Thread: Aux Battery Cabling

Originally Posted by Vern

Serious question tim, does it have to be plastic? I have an agm in the amarok in a wooden box (draw system), a yellow top in no box at all in the rear of the rangie.

I am mounting mine into a home made wooden box. The box is attached to a steel frame with stainless rivets and the frame has welded bolts to go through the floor.

The inside of the box has the had a layer of fibre glass with a thick layer of jellcoat put inside around the bottom and up the sides a bit.

This makes the bottom section waterproof as well as completely covering all metal parts so in the event of an acid discharge all should be good.

At the risk of having my post removed, here is a word of caution.

Dave, that box MUST have venting at a point below the top of the battery when it in the box, and at the top of the box to allow a natural flow of air through the box at all times.

So make sure you vent it properly, or it will become a potential bomb if the battery is caused to vent, and it will be a bomb that can cause some serious damage to your vehicle.

A circuit breaker will be mounted at each end. One comes fitted to as standard on the isolator.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

At the risk of having my post removed, here is a word of caution.

Dave, that box MUST have venting at a point below the top of the battery when it in the box, and at the top of the box to allow a natural flow of air through the box at all times.

So make sure you vent it properly, or it will become a potential bomb if the battery is caused to vent, and it will be a bomb that can cause some serious damage to your vehicle.

As the battery has a vent spout, would it be ok to just put a hose on it and run the hose to out side the car?

See in the pic the vent point.

ROFL.
Regards Philip A
Sorry, I couldn't help it after all the palaver the answer is as simple as running a vent tube to the outside of the car from the battery vent which is there for that purpose..
The answer is YES.

Dave, mines just mounted on a battery tray in the back of my rangie, no box, no vent.
Engineer and rwc tester both happy with that.

Originally Posted by d2dave

As the battery has a vent spout, would it be ok to just put a hose on it and run the hose to out side the car?

See in the pic the vent point.

Hi Dave and as long as your battery box has very large and well placed openings, which will allow for natural air circulation, there is no reason why you would have to fit a tube at all, and the tube does not remove the risk of the battery splitting or rupturing, thats what the battery box is for.

As long as the gas is able to be mixed with the air in the cab as quickly as possible.

That may sound strange but the gas is NOT dangerous to breath and by mixing it quickly with the air in the cab, you keep the ratio of hydrogen way down below the safe levels. ( IEEE standards are set at a ratio of 2% Hydrogen to atmosphere )

As posted earlier, none of the 25 million VW Beetles had breathers, and they never had a problem with gassing in the cab, and as bee utey posted, neither did the millions of Minis and they had there battery right above the petrol tank.

I have no problems with venting to the cabin. My problem is that when on a trip, I have that much stuff in the back it is highly likely that the vents would get covered.

So my other options are to vent at the other side of the box which is hard against the wall. So if I vent here it would go to outside.

There will obviously be one vent anyway near the top where the cables come in so if I just put another half way down on the same side would this be ok?

The pic below does not show it in proportion but the top hole will be about an inch above battery top and the bottom hole about half way past the battery top.