Group 31 battery tray and clamp retrofit

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Is the only mod a longer bolt on the front?
 
SHAGGY101 said:
Geez, you guys are killing me! Right now I do not have access to the machine (water jet) that I used to cut everything out with. I do not know what I will either. There may be a possibility for August but I am not making any promises. There are some members out there that have not installed them yet and others with 2...cough...pman...cough...haha.. I am well aware of the great demand but I simply cannot physically do it right now. I will let you guys know when I come out of "retirement."
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If you have the CAD files in hand any laser or waterjet shop can cut this stuff out from 1/8" HRPO stock on hand, shouldn't cost much. The top could be cut from one piece and bent, and two pieces of angle welded to it. The box again one piece, bent and welded, plus the mounting bits underneath. The copper piece can't be laser cut - water jet or mill, unless you change to two holes instead of the slot. With two holes you can knock that off in a couple minutes with a saw and drill.

I send a lot of stuff out to be laser cut and water jet, if you need new files I'll draw them up for you no charge. Just send me what you know and I'll get to it, might take me a few tries to get what you want but I'll be happy to do it. I'm not an artist, but will do my best on the logos. I'm curious how you did your ellipses, CNC machines don't usually like splines and polylines. My lasercutter has a program to convert splines to a bunch of little arcs for their machine.

I just replaced my battery, so I won't be needing your kit, but I like seeing innovative ideas like this.
 
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I have one of the shaggy101 kits still in the box. PM me if interested. SOLD....that was quick!
 
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scottm said:
If you have the CAD files in hand any laser or waterjet shop can cut this stuff out from 1/8" HRPO stock on hand, shouldn't cost much. The top could be cut from one piece and bent, and two pieces of angle welded to it. The box again one piece, bent and welded, plus the mounting bits underneath. The copper piece can't be laser cut - water jet or mill, unless you change to two holes instead of the slot. With two holes you can knock that off in a couple minutes with a saw and drill.

I send a lot of stuff out to be laser cut and water jet, if you need new files I'll draw them up for you no charge. Just send me what you know and I'll get to it, might take me a few tries to get what you want but I'll be happy to do it. I'm not an artist, but will do my best on the logos. I'm curious how you did your ellipses, CNC machines don't usually like splines and polylines. My lasercutter has a program to convert splines to a bunch of little arcs for their machine.

I just replaced my battery, so I won't be needing your kit, but I like seeing innovative ideas like this.
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I have thought about this, however, I just don't have the time to mess with it at all. The reason for all of the welds is that fact that it would be easier and quicker for me to do it this way as we do not have a very capable bender here.

I used Solidworks to create the solid parts and then converted them to 2-D dxf files to be used on the flowpath software. The flowpath software works fine with splines, however, hates ellipses (opposite with mastercam as I think you are referring to). I had to do a little doctoring on the flowpath software to get the logos to 100%. From there, it was simple, setup the metal and cut, assuming that the waterjet didn't break as it is prone to doing (something about high precision and abrasive?). All of the parts, copper and steel were cut on the waterjet. The flow program has no problem with the slots.
 
SHAGGY101 said:
I have thought about this, however, I just don't have the time to mess with it at all. The reason for all of the welds is that fact that it would be easier and quicker for me to do it this way as we do not have a very capable bender here.
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Lol, we fired our welder, so I try to design for bending as much as possible. I'm pretty good with the benders and hydraulic press, not so good with welding, need to pull a guy off assembling to do my welding. We design in AutoCAD or SolidWorks, but I make dxf files with AutoCAD because it can output them in AutoCAD 2000 or 14, some places have really old software and can't use anything newer. Splines make really big files, some machines are still using floppy disks, pain to get big files to them.
 
Got mine installed today, big THANKS to Copenhagen1 for getting his un-used kit to me.

Fit was great, took only 30-40 minutes start to finish. The Group 31 DieHard turns the truck over way better than the old Toyota battery i took out...
 
ntsaint said:
Got mine installed today, big THANKS to Copenhagen1 for getting his un-used kit to me.

Fit was great, took only 30-40 minutes start to finish. The Group 31 DieHard turns the truck over way better than the old Toyota battery i took out...
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Glad I could help out! :cheers:

You are back on the road and this is just Tuesday. Sweet! :clap:
 
Were these kits only for the Die Hard batteries?
And only for the main battery or also for an aux battery?
 
Wilsil said:
Were these kits only for the Die Hard batteries?
And only for the main battery or also for an aux battery?
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The DieHard Platinum Marine is a re-badged dual-post Odyseey PC2150, so that will fit. People buy the DieHards because they're about $100 US cheaper than the Odyssey.

Group 31 has std. dimension I believe so probably any Group31 will work?

You probably have your battery on our passenger side, so this could go in the same location as the stock US location for your second battery.

Finally got around to picking up a battery and installing the tray...
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Our battery is on our passanger side, which is your driver side.
In Australia they have Piranha trays which are AUD$185..... A bit pricey.
 
Wilsil said:
Our battery is on our passanger side, which is your driver side.
In Australia they have Piranha trays which are AUD$185..... A bit pricey.
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Well, I guess I got that a bit backwards. It may still fit on *your* driver's side if you have the cyclonic air filter housing, but you probably don't have the welded boss for the j-hook (and j-hook) that the kit assumes you do.

You'd have to buy another hook and bolt/weld something to your fender well, and, by the time you've done all that, and shipped Shaggy's kit (which isn't presently avail. anyway), the AUS product will probably be cheaper in the long run.

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I finally am getting around to starting mine. I'll post some pics when done. The conversation with the Sears girl was interesting.

Sears girl (Talking on the phone while I wait patiently): "huf, i have like a whole hour left till I can get out of here." Hangs up reluctantly.

jonharis: "Hi, can I get one of these batteries" points at the big baby blue box.

Sears girl: "um oh-kaye, um like what vehicle do you drive?"

jonharis: "oh-five Land Cruiser"

Sears Girl (typing into her computer looking confused): "oh-kaye, um, um what make?"

jonharis: "Toyota"

Sears Girl: oh-kaye, um well, um that battery isn't the right one, um and like why would you even want a marine battery for a truck.

jonharis: (tempted to explain but holding back in fear of the downward spiral that would ensue) "it's OK, I have plans for it and know that's the battery I want, thanks."

Sears Girl: "um whatevah, you are sure spending a lot more than you need to" (point's at screen at the $59 DieHard that is suitable for my truck).

jonharis: "i'm OK thanks though."

Sears Girl: "OK." rings jonharis up. "I would carry it for you but it's really, really heavy"

jonharis: "no problem, you have a great night and keep doing what you do."








I'll post some pics tonight of the temporary install that will at least get me to Moab.

Getting started with proper instructions and lubrication.
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It really does fit. Now to just go get some real connectors and clean up the wiring.
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Thanks shaggy. Truly a plug and play upgrade. My only minor comment is that everything was SAE. I had do dig out some seldom used sockets. When i really go through it ill probably change out the hardware. Other than that the thing is awesome!!! The fit is perfect and it feels much more secure than the stock mount. Now let's figgure out the tray for the second battery location!
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Long overdue bump,

Shaggy, any desire to make more of these kits?? Pretty Please??

I truly missed out by not getting one of these when they were available. Anyone have a new/unused one they would care to sell they never got around to using?

OR

Any venders look further into this??

Bueller.. Bueller..
 
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I would also be interested in this tray.
 
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