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Battery In the trunk

S

SLO240

Awesome Sauce
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Location
Orangevale,CA
When moving the battery to the trunk is it adequate to ground the negative terminal to the chassis in the trunk and run the positive lead to the engine bay. Or should one run both the positive and negative terminals to around the stock location, and connect the orginal cables from there.
 
Ground in the trunk & connect the positive to original place. You can buy kits from Sumittracing.com that have LONG positive cables & short negative cables that allow you to relocate your battery to the trunk. I suggest you make your own "box" to mount it. I'm building mine from aluminum "L" shaped pieces. You can get them @ any hardware store & in prettymuch any length. About 6 ft was enough for me.

Rob
 
mine is grounded to the frame and works fine. if your car is a sedan, you can use a marine type battery box, which is significantly cheaper than the alum. boxes.
 
where does everyone suggest you run the pos. line, inside the car or underneath? which side of the car? extra isulation for either place to keep the wire in good condition... or is it not needed?

I plan on doing this w/ a marine battery box sucured with foam in the right rear "bucket"
 
I am just going to put mine on the ledge in the trunk right behind the X brace and running it up the drivers side(with all the other wires and through the hole right below the hood latch release(in the firewall) and to the stock location.
 
I mounted mine in the trunk, on the DS wheel well. I didn't have enough cable to go far enough to the other side (18' 1/0 gauge).

I grounded to the bumper "shock" bolt and ran the cable through the interior of the car, protecting it with split loom anywhere it ran through a firewall. Then I used a stereo style junction block to join the original + battery cable to the new cable, that way I didn't have to mess with providing power to the starter and the car.

I can take a picture of this later if you wish.

I also, welded a metal tray (be careful, we also "made" a couple of extra drain holes by accident, that metal is thin in the spare well) then screwed a plastic marine box down to it.

Foam will not work, make sure you have that thing bolted/welded down tight (probably am, I probably just misunderstood you).

Doug
 
Please note when installing a BATT in the trunk you will be exposing it to temps in excess of 140F through the entire day in the hot season. This can lead to the battery dying faster than it would in its stock position were it gets a supply of cool air when the car is moving.

Also, I hope everybody added some forced ventilation to get rid of Hydrogen gas buildup. If you didnt i wouldnt light one up too close to the trunk after running for a while.

Just my 2 cents worth.
 
Richard, you get better balance, more room off the front end of the car and you look hard-core! No seriously, it lets you put 20 pounds of weight right where it should be, behind the rear wheels.

As far as temp build up. Thats a croc. Batteries do not really see any airflow from where they are in the engine bay. Plus, most of the time the batteries have to be in a box of some sort (steel or marine), and my trunk has plenty of ventilation. It's for sure cooler in the trunk than under the hood.

Only draw back is, NHRA requires a kill switch, which is difficult to do with out screwing up the way the car looks. I myself said F it and just mounted the sucker right next to the taillight and it makes odd looks from the riceboys.

As far as the battery in the trunk on the s80/60, its in the trunk of my S60 purely because there was no where else to put it. My dealer said it was for "balance", but really thats just a perk, because there is NO room for it up front.

Doug
 
doug242ti said:
I mounted mine in the trunk, on the DS wheel well. I didn't have enough cable to go far enough to the other side (18' 1/0 gauge).


Doug
Click to expand...

Awe man, now we have moved into setting the 240 up to go round de round.....Now I have build one of those.....Just kidding.

Not sure you bought everything you wanted by putting it on the DS in the trunk. yes you moved the weight to the rear, but you still have it on the "wrong" side. I definetly saw as difference when i put it on the right side.....No the pun is not intended, but needed.....

Race em all like you stole em.....
 
i roll(fast) said:
Also, I hope everybody added some forced ventilation to get rid of Hydrogen gas buildup. If you didnt i wouldnt light one up too close to the trunk after running for a while.
Click to expand...

Along the same lines, try to remember to blow over the battery terminals before you hook up the cables to jump a car. You don't want a spark to ignite hydrogen around the battery. :eek:
 
go to an arc welder supply store.. get 2 guage.. it's awesome guys.. lol.. and cheap and very fine quality!

-patrick
 
>wow, I didnt now that new cars had their batterys in the back...

Rover P6B's have had a battery in the boot since the late '60's or early '70's. It ain't a new concept, but these days engine bays are smaller, and there's more stuff to fit in there, so it makes sense to move the battery. Us 240 and 740 owners often don't realise just how huge our engine bays are compared to the majority of new cars.
 
Angus242 said:
>wow, I didnt now that new cars had their batterys in the back...

Rover P6B's have had a battery in the boot since the late '60's or early '70's. It ain't a new concept, but these days engine bays are smaller, and there's more stuff to fit in there, so it makes sense to move the battery. Us 240 and 740 owners often don't realise just how huge our engine bays are compared to the majority of new cars.
Click to expand...

Exactly! It is nice working under the hood of a clean 240 engine bay.
 
The next question would be if you have a sealed battery what would be the purpose of putting into a box. Just anchor it down and go from there?
 
Just food for thought. If you drag race your brick, NHRA rules mandate that if you relocate the battery, it much be in a battery box AND (here's the pain) that there be a rear mounted main power cutoff switch.

Not a big deal normally, but just remember, fuel injection systems don't take kindly to massive power outages and fooling around with that switch can cause major havoc. So don't be surprized if they fail you in tech for not having a power cutoff switch with your relocated battery. The upside is that most of the NHRA tech guys are old school domestic owners/enthusiasts and won't know the difference of a relocated Volvo battery.
 
Another car with a rear mounted battery was the VW Beetle. It's located under the rear seat, and I don't recall if it was normally in a box but I don't think it was. I wonder if Bug owners reloacte it to the front for better weight distribution? :wink:
 
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