Optima Dual Battery Tray Tie Down

[74 Bronco Billy]

Anyone have pics of how they mounted a dual optima battery tray?
Did you put holes in the inner fender apron to allow access to the hex tie down screws of the battery tray?

Thanks,

Forrest

 

[DirtDonk]

I've seen it done several ways, but none of them looked like access was super easy.
I always thought that "notching" the wheel well and mounting the battery tray longitudinally would be cool. But I've never taken the measurements to see if was even feasible.

I'm not sure where they are, but I may have some pictures I've taken over the years of different installs. Hopefully I can find some and post them up for you.
IN the meantime, back to the top in case someone else will see this and post up theirs.

Paul

 

[jim3326]

If you have the room for the height, attach some Unistrut to the brace and bolt the bat. box to the strut.

 

[74 Bronco Billy]

Paul, longitudinally you would really cut into wheel well if that is ninety degrees from my pics. Otherwise, I’d be cutting into the wheel well full length to drop it the one inch I need. Not sure I like opening up the wheel well to water being thrown on top of the battery on rainy days, or did I get that right?

Uninstrut would work, but I think I’m going to fab some metal to weld to the bottom of the Optima battery tray to allow me to bolt the tray to the original battery tray supports. I may weld a rest on the wheel well with threaded holes to screw in the battery tray. Hard part is knowing if the tray positioned at that height in the pictures will be too high for the terminals to possibly hit the hood or not. Don’t like the idea of shorting out on the hood. Still hoping I can see some pictures from some guys of this mod.

Back to the top
Forrest

 

[DirtDonk]

Yes, effectively "notching" the wheel house to fit the tray down at a normal level. Whether that's a shallow cut to allow it to drop down in it's current orientation, or a bigger cut to allow it to be oriented 90° to the way it is in your pic.

But my thinking was not just to leave it open, but to create a box to close it off. Like it would have been had it been stamped that way.

The downside of course is if your tires are large and fill the wells pretty fully. Most of ours don't though, so I'm pretty sure that there is enough room in that area for a pretty big cut on most Broncos.

Paul