Battery Holder

[Rick Iverson]

Gents:

I have a PowerSafe SBS-15 battery, but no battery tray.

I have considered making a tray out of hard wood, but I think 3D Printing is a plausible alternative. Thoughts?

[mikey]

Yeah 3D Print. Why not?

[Rick Iverson]

Gents:

So my surmise is the process starts with my designing a tray, right?

[mikey]

A tray that secures to the car and has a short lip to prevent horizontal movement and provisions to secure a battery hold-down strap.

[billtebbutt]

Gents:

I have a PowerSafe SBS-15 battery, but no battery tray.

I have considered making a tray out of hard wood, but I think 3D Printing is a plausible alternative. Thoughts?

Presumably you are mounting the battery on the floor, under your knees-ish? If so, I would simply bend up some ally sheet in an L-profile to form a perimeter that can be riveted to the floor (rivets on the outside of the ally box please). Make it extra deep (ie running up the sides of the battery maybe 2" max - this allows extra depth if you need to use ballast (ie put it under the battery). Secure the battery with one of those fancy metal straps you see on fire bottle assemblies, and cut a slot in the opposing sides of the ally to "hook" the ends of the strap into. Line it with rubber mat (I use thin yoga mat material as we seem to have surplus mats in the house with three women), and safety wire the buckle of the strap.

I've done it this way with a number of cars for years. Quick, cheap and high quality - you can indeed have all 3!

bt

[Lotus7]

Presumably you are mounting the battery on the floor, under your knees-ish? If so, I would simply bend up some ally sheet in an L-profile to form a perimeter that can be riveted to the floor (rivets on the outside of the ally box please). Make it extra deep (ie running up the sides of the battery maybe 2" max - this allows extra depth if you need to use ballast (ie put it under the battery). Secure the battery with one of those fancy metal straps you see on fire bottle assemblies, and cut a slot in the opposing sides of the ally to "hook" the ends of the strap into. Line it with rubber mat (I use thin yoga mat material as we seem to have surplus mats in the house with three women), and safety wire the buckle of the strap.

I've done it this way with a number of cars for years. Quick, cheap and high quality - you can indeed have all 3!

bt

as above, or with angle-aluminum from Home Depot.

[Rick Iverson]

Exactly

A tray that secures to the car and has a short lip to prevent horizontal movement and provisions to secure a battery hold-down strap.