Let me preface. I'm NOT a mechanic or an electrician.

I would like to relocate both batteries to the bed to open up some room in the engine bay.

I know a way of doing it but it would be a hack job because I don't know all small details of the battery connection system or what nifty components are out there.

I don't want to use a kit but I'm will to if there's a nice one out there (suggestions?)

Are there any junction boxes out there so I could reuse the cables already available?

Is this a bad idea all together?

I appreciate any all comments

 

Its not the worst idea-BMW does it all the time..

The thing to think about is that running those batteries with an extra 10ft of cable is probably going to hurt your cranking power-shorter distances the better. If you do run it, make sure you upsize the cable. I think they have 4ga inthere right now, probably up it to a 3 or 2 ga wire.

 

I'm running nothing smaller than 1ga!

I'm just fuzzy on the details

 

If I were going to do it I would get welding cable. It's a finer wire with a tighter braid. Better for the job. Make sure the wire's coating is good for use around oil & gas.

 

I didn't know how welding cable was different.

Still looking for specifics on connections and components.

 

Could you get by with only one battery up front? A larger commercial battery on left side would clean up right side.

 

get a pair of optiama(sp?) batteries and mount them on the frail rail. i saw it on a ford truck in Diesel Power Mag. i'm thing of doing that myself

 

Did they use a kit? or a custom setup?

If kit, what boxes did they use?

 

for this job i would use crimp on copper lugs. cable must have insulation rated for oil and gasoline exposure and a temperature rating of at least 90degC. 1ga cable should be fine. you want a very flexible cable such as an SO cord or the like. you can get high quality mechanical battery post lugs at most better auto parts stores like napa. use battery boxes and hold down clamps for the batteries. don't get cheap about the attachment for the cable. get high quality metal mounting tabs with the rubber sleave in them and attach every foot or so. rout the cable down the frame rail and come up thru a gromet into the bed of the truck.

 

here are a few nice kits http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...alse&N=700+115

 

dropped,

Thanks for the link! I was on summit but apparently didn't use the correct search terms. After looking around for a while...I would love to do a frame mount instead of in the bed.

I think I just made my job a lot harder.

 

Ok, I now know I'm going to mount the batteries to the frame. Probably going to use Artec Welding's double optima battery mount. Here

Now, what I'm looking for and having a hard time. A junction box/enclosure that will allow me to connect my current cabling to the cable from the new battery location.

 

The cable that's in there stock is 2x larger than 4ga. probably around 0 or 00. That being said, I went with 2ga welding cable and crimp-on fittings. The 2ga isn't optimal, but it will work fine and I had a ton laying around. The crimp on fittings are in general better than solder for our trucks--as long as you do it correctly. Make sure you run the wire in some sort of sleeving/conduit...wouldn't want to rub a hole in the insulator and short out that 2ga+ wire.

:edit: And mine are under the bed.

 

A 2 Gauge wire is rated for 180 amps. Cranking Amps can easily exceed 1000 amps. Urge use of "0" or "00" gauge wire. You can use frame rail for ground but must install large ground wire from engine to frame.
This project is not for a non automotive electrican without a quality engineered kit. There are many things to figure on connections for positive wiring connections. No one that can recall makes 12V junction boxes that you have mentioned. A insulated bolt is general junction for large current on 12volt systems.
I would recomend 00 gauge wire from frame mounted boxes to starter and then up to left fender shield where positive cable is now located. There is where large terminal would be located.
You must be able to make quality connections. Not just clamp a wire between washers on a bolt.

 

Now you're just making this hard on me dozer!

Would you be willing to engineer a quality kit.