Thursday, September 8, 2011

Mounting The Batteries

I needed a good way to hold 20 batteries securely in the truck without them bouncing all around.
I recently acquired a 230Amp welder off of ksl for $120. It even came with 40 lbs of welding rod and a welding hood. Nice!
I bought some angled and flat pieces of steel and starting cutting them up to make a battery tray that would hold 4 golf cart batteries in the front of the engine compartment.

I welded the pieces together, grinded them smooth, primed them and painted them. The angled edges hold the batteries fairly securely and prevent them from shifting around. A foam piece pressed against the hood of the truck finishes off the mount.  Here's a video of me cutting and welding the battery tray. 
I made two more battery trays, each can hold 8 batteries.
These larger trays mount in the front of the truck bed close to the cab.

I went to Costco to price out golf cart batteries. You can buy Trojan batteries for $149 each plus core charge. Costco had an equivalent capacity battery for only $79. I bought 14 of them on the spot and another 6 a week later.  I found a 50 foot length of 00 welding cable on Ebay for $155, and built up all the cables needed to connect all 20 golf cart batteries in series. 

2 comments:

  1. In solar panels, there is just a start up cost, but then it starts paying for itself. Once you break even, everything after that is profit. Compare this to paying a monthly bill and getting no return on investment.

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  2. The batteries are definitely the main devices of an electric vehicle, because provide to the mean the energy to operate. They are unfortunately also bulky and quite expensive devices. Your mounting work was really excellent and also the expenses that you have incurred were not excessive. Continue the good work!

    ReplyDelete