Battery Hold Down

[4x4mike]

I replaced the battery about 4 years ago. I remember my daughter had just been born and I was with her in the service center while the battery was being replaced. If it weren't for the baby I would have done it myself but bit the bullet.

I bought a Die Hard Premium as I had one in my last truck and they get great reviews. Well 4 years later the battery is still ticking (knock on wood) and I got around to fabbing a battery hold down that actually holds the battery down.

I've seen a lot of hokie tie downs especially in vehicles that replace a wet cell with a gel battery. The gel batteries are just a smidge smaller than a regular battery and require some shimming, over tightening of clamps or both. I was getting tired of my tie down and the bike tube I was using as a shim had fallen to pieces.

Keep in mind my battery is in a slightly different configuration and location due to my York compressor.
Old set up. Battery would move pretty easily. The bar actually held the battery, not the holder part.




Poop.


I dug through my pile and grabbed a few pieces of steel and in 20 minutes I was standing there watching paint dry. Fun and easy project. Now I have a stay put battery.
Bottom view


Top view making sure it fit. As you can see my battery situation is a little different than stock.


Fin.

[Good Times]

looks good Mike! I was going to do something similar to my second battery on the Land Cruiser but I ended up going "ghetto" and just used a ratchet strap to hold down the battery! talk about being super lazy! haha

[4x4mike]

Ratchet straps and bungees are what I'm used to seeing. I'd like the battery to be something I put in and forget about and this now makes that possible.

[Good Times]

yup it sure does! your boogers look much better than mine! :P

btw I love the battery you're using! good stuff!!

[Bob98SR5]

Nice work, Mike. Nothing like always having a few pieces of steel around to make s###!

On a similar note, I made a battery tray to replace the POS plastic fast food tray that holds the battery on the bottom end. I made it out of the same bed frame metal that I made my welding car a few years ago. The gift that keeps on giving! One of these days, i'll post pad and create a thread so you guys can take it off on another tangent b/c the post will be so useless!

Edit: screw it, it's just a picture. lol

[4x4mike]

Lance, my boggers are flux core and sketch bed frame material. It's really hard and smokes something feirce. It's weird stuff and gets really hot as shown at the beginning of my welds, hot pocket area.

Bob, I was going to build something similar but my battery only fits on part of the factory metal battery bump. I built a little shelf years ago now I just needed something to hold it in place. Thanks for sharing.

And yes, my small angle pieces are from a bed frame. I scored with mine as it was a trundle bed, two bed's in one, so I'll have scrap angle for awhile.

[paddlenbike]

That is a good battery; I couldn't justify the price after having had so much bad luck with Optimas, Napa Orbitals, etc. I went back to a sealed lead acid battery about four years ago and it has out-lasted the gel/spiral cells by about a year and half at this point and I paid $40 for it. I don't expect it will last much longer, but who knows. Maybe I'll try that one next time.

4Runners were shipped from Japan with Panasonic batteries that had some excellent noxious chemicals in them that made them last forever and apparently were rebuildable. My original Panasonic went south in 2006 after spending a week shaking it up in Death Valley. Once at home, it wouldn't start the next day. I've been told I should have had it rebuilt, but I didn't know.

[CJM]

If you want a good laugh about battery life, my exide pos lead acid battery comes to mind. We used to carry exides at work but had a high warranty rate, so one day the pannasonic took a dump and I put in the exide. Stupid thing sulfated alot and I cleaned it a few times but even after leaving the lights on once for a day it still was fine after like 6 years. I finally decided I had enough and just took it out and swapped with a deka sealed battery we now carry. We were out of 24F's so I put in a 124R (about 1/2 shorter) and just cranked down the j hooks. 3 years later still going strong lol..