I made some of my battery boxes by first making a plywood mold which will
shape the inside of the battery box. For the top edge of the box, I screw
on a 1/4 inch by 3 inch piece of plywood that makes a flat area for a
fiberglass 1/4 inch cover to come down on.
To make it water proof, make this top flange about 1 inch horizontal flange
and than come down vertical for 1 inch and than go 1 inch horizontal again.
This gives a top lip a Z pattern where the top 1 inch wide and bottom 1
inch wide flanges have a double rib weather stripping which is the good ones
that is close foam, not the standard foam rubber type.
After you make your wood mold, than glue on a smooth surface piece of floor
vinyl to make the surface smooth that will be against the batteries.
Go to a industrial fiberglass place that also uses this method in mold
making and you can have them lay up the fiber glass which will be in layers
of cloth only. You can also pick up the material to do it your self, but I
find its cheaper to have them do it, if you have a source for this.
You also want to make a cover that will fit the top of these battery boxes
that will also have the zig zag edges. The cover can either be clamp down
tight on the out side with plated buckle type clamps or you can fasten the
cover to the bottom of pickup bed, where when its lifted, the cover comes up
too.
This will be rain tight and splash proof, but if you submersed it in a river
for a while, it may lick some.
To get the cable feeds and some air venting, I use the standard high
pressure PVC pipe fitting in the 2 inch size. I come off with the long
sweep PVC 90 degree 2 inch elbows. I connect the flexible 2 inch HD hoses
that are normally use for large vacuum systems which is use as conduit for
the cable and connecting to a inline all plastic fans for a filter intake
and exhaust which connects to 2 inch PVC rigid piping that is install below
the pickup box, like a engine exhaust.
You can get all these materials and fittings from one of the large hardware
stores, except the fiberglass material which you can also get from a auto
supply paint store.
Roland
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Kobb" <
[email protected]>
To: <
[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: [EVDL] S10 in a head-on crash - all batts in bed
>
> Thanks, All.
>
> I should have been more explicit about the reason for wanting those
> batteries in the bed.
>
> It's simple: I live in Houston, and Houston floods.
>
> Now, there may be a way to make those batt boxes waterproof, so I'm open
> to
> any guidance you might have.
>
> However, I gotta tell 'ya: The idea of driving a fully-charged EV through
> a
> foot-and-a-half of standing water does not really turn me on... or at
> least
> not in a way that I would enjoy.
>
> So I latched on to the batts-in-the-bed solution just as a way to keep 'em
> high 'n dry. If there's a way to keep 'em low and GUARANTEED dry, well...
> talk to me.
>
> Welded polypropylene perhaps?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Steve Kobb
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/S10-in-a-head-on-crash---all-batts-in-bed-tf4307863s25542.html#a12264662
> Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at
> Nabble.com.
>
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