JK Wrangler Unlimited Cargo Area Auxiliary Battery Shelf

[evaliquette]

PS should you fabricate another one of those nice shelves, how much would you say you would sell it? PM me if you wish


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[DesertJK]

Nice set up. What about gasses venting from the battery? In racing, aircraft, RV manufacturing, and marine regulations, just about any battery needs to either be in a separate compartment from passengers, or be in a completely sealed container that is vented to the outside. Summit, Speedway, and other racing suppliers sell aluminum boxes. An AGM battery is still just a lead acid, and they will vent some nasty stuff out of them.

 

[mmaattppoo]

Nice set up. What about gasses venting from the battery? In racing, aircraft, RV manufacturing, and marine regulations, just about any battery needs to either be in a separate compartment from passengers, or be in a completely sealed container that is vented to the outside. Summit, Speedway, and other racing suppliers sell aluminum boxes. An AGM battery is still just a lead acid, and they will vent some nasty stuff out of them.

Thank you.

While AGM batteries are a type of lead acid battery they are sealed and typically only vent gas under conditions of excessive overcharging, extremely high temperatures, and the like.

Given the fact that the house battery is charged and fastidiously maintained by a dedicated CTEK DC to DC battery charger there is a low and (to me) acceptable risk of off gassing inside the vehicle.

YMMV regarding a battery off gassing so appropriate measures should be taken to protect passengers based on your installation. I would definitely not suggest installing flooded a lead acid battery inside the cabin of a vehicle...esp due to my greater concern of spilling acid electrolyte in the event of a rollover or at the extreme angles off-road vehicles may encounter while out exploring.

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[mmaattppoo]

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I looked at installing a 2.5 pound fire extinguisher where you show but ultimately felt more comfortable with a 5 pounder installed in the rear cargo area.

The smaller extinguisher is quick to grab but runs the risk of being inaccessible if you can't fully open the door...a situation I've been in a couple of times when driving rutted trails. While the tailgate could be also be blocked I've encountered conditions where my door has been blocked more frequently than the tailgate. I suppose a second small extinguisher installed elsewhere in the vehicle would address accessibility issues.

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[mmaattppoo]

PS should you fabricate another one of those nice shelves, how much would you say you would sell it? PM me if you wish


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Fabricating parts for sale is something I've seriously contemplated but as a hobby it's not really practical...esp since I do all my work in my parkade against my condo strata bylaws.

Perhaps one day I'll have my own garage or a small workshop to be able to to small scale fabrication work. That's the dream.

To give you an idea of material cost for the shelf the aluminum (cut to my specs) cost approximately $160 CAD from a local metal supplier. Stainless steel screws and sundries added another $20 CAD. My time to assemble? Priceless.

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[evaliquette]

Thanks! Fabricating our own stuff is a dream for a lot of us


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[SWbySWesty]

Question: Why not just go with a dual battery under the hood?

 

[mmaattppoo]

Question: Why not just go with a dual battery under the hood?

Heat and proximity to the solar panels/charge controller and the loads placed on the battery. I want my house battery to last and avoiding the ridiculous ambient heat and related heat soak from being in the engine bay is a good first step to achieving that goal.

Can't do much about the starting battery being under the hood but the house battery can located anywhere. I'm my case it's on a shelf in the cargo area within 3-5 ft of the charge controller, solar panel and loads.

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[john02tj]

Sub'd for future use. Great setup!

 

[blackhawkip]

Great setup! I am currently doing the same thing to my JKU but I went with the Springtail Solutions side racks. I will be running an Odyssey AGM battery and the Blue Sea dual battery switch. I am running the GoalZero 400W Yeti with their 100W foldable solar panels. The fridge plugs into the Yeti and the Yeti trickle charges the Odyssey AGM.
Question: What gauge cable did you use to connect your AGM battery to your JKU battery? How did you run the cables? How long did they end up being? I planned to use 2AWG both pos and neg but running the cables has me stumped.
Thanks in advance for the insight!

 

[mmaattppoo]

Great setup! I am currently doing the same thing to my JKU but I went with the Springtail Solutions side racks. I will be running an Odyssey AGM battery and the Blue Sea dual battery switch. I am running the GoalZero 400W Yeti with their 100W foldable solar panels. The fridge plugs into the Yeti and the Yeti trickle charges the Odyssey AGM.
Question: What gauge cable did you use to connect your AGM battery to your JKU battery? How did you run the cables? How long did they end up being? I planned to use 2AWG both pos and neg but running the cables has me stumped.
Thanks in advance for the insight!

Thanks! This has been a project that's been in development for quite a while. I'm glad that people are finding inspiration from this post for their own projects.

To answer your question about wiring I've attached a photo markup of my Jeep showing roughly where I ran the 4 gauge marine cable:

Note that I actually ran positive and negative runs (i.e. I ran a dedicated ground to my D250S rather than grounding to the chassis.

Next time I would use 4 gauge welding cable instead of marine wire to save on cost. Marine wire is also much stiffer and a bit of a pain to pull through tight spaces. The added corrosion protection of tinned copper wire isn't necessary given the cables are inside and well protected from the elements. For added abrasion resistance and neatness I also loomed the cables.

