty jumper cables. They make them in 4ga, and decent lenghts. enough to go front and back. You know it can handle the power...

also: subscribing. I'd like to see everybody's solution to cut-off and why to run wires all the way back to the back as opposed to just a distribution block up front.

 

[Talesin]

I'm hoping to find a good four-post fused power distribution box (or better yet, one with breakers) so I can cut apart the original harness going to the positive-post plastic block, and keep all the fusible link protection intact, without the additional mess of tacking on more in-line fuses after the box. At the moment, just went with the bolt-through-the-connector ghetto route. Looks kinda lame, but it works for the time being.

Also, yes. Relocating the battery to the back on an AWD car makes a noticeable difference in handling, if you do much technical driving. The car just feels like it wants to rotate a WHOLE lot easier.

 

[Fastazzevo]

I'm looking for a relocation kit, and came across this:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=TAY-48101&N=115&autoview=sku

which brings a question to mind. Why are some boxes like this made of aluminum? Wouldn't you want a plastic box, because plastic doesn't conduct. I am worried about this box with a top post battery.

My friend has his in the trunk just sitting on the gutted metal, but then his is race only.

I think most battery boxes are metal, but a lot have trays that hold the battery in. I would suggest building you one with bent sheet metal put some one-sided sticky foam, like the kind you use to keep drafts out of your house. Then buy some battery holders and a diy battery tie-down.

That to me would be the cheapest method.

 

[Gamble97]

I was just curious why someone would use a battery box that conducts. Sounds kinda stupid if you think about it.

For those of you that have sheet metal in your trunk, do you have pictures of the process or know where I can find a how to?

 

[TRBOBLU]

The small black wire is the wire that runs to my 2 fuel pumps(I ran out of red so I had to use black ). For the alternator I just removed the factory positive from the alternator and ran a new positive back to the switch. I dont know if this is the right way to do it but it kills all the power. The only problem I have is since the positive side of the alternator is wired to the battery side of the switch, that length of wire always has voltage in it until I disconnect the battery. It doesnt affect anything but I always have to remind my self to disconnect the battery cause if I touch a wrench to the ring terminal on the wire and the frame it will blow the fuse. But anyway, it does what its supposed to do. I may look into another switch in the future to solve this problem.

 

[99gst_racer]

I was just curious why someone would use a battery box that conducts. Sounds kinda stupid if you think about it.

It shouldn't ever matter. If it's installed and used correctly, the box will never come in contact with either battery terminal or the wires going to the terminals.

For those of you that have sheet metal in your trunk, do you have pictures of the process or know where I can find a how to?

This is the only picture I have in my P-bucket right now. I'll see if I can dig up any others on my home PC this afternoon.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/paulvolk/pix1289.jpg

 

[TRBOBLU]

I was just curious why someone would use a battery box that conducts. Sounds kinda stupid if you think about it.

For those of you that have sheet metal in your trunk, do you have pictures of the process or know where I can find a how to?

Here are some pics of my install. I had a post a while back on the progress of this project.
Check this out:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220850&highlight=trunk+project

 

[pnishr]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228891

It's hard to do a "how to" you just cut the hell out of it (after designing a cardboard template of course) and then figure out how you want to mount it.

EDIT: beat to the punch.

Oh, and I used WAY thinner sheetmetal than those other guys. I don't plan on ever putting weight on it though. It'll still hold a bit, but I won't be standing on it anytime soon. .019 sm alum. + (2) 1/8"thick 3/4" Al angle.