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I finally trunk mounted the Hawker G13EP battery that I bought a year or two ago. I used 1/0 gauge wire because I can get it cheap and because the starter is capable of drawing several hundred amps. I could have used smaller gauge because the G13EP only puts out a little over 200A, however I'd rather go overkill than undersize my wire. It blows my mind that people use 2 and 4 gauge wire and most kits out there have no provision for any overcurrent protection for that wire, so if it goes to ground, you're toast, literally.
Here's one end of the wire, coming through the hole in the fender well.
The following two pictures are of the extension cord box I used to protect the connection from grounding. I used a bolt cutters and pair of needlenose pliers to take the OEM positive battery terminal apart. I just used a bolt to hold them to the terminal on the cable. I'd recommend using a stainless bolt and locknut for this. I left the OEM battery ground in until I do my ground kit and if I have to put a larger CCA battery up here this winter, the switchover will be easy and only require, a new ground wire and set of clamps which I have on hand, and installing a fuse or circuit breaker up front since the current will be flowing to the trunk for my amp.
Here's a couple wheel-well shots of the wire. I simply released the two cable ties that hold the main harness in, fished the wire through and retightenend the cable ties. I've heard people mention concern about running wiring through here because they had removed their wheel-well liner. If that's the case then you should be just as concerned that the main harness for the car is exposed as well. If you were going to run smaller wires through here, for an alarm or when adding circuits to the battery, I would suggest using a wire loom. Running the wire through here was so quick and easy, I can't imagine drilling holes in the firewall and having to run wire around the inside of the engnie bay. If it's good enough for OEM why not?
You can see the rubber bushing in the firewall that the wire and main loom go through. I simply cut a slit in this with a razor knife. It wouldn't be a bad idea to squeeze some silicone or vulkem around the wire were it meets the hole you cut, to ensure a weathertight seal.
Here's an inside shot of the wire coming down the inside firewall from the bushing.
The next two pics show the wire running along the driver's side. The plastic raceway that runs along there is plenty large and easily accomodated this wire, despite how large it is. (oh my!). I wasn't concerned with how it might interfere with OEM speaker wiring since at the same time I was running new speaker wire for the front speakers to a trunk mounted amp, and was running them through the raceway on the passenger's side, which was almost empty and only accomodated the door pin switch wiring.
In these next two pics you can see how I ran the wire up the driver's side rear and along the front edge of the back deck. I zip tied the wire in place and left extra wire around the upper rear suspension mounts so it wouldn't be in the way when removing the mounts or RSTB.
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- Rob
Wicked White '08 EVO GSR "Jaws"
Last edited by Toolapcfan; 03-18-2005 at 03:01 PM.
Here's where the wire runs through the body into the trunk. I used that rubber edge trim to keep the metal from chiseling into the wire over time.
This is the tray/bracket for the battery that I TIG welded together this past winter. Mounts up nearly perfect to the mounting spots for the jack, which easily fits down with the spare tire.
The battery fits pretty snug. You can see the nipple that's on the top of the battery and you can also see the trunk vent at the bottom right just under the battery tray. I'm going to run a hose from that nipple to that vent to vent the gases that occur when the battery is charging.
In the next pic you can see how I connected my 1/0 wire to a circuit breaker up top and then to the battery. I'm using a 180A CB although I might switch it to a 140A or even 100A if I can do so without it tripping when I start the car. The thing is, even though the starter can pull several hundred amps, it does so for such a brief amount of time that most fuses and circuit breakers wont blow/trip that quickly, so the smallest you can use without that happening the better off you are. A 19' piece of 1/0 wire is only safely capable of handling 265A continuous. Most fuses and circuit breakers won't trip quickly until they've reached 200% of their rated capacity. So a 132.5A fuse would be the largest fuse size you'd want to put on this wire. Since that size is not easy to come by, if at all, a 130A would suffice. I have a 180A circuit breaker, which won't trip quickly until it reaches 360A. So I'll have to experiment and see what the smallest I can use is without the thing blowing/tripping, and bear in mind that temperature and crank time play a big role in that, what works fine one day, might not work the next.
There's a piece of 4 gauge that jumps down from the protected side of the circuit breaker to a 60A fuse in my fuseholder for my amp. The amp only pulls 40A and has fuses built in. I used a 60A fuse to protect that wire since its only feeding the amp, is about 7' long and therefore can safely handle a continous load of 138A, which is well above the 120A at which that fuse will blow. That wire would barely get warm before that fuse would blow. I'm going to use a rubber strap to hold the battery down and it will also hold the fuse and CB in place as well.
I grounded the battery at the bolt for the seatbelt. I wanted to put it on the other side of the bolt, and hold it on with a lock nut, but the bolt isn't long enough, and I couldn't find a slightly longer bolt of the correct diameter to replace that bolt with, so I put it on the inside. Later on I'll go to a bolt supplier that will have the right diameter and thread pitch bolt and hopefully in a high grade as well, and I'll change that out.
