On the tongue of my trailer I have a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries. They are in plastic cases held down with nylon webbing. Not exactly secure.

So I procured one of these:

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They fit the 2 batteries perfectly. But it won't fit between the 2 30 pound propane tanks and the front of the trailer.

So I did some quick measurements with my trusty tape measure and figured out it would indeed fit. I just needed to modify my plan (and the box) a little bit.

I made some cardboard templates of the side profile of the box both open and closed, set them down into where the box should go and measured some more. I'll post a pic of the templates later, as they are in my truck right now.

But the result is it will fit close to the original battery installation. Ultimately, the batteries will ride 1-1/2" higher, and 2" rearward of their original placement.

To accomplish this, the box needs to be notched to fit over the a-frame. Which I did today like so...

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The keen observer might notice the upper filler piece is a little oversized. I did that with full intention of bending the excess for a stronger piece as all of the weight of the batteries will be supported between these a-frame saddles.

Another view, for good measure:

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That's all I have for today, I'm doing this at work on my break time, so I'll have "daily" updates.

I'll post pics of the cardboard templates tomorrow.

 

Okay, day 2. Up to today I have about 2 hours into actual work, not including the time I spent measuring and figuring.

None of this would be possible without these cardboard templates:

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You can see the notes I made for myself, and just now I realized that where I want to put the hole for my ground cable won't work.

I cut up the rest of the filler panels today.

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You can see I removed the powdercoating around the notches with a grinder in that picture.

This one I bent up the inner patches in a metal brake.

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And this one shows the drivers side inner patch panel tacked in place.

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And so that brings us to the end of today!

 

nice work Joe... good imagination. I love seeing fabrication stuff like this... interested in seeing the finished product

john

 

Day 3 was a big one! I got the tack welds all done and test fitted on my trailer. A co-worker didn't think my batteries would fit inside, so I took a pic of that too.

Here we go. Outer patches labeled, trimmed and ready to get bent. Hehe.

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Test fit before tacking in.

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Tacked in.

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So where those flanges are is where I have my height set. I had to trim the front and back a little so the upper pieces fit properly.

Here's one side in, sitting pretty before I tacked it in.

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The other side, tacked in.

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Didn't get a shot of it all tacked up, but these next few pics more than make up for it.
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And I can still get to the release button with the tank cover on.

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But if I want to lock or unlock it, the tank cover has to come off. No big deal.

And here's what it looks like with the batteries in it.

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Those are 6 volt "GC2" golf cart batteries. Fits nice, just have to figure out what I'm gonna do to keep them from sliding and bouncing as there isn't much room.

So it's back to the shop tomorrow, finish welding it up solid. Gonna bring the batteries too, so I have an idea of what I might want to do for hold downs. Drill holes for cables, a night switch, a vent for fumes, grinding, sanding, priming, painting. I'm thinking semi gloss black to match the frame.

I should have more progress pics tomorrow.

 

No plans for anything other than batteries at this time. But I have seen others who have similar boxes with batteries in them use the extra space to store their torsion bars for their equalizing hitch. Depending on how efficiently I can lay out my wiring, I may do the same.

 

Looks like a great job

 

Today brings us to finishing up the welding, patching up some gaps, and grinding the welds flat.

Here are the gaps. I wanted a bend over it, but I wasn't able to do so with the brake we have.

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So I made this for the gaps.
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Ground (grinded?) these tacks down
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Tacked these strips on
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Welded up
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Uh, that's not the bottom, that's the inside. But that's what the bottom looks like.

Hit it with the 5" grinder
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And now it's almost ready for paint. Just a few more things to do. As you can see, there's no good place to ground the welder, so I welded a bolt on to the bare metal for the ground clamp.
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Welded up the inside. The lifting struts are worn out, so I had to use something to hold the lid up. A spare hammer worked pretty well.

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And the view from the back, all the welding and grinding done.
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That's my boss in the background, finishing up his day.

And with that, I'll call it a week.

 

Thanks man! It sure is a lot of work to break up into 15 minute blocks.

 

Nice work Joe..

 

Day 6. Not a whole lot got done today, but it was still forward progress.

Used a hole saw for my power and ground cables. Also figured out where I wanted to put the battery disconnect and drilled mounting holes for that.
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Popped one of the lifting struts off and brought it to the guys at http://www.hilitetruck.ca/ who hooked me up with 2 new struts and a vent grill for $50. Also popped the lock cylinder out to get the key code, and ordered the replacement key online.

Tomorrow I'll have the new struts in, the vent on, and I'll start working on the battery hold down situation.

 

Thanks bud!

 

Great idea Joe, thx for sharing.

 

Here ya go
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Battery...ash=item4af7b93722:g:BwAAAOSwL7VWoURB&vxp=mtr

 

Thanks for the link. Only one problem, that won't work with my batteries.

Actually, it will, but it'll require more modification of the box and possibly the brackets themselves. I'll show you what I've come up with in today's installment in the next post.