Group 31 vs. group 34

[tbryanh]

fixed the photo - sorry about that. Group 31's are tall enough that the mount has to sit below the frame just slightly. I made my frame so that it can drop down (with the help of a floor jack) to service the batteries. If you decide to remote mount make sure you run large enough cable.

Thanks for the photo.

Are the vertical angle irons that are welded to the base of the battery support bolted to the vehicle frame?

What is the bolt for that goes through the section of the vertical angle iron that extends underneath the base of the battery support?

 

[tbryanh]

huge advantage to the 31s batts is that you can get them at just about any truck stop in the country 24/7. if you travel alot, being tied to brand x battery because of reputation or warranty is totally useless because Murphy will dictate your point of battery failure and it WILL be 1000 miles from the nearest authorized dealer of your platnum plated megaschmaltz special , leaving you holding the bag as you hunt fr a new batt on the spot.

When you have 31s batts, they are generally fairly cheap, around 80-110 bucks for a very high amp batts with an insane reserve capacity ( which is the important part anyway ) and with the ease of availability, you arent going to fuss over brand etc if one poops out on you and you need to use it as a core. swap it out pay the man and go instead of winding up in an ordeal trying to find some fancy batt that dont exist for a 5 state area

x2

 

[rockbender]

Here is another photo for clarification. I built my rack so it would drop down - you can see there are two different pieces. You could easily do something that is similar without the drop down portion. FWIW, I have had this in place for a year or so now and haven't had to drop the batteries for anything.

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Having the drop down assembly is handy as you put your batteries in, hook up your cables, and then use a floor jack to slide the battery bracket up until you can get that bottom bolt in which keeps it in place.

 

[tbryanh]

Thanks for the 2nd photo. That looks real nice the way the battery tray drops down. I think I'll try to make something like that.

 

[opusd2]

That drop down battery tray is one hell of an idea! It's one I may borrow for myself as I was going to add some extra batteries to the truck since I use it for "camping" in and run my converter a lot which tends to draw down the main batteries.

I've always run the largest 34/78s I could find at the time on whatever vehicle I was putting a battery in. Even my gas powered vehicles get two batteries as EFI needs a bit to fire off, and my carb'd trucks like a little extra oomph when it gets cold out. I always pride myself on owning vehicles that start all the time and whatever the circumstances could be. Two vehicles have twin Optimas that I purchased living out in WY about ten years ago, and so far only two have group 31s in them. My CUCV M1009 (or 24 Volt diesel Blazer) and my 79 Bronco that I am setting up for the diesel conversion. And especially with the Blazer having crap for glow plugs in it, the 31s work incredibly well.

And I always like overkill, so 00 welding cable is the battery cable of choice. It's what we use on all of our tractors as well.