Auxillary battery location

[foes]

I have found an excellent space under the chassis to mount an auxillary battery box. It is just behind the rear axle and in front of the gas tank My only concern is whether this is too close for safety.Any informed advice? Is there a common rule of thumb regarding placement of batteries in proximity to gas tanks?

[kndlkstms]

I saw that spot myself , thought the same thing. Access / maintenance would be tricky . If access is thru the cargo floor then you have a panel/door to deal with . Under van access ? Maybe a smallish side term in an " ammo can " might work ?

Gas - spark - oxygen ? in a small space ,what's not to love ?

[G B L]

If you are going to put a Battery in a tough to service location use an AGM. Vent the box

And make sure the battery charge rate is set for AGM voltage.

[Booner]

I've got a couple of deep cycle batteries I'm going to locate at the very back of the cargo area on the left side under the bench/bed. They'll be running a refrigerator, microwave, sink, lighting etc. I retire this April and will start my mini camper, deluxe road trip vehicle build out then.

I've got to figure out how to run my 4 gauge lines from the battery back to the left rear of the cargo area where it will connect to my charge controller . These are normal wet cell batteries so I need access to them for maintenance reasons.

I was driving through Kansas City last month and the car in front of me kicked something up and I ran over what ever it was. It hit my gas tank and the belly pan (which seems like it's nothing more than thick aluminum foil), was ripped off from the gas tank. Given the 6 inches or so of ground clearance these trucks have I don't think I'd want to put Aux. batteries under the vehicle and especially not right next to the gas tank.

[G B L]

That sounds Like a good Call.

Make sure you Fuse both ends of the battery supply. with a battery at both ends of the wire it is needed for safety

[windguy]

@Booner - your plans sound great. Can't wait to see what you do with your build.

I don't think there's very much room under the van to add anything. very little open areas.

If you've got a cargo van model, then there is a zone of unused space behind the front seats where the 2nd row of seats would normally be on a wagon model.

We discussed this in another thread where we tossed ideas around of how to capture this area.

Please keep us posted.

[Booner]

Windguy,

I'll be happy to post my progress with pictures, because if you don't have pictures it didn't happen.

I retire at the end of March, and moving to Missouri (family is there + cheaper cost of living), and I'll start the build out sometime in April/May. In my youth I've converted several vans to mesh with an alternative lifestyle and am looking forward to working on the connect. My last van was a 3500 gmc with fridge, microwave, powered sink, bed/couch and two deep cycle batteries that would not only power everything in the van, but my house too if I lost power.

The real challenges with the transit is with using space to it's maximum benefit and the lack of information. I think I'll feel like a pioneer in some ways, but it'll probably look like some of the others conversions seen on the 'nett. I'd also like to make the bed/couch and cabinets modular in that I could take them out if I needed a cargo van again. Like my GMC, it'll probably never get done, but always be a work in progress,

I'm too busy now getting my house in Colorado ready to sell, and moving stuff to Missouri to do anything on it, so at this point I'm just gathering ideas and doing a lot of thinking on how I can do things.

regards,

Booner

[bikinchris]

You can mount an OPTIMA battery sideways if that would fit under the floor better and allow access.

[Booner]

The batteries I have are the regular wet cell type so I'll need to have the somewhere where they can be easily serviced. So they'll probably be in the rear of the van under a bench that will run along the drivers side. This bench will be for sitting on with a storage area under the bench and then expand into a bed. A cabinet will be on the passenger side of the van that will hold a sink, refrigerator and storage. I'll also have a microwave that will be mounted on the floor in the bench. I don't want anything heavy mounted high enough to turn into a missile if something happens. Since there are tie down holders built into the floor, I thought the bench and cabinet would be bolted to the tie down holders and that would allow me to remove them if I needed a cargo van again.

My biggest problem is running the 6 gauge wire from the car battery to the rear of the van, especially from the left front fender past the drivers area. I understand that the floor in the cargo area comes out so that's not a problem, It's getting the wires from the battery to the inside if the van that will take some thought. In my full sized van, I ran the wires from the posts on the battery ( the + wire had a 50 amp fuse on it real close to the battery) through the inner fender on the passenger side (the battery was on the passenger side) and then into the passenger area down by the foot well. Then the wires were under the floor mat and under the passenger seat I mounted another 50 amp relay that I used as a switch. Then the wires ran to the drivers side of the van and along the wall to the rear of the van. The wire go into a solar charge "smart" controller that limits the amp to a maximum of 30 amps, and does not allow power from the "house" batteries to flow back to the truck battery. As the batteries reach full charge, the controller chokes down the input amps to a trickle charge so you don't overcharge the batteries. From the solar controller, the power goes to the batteries. And from the batteries, the power goes to a 12 volt fuse panel and to a 1600 watt inverter to run the microwave or anything else that needed 120 volts

I ran this set up on my full-sized van for about two years with no problems and rarely taxed the "House" batteries, and never had a problem with the van's alternator or truck battery. I had enough power to run a small window-type A/C for a short amount of time too. As I understand it, the alternator on the T/C is 150 amps so there shouldn't be a problem with keeping everything charged.

And though I never had to do it, if something happened to my houses grid power, I always thought I could run my house off of my truck.

[DonShockley]

.......My biggest problem is running the 6 gauge wire from the car battery to the rear of the van, especially from the left front fender past the drivers area. I understand that the floor in the cargo area comes out so that's not a problem, It's getting the wires from the battery to the inside if the van that will take some thought.......

When I was removing the second row seats from my 2015 LWB wagon, I noticed some of the factory wiring harness running forward under the front row seating on both sides. I can't give you details because I didn't go any further with my dis-assembly in that area. But you may be able to use the same channels the factory wiring uses to run your wires in. Here's some pages from the 2015 wiring manual that show the factory harness routing from front to back.

[Booner]

Thanks for those pictures. Very helpful!