Metaltech Slider Battery Install (1 Viewer)

[lockd80]

Today I finished installing a backup battery in my Metaltech sliders with the optional Metaltech accessory tray. First let me say that Metaltech makes a super quality product, their sliders are awesome and saved my cats the first week I had them. The accessory tray is built to the same standards as the sliders, it is a very thick plate that mounts directly to the sliders and the frame of the truck with the provided hardware and stainless bolts. I am confident this tray could take the full weight of the 80 with out a problem.

I won’t bore you with the details of my dual battery setup as similar ones have been covered extensively in other posts, let it suffice to say that I am using the Hellroaring isolator (another great product) with a Diehard Platinum deep cell for my main and a Diehard Platinum group 65 for my backup. The group 65 was almost too big for this install and it would be difficult to get a wider battery in this space. I had to trim some of the plastic foot off the bottom of the battery and I also had to put a spacer under the battery so it would slide over the top of the Metaltech brackets that mount the plate to the frame in order to slide the battery over to the passenger side far enough to clear the body. I used a standard battery hold down from Shucks but due to space limitations I did not use the included clips for the hold down studs instead I just fed the studs thru the side of the hold down and then cut them off flush to the top of the wing nut. I then bolted my 150 amp fuse behind the battery and installed a couple long bolts thru the plate in front of the battery to keep it from sliding fore or aft in the event of a collision or rollover. The only other modification I made was to cut off a long bolt that was sticking out from the body and too close to the battery.

Now the pics!!

On the bench
In this one you can see where I ground the plastic foot on the battery

Front

Back

Under the 80
The now shorter bolt in the body

In this pic you can see how tight it is. If you look to the right you can see the bolt I cut off.

from the back

from the front

All in all I am happy with the way it turned out. Everything is tucked up nice and seems to be well protected. The obvious downside to mounting a battery or almost anything in this location is accessibility but it does come out pretty easily with a floor jack under it you just remove four bolts and it comes right out. Time will tell…

Hope this helps,
Mark

 

[fjfar80]

Looks good...I have thought about getting that tray for an air tank.

- Mark

 

[cruiserruf]

looks great.....only concern i guess would be......deep water crossing?

 

[Brian894X4]

Good way to keep weight low.

I'm hoping to get my metal sliders later month and I'll probably pick up that accessories tray, but instead of a battery, I'll have to think of something else to put there.

 

[lockd80]

looks great.....only concern i guess would be......deep water crossing?

I had not thought of that, what do you think would happen if I submerged this battery? I know the AGM Platinum is supposed to be sealed but can it survive a quick dunkin? Anyone know?

 

[lockd80]

Looks good...I have thought about getting that tray for an air tank.

- Mark

I agree this would be an excelent place for a air tank or even a air compressor if it did not mind going swimming (cant belive i missed that ).

 

[jonheld]

I had not thought of that, what do you think would happen if I submerged this battery? I know the AGM Platinum is supposed to be sealed but can it survive a quick dunkin? Anyone know?

It would dry out when you came out of the water. IOW, most likely nothing would happen. I have submerged batteries (and other parts) before. I would give any external connections a liberal coat of grease and stay away from crimp connections. I always go with solder type for exposed wiring.

 

[cody c]

i think they would be fine if submerged, water is actually a poor conductor, its only the surface area in contact with the terminals and and quantity of the conductor (being the water itself) that seemingly make water a good conductor. There are lots of videos and members here with vehicles submerged to the top of the vehicle to back that up. I would consider a sealed with bottom drain battery box and a anti conductive sealant on the terminals though. I use an LPS product which is a clear spray on wax like substance, mostly because we have cans of it laying around the shop where i work.

 

[JMZ-]

lockd80,
Nice set up!

How long the cord did you use to run the second battery?

 

[lockd80]

It would dry out when you came out of the water. IOW, most likely nothing would happen. I have submerged batteries (and other parts) before. I would give any external connections a liberal coat of grease and stay away from crimp connections. I always go with solder type for exposed wiring.

I soldered all my connections. Where should I look for the right kind of grease?

 

[lockd80]

i think they would be fine if submerged, water is actually a poor conductor, its only the surface area in contact with the terminals and and quantity of the conductor (being the water itself) that seemingly make water a good conductor. There are lots of videos and members here with vehicles submerged to the top of the vehicle to back that up. I would consider a sealed with bottom drain battery box and a anti conductive sealant on the terminals though. I use an LPS product which is a clear spray on wax like substance, mostly because we have cans of it laying around the shop where i work.

Thanks for your input, it makes me feel better. In fact it made me feel so good I had to go out and test the new setup, I did not quite submerge the whole battery but it saw a lot of water and mud today and seems to be just fine.

today

 

[lockd80]

lockd80,
Nice set up!

How long the cord did you use to run the second battery?

My ground goes to the factory location on the engine block and the positive goes to a Hellroaring isolator on the firewall, they are both about six feet long. There are two other short cables also.

 

[calfj60]

Bump for a follow up..... Looking to do the same thing... Need the space under the hood for other projects

 

[1973Guppie]

Question on this: If I already have dual batt's and am thinking of adding a 3rd for capacity reasons, could I just simply connect the 3rd battery (in parallel) to the 2nd thus creating a larger cell battery (same type/size batt). I am thinking I could use one of these brackets to basically make my aux battery larger. This way I don't have to mess with my current dual battery setup and it "should" still switch to charge the 2 aux batteries as it does now.

Edit: did some internet research and it seems this should be OK to do, just hook neg to neg and pos to pos, neg on slider batt to frame, pos on engine 2nd batt to isolator/dual batt setup.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Here's a snap shot from the National Luna dual battery instruction book.

It looks like you can set it up with a 3rd battery wired to your 2nd

 

[1973Guppie]

thx for that, helps.....