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Battery relocation and weight distribution question

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Old 11-21-2003, 01:48 PM
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Battery relocation and weight distribution question

I'm moving my battery to the trunk. I've always heard this helps balance out the imbalance that the driver's weight creates. So, I figure, I'd put the battery on the rear passenger corner of the trunk. For about 25 or 30lbs, does it matter where it goes really? Any better ideas?

thanx,

jason
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Old 11-21-2003, 02:21 PM
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i'd be willing to bet that you probably wouldn't notice the differance on a street car. 25-30lbs isn't much compared to a human in either the passenger or driver's seat. most people probably have 25lbs of random crap in their car at any given time anyway. now, if it was a stripped down race car that we were talking about, then i think it'd be worth it.

if i were going to relocate it, i'd want it as low in the car as possible. putting a dense, relatively heavy object like that high in the car will negatively effect the car's roll center. i might put it in the spare tire well, simply to get it as low in the chassis as possible.
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Old 11-21-2003, 04:11 PM
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The net effect is actually more than 30 pounds because you're removing 30 pounds from the front and placing it to the rear. If you didn't move the battery, think of it as adding 60 pounds to the rear of the car. That would pretty much be the net effect on weight distribution.
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Old 11-22-2003, 12:15 AM
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When I moved my battery under the passengers seat, I noticed the front end of the car felt much more willing to change direction, as soon as I drove the car.
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Old 11-22-2003, 12:21 AM
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im thinking of moving my battery to the trunk as well. but im a little worried about the battery leaking. im going to get the summit racing battery relocation kit, which comes with a case, but is there anything to be worried about?
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Old 11-22-2003, 01:27 AM
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If you bolt it down properly there should be no problems. However, Make sure that the leads don't ever touch open metal.

They could spark and blow the car up, or so i'm told.

Also you shouldn't put the battery on the passenger side as the fuel is below that, thus a fire hazard. The ideal spot would be in the spare tire well toward the middle of the car.

Also you need to run the largest wire you can to the leads. Like a 0 gauge wire or something.

That should help i think.
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Old 11-22-2003, 02:54 PM
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i heard you can use the wire from the jumper cables if you want, get one of those optima batteries that are dry cell so you do not have to wirry about leakeage.
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Old 11-23-2003, 09:00 PM
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Originally posted by Uncle Scotty
When I moved my battery under the passengers seat, I noticed the front end of the car felt much more willing to change direction, as soon as I drove the car.
Under the passenger seat? Does your car use "D" cells?

I'm not trying to be an ***, but I cant picture this in a rex....or was it a different car?

Oh and for the others, I got one of those dry batteries.....thing works so damn well.......I reccomendt them (This was in my vette not suby so I dont know how well they fit in the rex).
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Old 11-24-2003, 02:24 PM
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See if this works...

www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289006473

I have a Hawker Odyssey PC680...it is essentially a battery for a full dresser Harley. Drycell, mount just damn near anywhere, won't spill acid even if ripped open, under the passengers seat battery.
Works great, just don't leave your lights on.

Last edited by Uncle Scotty; 11-24-2003 at 02:37 PM.
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Old 11-24-2003, 02:38 PM
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Originally posted by robb
Under the passenger seat? Does your car use "D" cells?

I'm not trying to be an ***, but I cant picture this in a rex....or was it a different car?

Oh and for the others, I got one of those dry batteries.....thing works so damn well.......I reccomendt them (This was in my vette not suby so I dont know how well they fit in the rex).
See above post...
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Old 11-24-2003, 07:02 PM
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Wow, my dry cell is no where near that small. But like I said its for a vette and had 1100 cranking amps.

How many amps is that thing? It looks like it had R/c car battery plugs. (Don't take this as being mean I just have never seen anything like it).
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Old 11-24-2003, 09:34 PM
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All the battery #'s are here: http://www.bakerprecision.com/battery1b.htm

I researched for a long time, as I do for all my 'projects', and came up with the best possible 'alternative' to a trunk mounted battery.
Read my post...It's a motorcycle battery, the best I can find and is relatively cheap at ~$100...the connector(Anderson SB 120) is there so the battery can be easily disconnected for whatever reason, without any tools. The lunchbox, with handle, makes it easily portable.
Leaving the stock connectors underhood makes putting a regular battery back in the stock location easily possible, if necessary.
35 pounds off the frontend, and 15 under the seat makes the car handle much better.
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Old 11-25-2003, 11:45 AM
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Originally posted by 03blauWRX
Make sure you use a 0 gauge wire or so. Also, make sure what type of wiring the cable uses. Prefereably, you want to have the thickest copper wiring in there as you can. In case you are wondering what I mean by this...when you look inside the cable, you can see a whole mess of strands of copper wiring. The thicker each individual one is, the better. This makes bending the cable much more difficult, but also lower the resistance. This will be extremely important because if you use the wrong type of cable, you will start draining your battery everytime you start it.
hold on a minute...

let's take two cables.

one is a finely stranded cable made of say 30 bunches of strands each comprised of 100 fine strands.

the other is a solid conductor. one strand.

each is rated for a particular gauge. in this case, let's say it's 0 awg. they're both 0 awg cables.

both of them will have EXACTLY the same current carrying capability, and the same bulk resistance.

the stranded cable will be much easier to bend. the solid will stay where you put it.

differences in the way they carry current start occuring in the very high frequency range... well away from DC.

see http://ken-gilbert.com/techstuff/AWG_WIRE_TABLE.html for a nice wire table. notice how stranding does not enter the picture at all.

hth
ken
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Old 11-26-2003, 11:27 AM
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this is something i've been wanting to do for a while now.

scotty, why did you rule out the spare tire well as a location? is there no way to have a battery as well as a spare tire?

also, how much bigger is 0 gauge cable than 4 gauge diameter-wise?

scotty, where did you route the cables and do you get any noise in your stereo from the routing that you're using?
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