I want to relocate the battery into the rear seat area.

What is the safest way to mount the battery so that I comply with CARS rules (see bottom of this post)?

I like the idea of meatal straps, but I'm not certain that works with the whole 'non-conductive boxes" part of the rules...

Ideally, I'd like to weld a strip of angle iron to the floor area where the rear seats were and have the battery rest up against it. Then I'd like to weld four plates to the floor, with nuts welded to them. I'd bolt two metal straps, running fore and aft, to these plates and have the straps hold the battery in place. Then, I'd cut the bottom out of one of those marine battery boxes and seal it to the floor with silicone or some other adhesive.

Thoughts... ?

CARS rules:

7. Batteries.
(a) Batteries must be securely mounted.
(b) If removed from the original location, all batteries shall be mounted inside covered,
non-conductive boxes.
(c) If mounted inside the passenger compartment, batteries shall be those that are completely
sealed or so designed or modified to prevent acid spillage.
(d) Batteries in Production Class cars must remain in their original location.

Daniel Buehler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I want to relocate the battery into the rear seat
> area.
>
> What is the safest way to mount the battery so
> that I comply with CARS rules (see bottom of this
> post)?
>
>
> Thoughts... ?
>
> CARS rules:
>
If you were a good boy and had your car in your signature or the sidebar thing then we could comment on if the idea is legit or not and that's the first thing.
Execution is second.

Note: In my FWD Saab, I moved it out of the engine compartment and then I was noticing photos of Saabs works cars and later cars had the batter in the original position so next time I was talking to a firend who was works driver for years he grinned and said "Yeah we always used to do that till one day some wise guy said "Ya know in our sales brochures we're allways talking about the adavantages of the weight over the drive wheels, so tell me why are we taking weight OFF the drive wheels now and moving the battery?". So he grinned some more and sorta sheepishly said---couldn't argue with that so we stopped".

In light of the wise Swedish guy, or Swedish wise guy smart observation, What kinda car and why are you moving the battery?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Profile updated...

Now for two honest statements. First, I just want to do the welding/fabricating now, before I paint the shell, which should start next week(ish). I'm not sure if I'll start runnning the car with the battery in the OEM location or if I'll wait a while to move it. Second, I've been told that Impreza's are 'nose heavy pigs' that benefit from better rearward wieght distribution. Not to mention that I like my welder too much and added some steel to the front... I'm just going on that...

I think I've used up most of my trunk space mounting all the rest of my stuff and I don't want too much cble in my car, so i was thinking that the rear seat area would be a decent spot. There is some strong steel where the lap belts bolt in and a well supported channel across the front of the rear seat area.

I put mine smack dab in the middle of the rear seat. I used a fabricated battery box from ballistic fabrications (all metal) and welded the lower tabs directly to the shell.

I didn't want to deal with nuts/bolts for the top strap, so I just tapped some threads in the lower hole and made the top hole bigger and used some socket hex fasteners to bolt it all down.



http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Ballistic-3478-Optima-Battery-Box_p_1624.html#

I have the same optima battery, which is probably why these guys came up when I searched online for it.

I'll try to take some pics for you this weekend.

---

Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

I have something similar to Jon's bought from Tim Taylor also using an Optima and located in what used to be the passenger's footwell, right behind the codriver's seat.
Honestly in a Subaru it's not really necessary to relocate though in my opinion. It's not in a horrible place, not really in the way, not subject to a large amount of heat, etc.

---

Grant Hughes

Move the battery....trust me.

For the cars rules you will have to Run a sealed dry cell battery, like an Optima or a Deka/Braille...or others.


It still needs to be in a box, and needs to be mounted securely.


I am running a Deka/Bass Pro Battery in my Impreza, over the 2 years now i've run the car, it's been great. Yes if you have to crank the thing for a LONG time it'll die, so be careful. They are cheap enough that i carry a spare fully charged (you shouuld do this regardless of the battery)

I bought it at Bass Pro, and used the battery hold down kit, they sell on the same rack as battery. Meant to hold it down in a boat/atv/sled. It's really a strap, with 2 loops you bolt down to the floor.

like this...but has metal loops, and i bolted it down with 6mm bolts


Holds my 15lb battery down just fine and the thing doesn't move at all.

For boxes...look to the other ilse at bass pro. For a normal sized battery, use a battery box, for smaller batteries get clever with a marine toolbox.

My battery sits behind the co-drivers seat where it's well protected, and stays warm in the CDN winters (this is what kills batteries)

Cable...head to princess and by 1awg welding cable. I'd also suggest using the quick connect cables they have to make yourself a set of jumper cables.

---

Chris

Do It Sidewayz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Move the battery....trust me.
>
> For the cars rules you will have to Run a sealed
> dry cell battery, like an Optima or a
> Deka/Braille...or others.
>

It can't be a lead-acid battery with hoses coming off of the vents, the way almost all OEMs do it?

I ask for information... it would appear that this type of battery (properly mounted) would meet the rules.

Whether a lead acid battery is a good idea is a different matter.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Remember it is very important to make sure the positive terminal does not contact the mount strap or anything else - the reason for the non conductive box...

Story Time:
Many years ago I was having a house party where one of the guest turned out to be a huge WRC/Video Game fan and started asking me tons of questions about the Mazdog 323GTX Rally car parked out front. As these things typically go they ask for a ride and can I show them something about what it is like. I always tell I can not show them because they will piss in my nice seat if I even got to 8/10ths and 8/10ths is about 4x too fast for the local roads... Every once and a while I keep getting pestered and show a compete lack of good judgment - we get strapped in and head off for the local clover leaf on ramp... (earlier in the week I had opened the battery box to put the charger on the battery since I do not drive the car much)

We get lucky the lights are green and there is no traffic around, I charge up to the turn on full boil, mash the brakes on about 3 seconds later then any sane person would, drop a gear side step the clutch on the rev limiter and toss it in for a gloriously silly slide angle with all 4 cold rally tires smoking away on pavement.

We are now merged onto the freeway but there are loud noises and bright flashes coming from the back of the car. The passenger manages to ask whats going on? I let him know we are on fire, I calmly explain there is an extinguisher mounted right under his legs, would he be a good sport and grab it on his way to to meet me at the back of the car as soon as I get it stopped.

I open the hatch to find the battery was not fully strapped down and thus moved the positive terminal to weld its self to the mounting strap, it is glowing red but I managed to knock it off, the fire was small and quickly went out.

The passenger... he was running for his life down the embankment putting as much distance as he could between the car and his precious body.

---

In the long run reality always wins.

^^^ahhh, good times....good times.

---

Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Hey Chris, a battery like this?

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_58335____SearchResults

i think mine is bigger. EXT18L i think.

---

Chris

I had the ext11 in my car.
It worked great to start the car and it took a decent amount of cranking to drain it.
The only problem I had was that between events it seemed like it went bad. I think a float charger (or more frequent use) would have prevented that, so that may be something to think about getting too.

This little kid once told me he wanted try putting a car battery in a microwave oven, just to see... I still think it sounds like a good idea.

So I followed Chris' lead and found a sealed Marine box that fits the Deka/Bass Pro battery perfectly. But it was way too much money, so I got it cheap off e-bay.

I built a mount to strap it to the floor. (Yeah, I know... But I'm learning how to weld)

Did I goof? Is the mount going to get destroyed being mounted to the floor there?








There is a groove on the bottom of the box that the mount fits into:



Then the box gets straped in:

Daniel,

As long as it's secure you'll probably be ok.

But consider having to change that battery in a hurry. You will want to be able to just pop the top of the case, and pull out the battery.

I can probably grab you a photo when i get home.

---

Chris