I'm looking for a near complete sealed and vented battery relocation kit for a group 34 or group 35 battery. Does anyone have any recommendation. It doesn't have to be pretty, just save secure and reasonably priced?
I have yet to see a relocation kit that include everything you need to do it safely. I would still get the kit from Summit cause they have pretty good prices, but make sure to also buy an inline fuse holder and a fused distribution block I would recommend using a midi anl fuse cause they are small but still handle plenty of power. Darvex.com has these and for a great price too. You need to put the inline fuse within the first 8in of the main power cable coming off the battery, this way if the wire every frays somewhere against the chassis the fuse will blow before it grounds straight to the chassis causing a fire. You need the fused distribution block under the hood to split the main power cable into the two smaller cables that go to your starter and fuse block. I would recommend getting a fused one to protect the power coming from the alternator. Moving a battery is a lot more dangerous than people make it out to be, so make sure you do it right the first time so you don't have to watch your car burn down. That being said I relocated an optima battery to my trunk about 6 months and have yet to have an issue. Another thing I bought before I finished is a small car fire extinguisher from walmart for about $8, trust me it alot better to be safe than sorry and for only $8 it would be dumb not to have one. This article helped me out http://wgbuckley.com/projects/battery.html However he did a couple of things wrong He used 4 gauge wire, I wouldn't use anything smaller than 2 gauge. I've been told that you shouldn't solder on a line that carries that much power as the solder can melt and or catch on fire. I was recommended against using a circuit breaker, supposedly sometimes they can jamb up. Take your time and good luck, lmk if you have any questions, Aaron
4 gauge will be big enough for a battery relocation. I wouldnt use anything smaller than 4 gauge and if you are just relocating your battery, 2 gauge would be over kill IMHO. Also, if you have a sealed battery like the Optima, you won't really need a battery box.
I built one for a customer through PartsExpress.com and sourced a scnhazzy Optima battery holder for his Red Top.
While 4gauge is cheaper and easier to work with most professionals recommend 2awg. One website even says: Please note 2AWG minimum wire thickness; this is for minimum safe 100 ampere current flow through 20 feet of cable length. I forgot to mention that alot of people use welding cable as it is cheap and supposedly flexible. You want as little voltage drop as possible especially when using a small battery with low CCA. 2AWG wire suffers a voltage drop of almost 2 when the battery is in the back.
Thanks for the tips. I'm looking to relocate my existing battery that I just bought, so I'll need a sealed and vented box.
You can also check out http://www.knukonceptz.com/index.cfm for some good prices on some high quality cables. I've been real happy with all of their home audio stuff and have friends that do comp car audio and love their products
In most cases if the battery is in the trunk or cabin area and racing, rules require it to be in a sealed box and vented to the outside. I think it took Ghost all of ten minutes to move mine to the back, new cable ends to replace the cheap stock crap, (#4) or (#1) welding cable, a quality distribution block, and the box. The reason you want to use welding cable is, the strands are thinner and able to handle a higher amp load, has a thicker insulation for abrasion resistance, price and cut to length.