Lithium Battery Mounting Suggestions for the Bed

[onidragon]

I went with making a battery in a box

That attaches to a piece of ply in the bed with 3D printed mounts

The DCDC chargers hooks to my starter Batt via a custom bed grommet that I hacked together.

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[Blitzinger]

I went with making a battery in a box

That attaches to a piece of ply in the bed with 3D printed mounts

The DCDC chargers hooks to my starter Batt via a custom bed grommet that I hacked together.

Does that playwood slide out? Can you take a pic of that set up in the truck from a few feet back? I'm also considering grommet hole in th back to run wire to the engine bay

 

[onidragon]

Yes it will slide out if I remove the Fridge mount.

 

[Freems]

That mess of cables on the right my power and lighting boxes. I still haven’t found a really good way to stow those. The power box is the black thing on the right side of the battery box held on with Velcro

I used a 100AH battery and originally a plastic battery case. I wasn’t happy with that at all and wasn’t impressed with what was out on the market, so I made my own tray out of 14mm baltic birch. The top is held down with M8x60mm bolts in barrel nuts inserted crosswise in the sides of the tray. They’re held in with beeswax. Nothing screws into the wood. I used a combination of high density, compressible foam, and HDPE to hold the battery down tight. This is as solid as you can get. The tray is bolted to the floor of the bed into M8 rivnuts. The holes in the bed were painted, and the rivnuts, rtv sealed. They’re above the spare tire and protected from mud, rocks, etc. Everything is finished in waxed shellac and French polished.

The studs for connecting to the battery are accessible, but protected on the backside of the top behind the inverter mount as are the 2 comms ports on the Renogy self-heating battery.

The tray along with all of the circuit breakers, dc-dc charger and distribution blocks all stand off from the side of the bed with air flow all around them. The breakers, charger, and blocks are mounted to plastic pegboard which is mounted to JCR molle panels. Wiring is run behind the pegboard.

Solar panels plug into an external water sealed outlet that’s mounted to the underside of my Front Runner rack There’s a power box with 2 60w USB-A/C charges and 2 12v sockets on a 10ft cable and a 6 port lighting control box with dimmer on another 10ft cable. The ARB screw in socket is mounted to the other side the bed.

I’ve found that my 63qt ARB runs essentially indefinitely on solar power with this setup using about 10% of the battery overnight along with lights, fans, etc. I carry 300w but find that the 100w mounted panel is usually all I need.

Here’s the thread on the build: https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/renogy-lifepo-house-dual-battery-install.71866/​

Beautiful rack and stack! You’ve had data center hardware install time. How many hours of design and labor do you have infested?

 

[Blitzinger]

Yes it will slide out if I remove the Fridge mount.

This is really basic but a really good solution. Where did you get the little battery mount pieces? Are they universal or for a specific brand?

 

[onidragon]

This is really basic but a really good solution. Where did you get the little battery mount pieces? Are they universal or for a specific brand?

I got them from OZ-TECH. They were specific for the Toughbuilt stacktech.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Beautiful rack and stack! You’ve had data center hardware install time. How many hours of design and labor do you have infested?

The slide out is it’s own beast. https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/diy-slide-out-w-sink.74944/

It’s hard to say how many hours. I did the design for the slide out in CAD in the evenings. Probably 6 hours total. Construction wasn’t that big of a deal, 1 weekend. The battery system was slow going just because of the mounting and wiring. I went through a bunch of iterations. The bed wiring was done in pieces, but probably a week total work. But some stuff like the battery mount took only the afternoon and the finish another afternoon months later. There’s a lot of prep that’s hard to calculate. The center wall has a Kydex chainsaw mount. I had to research and order all those supplies as I’ve never done that. It’s hard to calculate that time.

I call this whittling. I work on design and the bom over the period of weeks in evenings, when I’m bored. Actual construction usually moves fast. And then I iterate over features. Like I just added a sprayer for the sink. That took about an hour. The slider for the fridge came to me one evening and I got it done in a few hours and then added a lock later. I’m working on power cable management for the fridge now, 3d printing some parts I’ve designed in CAD. I’m doing a lot of 3d printing right now captured in this thread: https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/what-did-you-3d-print-today.79282/post-1305533

But still I’m doing most of this in the margins in between work meetings (I work from home) or in the evenings after a beer.

 

[chorky]

Thanks and looks good. My electronics will all go in a smartcap left side bin. The batteries you have in pics, are those mounted to anything?

Here you go

 

[Ozian]

I had a friend build me a custom box with a 135ah lithium battery, 40a DCDC charger, battery monitor (with Bluetooth) and multiple connection points (Andersen plugs output, solar input, cig plugs, usbs, etc). All outputs and connections are controlled via a switch panel (also has an app).

The box bolts to the head of the truck bed via the trail rail system, and is powered by fused connection to the main battery. I’ve added a 170 watt solar panel to the roof of my canopy and a power box close to the tail gate for ease of access to charge phones, tool batteries, extra camp lights, etc. The fridge has a dedicated connection to the main power box. All of this allows me to be totally self sufficient for longer trips.

This is part of my prep for a crossing of the Simpson Desert here in Australia in a few short weeks. I also have an aux fuel tank as we will need be totally self sufficient for 3-5 days at a time (food, water and fuel). Should be an awesome trip!

 

[WestwallNF104A]

Test fitting the cabinet

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