Dual Battery Location - D40

Hi All

Looking for some dual battery location innovation as I've deliberated over this a fair bit and can't make up my mind. I don't want to spend big bucks on a mount and where I could make my own from ply would be ideal (I have no aluminium or steel welding experience) - For reference I have a Spain built D40 ST.

Just some options I've explored and excluded are the Under bonnet - which is a no go due to space. Drivers side chassis rail - Potential Option, however Piranha tray costs a lot and I'm not sure how it would go in deep water crossings?

This narrows it down to the tray only.

I would really want to use the dead space over the wheel arch (drivers side).

If I use one of those standard tray mounts that fix into both the top of the wheel arch and the side, due to having a tub liner screwing that type of mount may be in-effective due to a requirement of longer screws and a flexing plastic substrate that might fail. http://offroaddownunder.com.au/prod...bt50-2011-battery-traybox-wheel-arch-mounted/

I have also thought of manufacturing a ply wood box where the height of it is in line with side aluminium channel and then subsequently using 3 uni-strut channel nuts to fix a timber box to that. However only being fixed from the top edge on one side and having a 120ah battery in there might shake the box to bits as the fixings are not evenly distributed.

Considered this same box idea in a thick steel/aluminium so it doesn't shake to bits, however I cannot manufacture and if I got it made by somebody the cost would be on par with the chassis rail tray - with less stuffing about.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers

hey mate happy john [from this forum] has 2 batteries mounted behind his back seat i can't remember the size of them but i'm sure when he see's this he will fill you in on the details
cheers doug

That would be one of these slimline AGM’S. I’ve see them on their side under seats too.
http://www.aussiebatteries.com.au/slimline-agm-battery-front-terminal-deep-cycle-battery

Legends !! Thanks for that. I knew there had to be at least 1 other option I wasn't thinking of. I'll look into this. Happy John, how have you fixed it down or do the seats and it's own weight pretty much keep it in place?

Cheers

I did a thread a fair while ago mate, here is the link with some pics also recent ones.
http://www.navara.asia/showthread.php?t=22631

If you can't fit the battery behind the seat (where will you put the jack?) then the idea you had about the tub wasn't a bad one - all you need to do is make the box wide enough so that the face furthest from the side rail can reach the tub floor. I don't know about the ST specifically, but in my STX there's a small channel that allows me to bring a cable up in the corner of the tub out of sight (and harm's way) and into the box there.

Old.Tony said:

If you can't fit the battery behind the seat (where will you put the jack?) then the idea you had about the tub wasn't a bad one - all you need to do is make the box wide enough so that the face furthest from the side rail can reach the tub floor. I don't know about the ST specifically, but in my STX there's a small channel that allows me to bring a cable up in the corner of the tub out of sight (and harm's way) and into the box there.

Click to expand...

I was thinking that also, if the face is extended down it adds a base and extra support. Ill see how I go behind the seat and if its not a goer I'll maybe mockup a marine ply box to do just that and see the result. Alternatively I even thought of reinforcing a timber box with flat bar somehow - havent thought that through yet.

happy john said:

I did a thread a fair while ago mate, here is the link with some pics also recent ones.
http://www.navara.asia/showthread.php?t=22631

Click to expand...

Cheers !