Ok I saw this on a truck a while ago and thought is was interesting... He had both of his batteries relocated to a special tray under his bed. (Dual odysseys I believe). and had the wire running back to the engine bay... Really opened things up and was kinda cool.... Talk about room to get your arms in the engine bay!

Questions are:
1) What size wire would have to be run for that distance? 2/0? 4/0?
2) Would the grounds have to be split like they are from the OEM cables? Like 3 from the pass batt and a couple from the driver side?
3) Welding, Battery, or Marine cable to be used?


I'm sure with the cost of Copper now a days this would be crazy expensive, just curious to what would be required...

 

1/0 welding cable should work just fine but 2/0 and you should never have a problem.

Not sure what marine cable is but welding cable is far better than any cable that I have ever seen in a consumer truck from the factory.

As far as the grounds I would think that as long as all grounds are connected and you don't put the batteries in series (creating 24 volts) you would be fine.

I think you could get enough cable for this kind of project for $100.00 or a little less?

Cost wise I'm not sure, I get welding cable from work if I need it (used on electric forklifts for battery cable and motor cable)

I like to run welding cable on my cars/trucks whenever I need to replace a battery cable, though I don't relocate the batteries.

Remember that no matter what guage wire you use get it with the most strands that you can.

EDIT: I would use good quality insulator/stand offs to connect the trucks control (smaller) wiring to and then solder on eyelets to the new battery cable and connect it to the standoffs that way you could avoid cutting any original truck wires (or as few as possible) this would be more important on the positive side as the negitave side battery cables could go straght to the engine block and using stand offs on the neg. control wires you could run a jumper cable to the engine block and stand off's.

No cut factory wire harness and it can be back to stock in a short time if need be.

 

hey thanks for the response...

one thing I read yesterday on some custom battery cable webpage was that the desire for multi strand cable had to do with ac power only? something about frequency phenomenon... I like more strands just for the fact that it is flexable, but just curious to if the diff between ac and dc electron traveling was different....

anyways the 2/0 was mainly what I was looking for... anybody else agree??

or how about anybody know what the amps drawn from the starter are?? grid heaters are disengauged when starter is kicked correct? so max amp pull would be the starter and obviously computer injection pump transfer pumps etc...

ok enough rambling, make is simple what is the max current load that our batteries experience?

thanks again

 

This does sound like a nice idea, IMO, every late model engine compartment could use more free space. Interested in seeing approx. what this would run, where folks are mounting the batts.

 

if I were to do it I'd mount a nice tray between my toolbox and the front of my bed... I have stacks so I have plenty of room right there and then I have no need for battery warmers!! lol the box would sit below the bed rails so nobody would know what it was unless they saw the LARGE wires coming out!!

I have access to the wire for free I think... all the connections would still get the cost going I imagine... who knows thought it was pretty slick on my buds truck

 

Electrical current is carried on the surface of the conductor ( the strands) , so , the more strands in a piece of wire , the more current it can handle.

A 4 gauge wire with 12 strands will have higher resistance than a 4 gauge wire with 100 strands.

 

That is what I was always told and believed... This one site had me confused saying that this was the case mainly in AC circuits?

 

I am interested in moving the passenger side battery to make more room for twins. Would there be any issue with just relocating the passenger side battery?? My performance guy says just get rid of the second battery, don't need it in southest Texas. But I really would like to keep it and make more room.

 

I can not see a logical reason for having problems with just moving one. Dual batteries are nice to have, if my old Blazer had room I would have had them...

 

I would like to see some pictures of the relocation anyone have any?

 

Theres piles of room along the frame rails on the bedsides just behind the cab.
Could fabricate some nice supports to hang on the frame rails.
Theres a little room between the frame rails but you have to be careful the driveshaft cant hit them.
I put my filters under the bed between the rails and some aux tanks on the bed sides.

 

I moved my right battery to the frame behind the cab to make room for the double BHAF air filter. I will move the left battery when it's time for new ones and will switch to Optimas. I welded an angle iron frame for the battery and bolted it to the truck frame just behind the cab. I made cables from 2/0 HD welding cable - the HD is heavier insulation. I stayed with the top terminal batt. clamps for now and all ends are soldered. I used ends for 1/0 and drilled them out just enough to get a really tight fit with the 2/0, then soldered and used Raychem heatshrink. That stuff is awesome - it has a sticky inner layer so it seals really good. I fished the neg. cable thru the frame and came out at the engine rt. side and found a more convenient bolthole for the gnd. ternination. I put corregated nylon wire loom over the pos. cable for extra protection. I ran it along the crossmember behind the trans to get to the lt. side and along the frame next to the fuel and brake lines and directly to the starter solenoid - it cranks noticeably better that way. I relocated the heater grid relays to the inside fender and reused the crossover battery cable to reconnect the heater grid fusable links and alt. wire. I kept the clamp on the crossover cable and bolted the three (htr. grids and alt.) cable eyes to the clamp bolt, wrapped Herculite around it and wiretied. It ook about 28' of cable for my QC. It cranked fine with one battery but I wanted to keep both. I'd love to get out of this God foresaken desert and maybe even shovel snow again, someday! Craig