Hopes dashed... Damn you Fiat!

[RonSchon]

So, I'm going through all kinds of thoughts regarding camper power, and saw a post last night regarding mounting a second battery under the hood of a members F250...

I mull this over... Thinking, hey, I've got a 2500, no diesel, so no 2nd battery. I bet I have a ready made platform sitting right there just waiting for a battery. It's late, so I figure I'll just measure it in the morning then run out and get a suitable Optima or some such...

I go out there this morning - not only is there not a platform for a 2nd battery - there isn't even space where one would go. I guess they just do the CTD completely different under the hood.

Something tells me I could put a Optima blue top under my bench seat and it would be fine there, but the safety person in me (he's a pretty small fella) says that might get me a Darwin Award.

I've read where members have gone that route, and just created a ventilation route. I guess I'll just think about it a little longer.

 

[HERR42]

Optima's are an AGM battery.

no outgassing.
non spillable.
VERY IMPORTANT -> they may be mounted horizontal.

as such, any AGM battery is good in a non-ventillated space.

you could put one under the seat.

tie-downs prevent movement in a crash. tie it down.

 

[Ted]

The factory battery option is an Optima AGM mounted in the bench seat with no ventilation. We run dual AGM's there, no ventilation.

 

[RonSchon]

ouch

I went to Sams Club and picked up the Optima deep cycle blue top. That puppy set me back $155 plus $9 for the core charge (I don't have an exchange battery).

I'll work on a tie down and my cabling tomorrow. Puffins left me a connect cable, but I'm not sure exactly how I can route it yet.

Might be rudimentary at first.

 

[EdoHart]

What year is your Dod..er Fiat?

My '99 1500 had a place for the second battery tray. It wasn't a nice flat spot, but rather it was stamped so that a factory battery tray could be mounted there. In it's place were a few things connected via flexible hoses. I bought a tray from the dealer and built a few simple brackets to reposition the stuff that was in the way. It works great for me.

I went to take a picture but the camera battery is dead. I can get a shot for you tomorrow if you want. My stock battery is mounted almost identically.

 

[RonSchon]

Thanks Ed - I had a 1997 1500, but don't remember back as to the layout. My 2003 CTD had 1 on each side. This 2004 doesn't seem to have any room - the spaces are all filled with permanent crap.

 

[K7MDL]

The 05 RAM 2500 Gas may have a aux battery tray that is usable

I was lookin at my 2005 RAM 2500 Hemi the other night, wanting to install a 2nd battery to run my future camper and ham radio gear.

It does appear to have a second battery tray identical to the primary one, and confirmed in the 2004 Dodge Body Builders diagrams and text. The only problem is that tray it is used as the Air Filter box mount, and potentially a mount for the "air intake heater relay", but not sure on the latter, as the 3d drawings x-ray view cannot clearly tell me if the relay is above or below the tray. I am guessing below the tray.

So in theory, if I could put a cold air intake with long tube on, mounted and routed so as to bypass a 2nd battery onto the tray, the long tube would enhance low end torque (where mine spends most of its life, 1500 -3000 RPM).

Been looking at aftermarket air intakes and none so far have mentiond anything about avoiding the aux battery if installed.

So there may be hope, but more info required (or experimentation $$).

- Mike
Seattle

 

[fish more]

Dual Batteries

I was able to mount dual AGM'S in the stock location, turned batteries on their sides, built a bracket to keep batteries from moving (very tight). The system works great, also frees up space under the couch seat arear for more storage, AGM is the way to go. Check out the batteries from Cabelas, they have a very high reserve rate. When using my camper I can get at least 4.5 days on one battery !! Check it out.