There was no way I was going to hide a battery tray in such good shape. I also didn't want to risk damaging it in the future. This meant relocating the battery somewhere else. After several ideas of where to put it, I decided squeezing it discretely under the passenger seat was the way to go. At the very least it would help balance out the driver, be hidden, and reside in a small enough space that it would be mildly entertaining if it actually worked.
I bought the thickest lexan sheet I could to make a mounting plate for the battery, and possibly the fuse box and ecu later on. Currently, the lexan was laying across the engine, the battery connected, but resting on the transmission tunnel, and all the gauges wired, but laying on the passenger floor board.
I cleaned out the area between the oem seat rails of all wiring and dust. I took measurements of the distances between the tunnel and rocker panel where each begin to curve, rear seat mounts inside to outside and front to back, as well as front mount to front and rear of the rears.
This is my current workspace. I'll try to explain why there are random atlas stones laying around on what I thought were my cinder blocks that used to be supporting tool boxes and acting as seats later. I guess when I bought them, loaded them into my jeep, and brought them back to the barn, my landlord thought that meant they were actually his. My mistake. And by his, I mean that in all literal sense of the words. If something was yours you would have the right to use it whenever you wanted, especially in the middle of the week while I wasn't home after dumping all my stuff on the ground. Thanks Wade.
After cutting the lexan to size with a small handsaw, I test fit it with the battery placed center and as far forward as possible to allow for enough room to clear the bottom of the seat. I took all measurements on center from the front edge instead of from the side due to the cutouts for the rear seat mounts. I would rather have the cuts symmetric than increasingly off the more I made from one edge. As it turned out it fit perfectly, so well I even had to notch out V cuts so the lexan would drop to the bottom of the floor pan around the OEM forms of the front mount.
Before laying the sheet down, I thought I would have to secure it to something. I was thinking of fabricating complicated S shaped brackets that would bolt to the sheet and to the seat bolts around the oem seat bracket holes. But that assumed that the lexan would need securing. The lexan fit so snugly though that it obviously wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and mounts seemed much more effort than they were worth. They would get in the way, detract from its simplicity, cause general difficulty in use, and would even be difficult to make correctly, not to mention actually look good. I was very happy to leave it the way it sat.
After laying the battery in, I tested the seat and it slid across it's range without sticking or interfering with the battery. Any bigger and it would not have worked.
The battery I actually ended up going with is an agm (gel) no-weight braille 15# battery. They can be mounted in any orientation and are super small. Braille is very specific about the rated use of all their batteries, and this one was recommended for six cylinders with some accessories. All the spec's are very well presented on their website. It was less than twice as expensive as a normal 45# battery that you have to worry about leaking, mount in oem orientation, replace every year, not to mention try and figure out how to relocate and hide somewhere. I'm very happy, and picked up a horizontal mounting kit with it.
I centered the battery and drilled the mounting holes through the mounting bracket. I sorted through my bolt boxes picking out six short, matching, bolts, nuts, and washers.
I added the pre-cut foam pads to the inner walls of the mounting kit to secure the battery. Like a hug.
Assembled.
Installed.
I bought the thickest lexan sheet I could to make a mounting plate for the battery, and possibly the fuse box and ecu later on. Currently, the lexan was laying across the engine, the battery connected, but resting on the transmission tunnel, and all the gauges wired, but laying on the passenger floor board.
I cleaned out the area between the oem seat rails of all wiring and dust. I took measurements of the distances between the tunnel and rocker panel where each begin to curve, rear seat mounts inside to outside and front to back, as well as front mount to front and rear of the rears.
This is my current workspace. I'll try to explain why there are random atlas stones laying around on what I thought were my cinder blocks that used to be supporting tool boxes and acting as seats later. I guess when I bought them, loaded them into my jeep, and brought them back to the barn, my landlord thought that meant they were actually his. My mistake. And by his, I mean that in all literal sense of the words. If something was yours you would have the right to use it whenever you wanted, especially in the middle of the week while I wasn't home after dumping all my stuff on the ground. Thanks Wade.
After cutting the lexan to size with a small handsaw, I test fit it with the battery placed center and as far forward as possible to allow for enough room to clear the bottom of the seat. I took all measurements on center from the front edge instead of from the side due to the cutouts for the rear seat mounts. I would rather have the cuts symmetric than increasingly off the more I made from one edge. As it turned out it fit perfectly, so well I even had to notch out V cuts so the lexan would drop to the bottom of the floor pan around the OEM forms of the front mount.
Before laying the sheet down, I thought I would have to secure it to something. I was thinking of fabricating complicated S shaped brackets that would bolt to the sheet and to the seat bolts around the oem seat bracket holes. But that assumed that the lexan would need securing. The lexan fit so snugly though that it obviously wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and mounts seemed much more effort than they were worth. They would get in the way, detract from its simplicity, cause general difficulty in use, and would even be difficult to make correctly, not to mention actually look good. I was very happy to leave it the way it sat.
After laying the battery in, I tested the seat and it slid across it's range without sticking or interfering with the battery. Any bigger and it would not have worked.
The battery I actually ended up going with is an agm (gel) no-weight braille 15# battery. They can be mounted in any orientation and are super small. Braille is very specific about the rated use of all their batteries, and this one was recommended for six cylinders with some accessories. All the spec's are very well presented on their website. It was less than twice as expensive as a normal 45# battery that you have to worry about leaking, mount in oem orientation, replace every year, not to mention try and figure out how to relocate and hide somewhere. I'm very happy, and picked up a horizontal mounting kit with it.
I centered the battery and drilled the mounting holes through the mounting bracket. I sorted through my bolt boxes picking out six short, matching, bolts, nuts, and washers.
I added the pre-cut foam pads to the inner walls of the mounting kit to secure the battery. Like a hug.
Assembled.
Installed.
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