Last edited by Toolapcfan; 03-18-2005 at 03:09 PM.
very good write up, i am currently putting together parts to do this, instead of using the hawker battery i will be using a civic battery along with the tray and tie downs from a S2000, i also planned on insulating the area i am going to put the battery in hopes of preventing the battery from freezing because winter sometimes get very cold, as well as using a vent tube
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Change is Inevitable I create my own path, i dont follow others
very good write up, i am currently putting together parts to do this, instead of using the hawker battery i will be using a civic battery along with the tray and tie downs from a S2000, i also planned on insulating the area i am going to put the battery in hopes of preventing the battery from freezing because winter sometimes get very cold, as well as using a vent tube
That's something I'm going to add to my write-up that I keep forgetting about, the vent tube. The hawker has a nipple on it for a vent tube and you can run the tube out of the trunk vent that is right below where I mounted the battery. Since my fuseholder and circuit breaker sits right over that vent hole, I'll just drill a hole in that lower felt covered masonite board and use a 90 degree plastic barbed fitting to turn the vent hose and then run it out from there. I think most people don't realize that the hawker is not a sealed battery. In fact, most "sealed" lead acid batteries have vents somewhere on them. I don't think you can have a lead acid battery that doesn't. All batteries give off something when they charge, even gel cell, nimh, etc however lead acid do so more than others.
Last edited by Toolapcfan; 11-01-2004 at 10:11 AM.
Toolapcfan, do you have a list of all the items needed to do this?
~ 22' 1/0 wire
5 - 1/0 gauge ring terminals with 5/16" ring
1 - 1/0 gauge ring terminal with 3/8" ring
~ 6" heatshrink tubing
1 - 180A circuit breaker
1 - extension cord connection protector box
1 - nut and bolt
~ 10 8" cable ties
I had to drill out the 3/8" ring to about 7/16" to fit it over the seatbelt bolt for the battery ground. I also used bolt cutters to clip the edge off of two of the 5/16" rings to get them to fit on the lugs for the circuit breaker. I have two less attractive versions of the battery tray that I made if anyone is interested. I'm probably the cheapest place to get most of this stuff. I don't even know of a stereo shop in town that carries 1/0 wire and they don't even carry silver tinned stuff. If they did they'd charge you $10 a foot for it, and that's a conservative estimate.
just as a side note, spend the extra money and get the circut breaker, you may want to cheap your way out and buy a fuse, but if it ever shorts out, you don't buy a $5 fuse, you just flip the switch, also makes servicing electrical parts easier.....
IMHO, a fuse is better than a circuit breaker, because it's more fail-safe. But I agree, a circuit breaker makes life easy because it can be reset and you can push the button to open it when you're servicing things that require the battery to be disconnected.
no plans to run a 1/0 gauge wire from the negative terminal to the block/bellhousing to eliminate potential ground loops?
No. I used a 1/0 wire to ground the battery and I figure the body of the car has more conductive surface area than a 1/0 wire. So far I've replaced the OEM engine ground (thermostat to chassis) and put another ground in from the alternator bolt to the OEM grounding point under the coolant overflow bottle. I'll do two more grounds as well. I think the grounding kit will be more than sufficient to make up for the battery being in the back. Besides, I think a ground loop would mostly affect the audio system, probably wouldn't do anything to other electrical components in the car.
Can you provide any more info on the type of circuit breaker you used, and vendors or sources for it?
My SE-R has a trunk mount compliments of the previous owner; and it freaks me out that there's that long cable run with no protection. Ever seen Larry W's burned up NX?!?! Yikes!
I sell the circuit breaker for $20. It's about $40 anywhere else you can get them.
If enough people wanted the battery tray I would consider manufacturing them, but to be honest, nobody seemed at all impressed with it but myself. Which is fine, I didn't do it to impress anyone, I thought it was rather ingenious and the smartest way to mount the battery, and so I did it. So, due to lack of response, there's no way I'd even bother. I have two others I made laying around and they'll likely wind up in the trash since they're not as nice looking. Not to mention, I don't have a sheer or tig welder conveniently laying around, so making them at home would take far too much work to be worthwhile. I'd have to charge a lot of money to even bother with them.
Last edited by Toolapcfan; 01-27-2005 at 04:59 PM.
A friend of mine had his made, but it's a completely enclosed box... lid and all... I'll post a pic when I see the car again.
I could TIG up some completely closed boxes again (we've used 'em for other things) outta alum. or mild steel, and, when I get one done, I'll post a pic of it, too...
Harry
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...another thread invasion from Harry, who came back and noticed that everything was suddenly fcuking different. What happened?
Not on the forum much lately since neck injury - we'll be back at it soon, babying the n00bies.
JWT S4, HS 6, Home Depot Intake, Hypercoil 2s w/ KYB "GR-Poo", CF Sunroof Delete panel, and other crap - where's my interior?
Old thread I know, but for anyone planning to do this. Whether the cable is run on the inside or outside of your car, put it loom. No sense taking a stupid chance on something cutting the insulation and ruining your expensive wire. Loom is cheap, new cable and time to re-run it is not. I'm suprised no one brought this up.
The insulation on that 0 gauge wire is ten times thicker than any flimsy wire loom is. Sleeving the wire with clear vinyl tubing would be a better choice and would actually be cheaper than wire loom.
man u make it sound hard...i did mine in ten minutes with a kit i baught...its done right and it was hella easy...good tips thoe...im using an rv battery to power my little stallion...deep cycle....
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Which is fine, I didn't do it to impress anyone, I thought it was rather ingenious and the smartest way to mount the battery, and so I did it. So, due to lack of response, there's no way I'd even bother. I have two others I made laying around and they'll likely wind up in the trash since they're not as nice looking. Not to mention, I don't have a sheer or tig welder conveniently laying around, so making them at home would take far too much work to be worthwhile. I'd have to charge a lot of money to even bother with them.