I went with 4 gauge wire since the largest anticipated load was up to 50 amps over the approximate 15 ft one-way circuit length. Under these conditions the estimated voltage drop was a hair over 3%. Okay in my mind since my CTEK D250S makes up for voltage losses on the input side from the starting battery and alternator by drawing more current. The D250S (on its own) puts out up to 20 amps charging current but pulls slightly more than that to make up for the 3% voltage drop in the wire run from the starting battery...but still way less than my design max current of 50 amps. I overbuilt the system to allow for possible future additions of accessories that will bring the current upto the max 50 amp limit I designed for.

A comment about your proposed house battery / solar power system. I don't know much about Yeti's products (other than they're well respected and we'll thought out) but something you may want to consider is how the Yeti 400 manages charging batteries attached to / through it. I'm not sure which Oddessey battery you're running but it's my understanding that Oddessey AGM batteries are a bit fussy about the charging voltage(s) and the charging profile that is applied to bring the battery up to 100% SOC (state of charge).

Does the Yeti 400's built-in battery management system include a multi-stage smart charging feature to ensure that any attached house batteries are charged appropriately? Given the expense of Oddessey, and other quality AGM batteries, It'd be a shame to have to deal with a dead battery down the road.





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[blackhawkip]

Thanks! This has been a project that's been in development for quite a while. I'm glad that people are finding inspiration from this post for their own projects.

To answer your question about wiring I've attached a photo markup of my Jeep showing roughly where I ran the 4 gauge marine cable:

Note that I actually ran positive and negative runs (i.e. I ran a dedicated ground to my D250S rather than grounding to the chassis.

Next time I would use 4 gauge welding cable instead of marine wire to save on cost. Marine wire is also much stiffer and a bit of a pain to pull through tight spaces. The added corrosion protection of tinned copper wire isn't necessary given the cables are inside and well protected from the elements. For added abrasion resistance and neatness I also loomed the cables.

I went with 4 gauge wire since the largest anticipated load was up to 50 amps over the approximate 15 ft one-way circuit length. Under these conditions the estimated voltage drop was a hair over 3%. Okay in my mind since my CTEK D250S makes up for voltage losses on the input side from the starting battery and alternator by drawing more current. The D250S (on its own) puts out up to 20 amps charging current but pulls slightly more than that to make up for the 3% voltage drop in the wire run from the starting battery...but still way less than my design max current of 50 amps. I overbuilt the system to allow for possible future additions of accessories that will bring the current upto the max 50 amp limit I designed for.

A comment about your proposed house battery / solar power system. I don't know much about Yeti's products (other than they're well respected and we'll thought out) but something you may want to consider is how the Yeti 400 manages charging batteries attached to / through it. I'm not sure which Oddessey battery you're running but it's my understanding that Oddessey AGM batteries are a bit fussy about the charging voltage(s) and the charging profile that is applied to bring the battery up to 100% SOC (state of charge).

Does the Yeti 400's built-in battery management system include a multi-stage smart charging feature to ensure that any attached house batteries are charged appropriately? Given the expense of Oddessey, and other quality AGM batteries, It'd be a shame to have to deal with a dead battery down the road.

Thanks for the picture, helps a lot. I installed the ARB dual compressor under the passenger seat so needed another route through the firewall. The Blue Sea 7622 will be my automatic switch for connecting the batteries and managing the charging of the house battery while the engine is running. The Yeti 400 is used to run the accessories (lights, fridge) and trickle charge the house battery using a Battery Tender. I will charge the Yeti with the solar panels.

Funny you mentioned the marine cable. I went to the West Coast Marine tonight before I read your post and 2AWG marine cable runs $5/ft. Thanks for the insight into the welding cable. I'll check into that route.

Thanks again for the clarification, even if it was interpreted as an "insult" by the popcorn gallery.

 

[mmaattppoo]

No worries glad to to help.

Blue Sea Systems makes some excellent hardware. You'll be well served with their 500 amp ACR.

Yah. Marine grade cable is nice but way overpriced for most automotive projects. Welding cable can be had for half or less than half the price of marine grade cable. As long as the cable ends are terminated with lugs and adhesive lined shrink tube you won't see any "green death" corrosion.

Hah! Yah. The peanut gallery is a new member of Expedition Portal Forum...literally joined today. A bit of fact checking starting with posts listed in his profile and I get the impression we have our newest troll.

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[blackhawkip]

Springtail Solutions w/Frontrunner slide/cargo tray

I plan to run the battery on the same side you did and the BlueSea 7622 on the rack itself. I will be stealing a lot of your ideas!

 

[mmaattppoo]

Please do. I'm glad to share ideas with people on this forum as it's such a great place to find creative solutions to problems.

I really like the Frontrunner cargo platform, slide out tray, and use of the Springtail cargo shelves. Very clean install. Please post photos of your completed power system. I'm very interested in your final product.

As a sneak preview here are a couple images of the cargo platform I'm currently working on:

Mounting bracket drilled, cut, and installed on the passenger side.

SketchUp rendering of the completed platform.

Stay tuned.

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