Battery Compartment Storage

[Jim49]

So I have a single battery in my Hawk shell and was thinking about utilizing the remaining space as storage. I was going to construct a small easily removed wood partition between the battery and the remaining space to store some pots and pans, any issues with this??
Thanks

 

[DrJ]

I would be pretty careful with this, but it could work if done safely.

If anything, especially metal, came in contact with the leads of your battery it will definitely spark and could ruin your battery and even worse, start a fire in your camper.

So your partition would have to assure that there is no way this could happen.

For me personally, I wouldn't do it because the extra space just isn't worth the potential danger to my family in the camper.

 

[kmcintyre]

I don't know how the layouts are in the Hawk vs. Eagle and what's changed over the years, but in my older Eagle, we have the extra battery under the beanch seat that run the length of the camper on the side opposite the sink/refrig/furnace/burners. I put it under the wood bracket that is in the middle of teh bench seat. If I didn't use that space for storage, I'd have no room for anything. I have my battery in a battery box and the terminals are protected by the wood bracket. The seat comes pretty flush with the storage compartment so things don't move. I have quite a bit of stuff in there and have had no issues. I'm careful to keep things that could short the battery off to the ends. You need to be careful for sure, but that space is meant to be used for storage and it came with a battery in there from the factory. I think you could also minimize potential problems by keeping the battery off to the end of the area but I didn't like it there and I moved it where I did to maximize useable space.

 

[park]

I store maps, books, journal, small plastic electric heater in mine. As long as there isn't any metal type items it should be no problem.

 

[BFH4N]

A thin plywood partition should be sufficient to keep the pans from shorting out the battery terminals.

 

[Rusty]

AGM battery...right?....

If not, you might have other problems with metal cookware... especially aluminum...

 

[Kolockum]

I would cover both terminals with rubber boots then would build a wood box around it. That way you have two layers of protection.

 

[wuck]

Looks like that awning crank is just waiting to sneak over and short my battery out!



I think that secured boot will take care of any possible shorts, I also have a plastic lid that sits on top of the battery normally. Right now, my clothes sit on top of the water tank so I plan on adding a wooden cover to the entire battery/water tank area.