Hello Willie,
My battery box was made out of fiberglass. It held 90 large 20 inch high 300 ah Exide Tuder 2.2 cobalt cells 20 inches high that weigh about 30 lbs each. The bottom was 1/2 thick which was only supported by the two frame rails with two fiberglass support beams. Non metallic structure made it non conductance which made it electrical isolated from the metal body. All electrical components, motor controller, battery charger, and chassis boxes are all place in and on non-conductive surfaces. There are two ways to construct these boxes. One is to make a reverse mode of the battery box using plywood and covering it with a vinyl floor covering. Either you or a fiberglass company will than spray a mode release on the vinyl, spray on a gel coat and than lay up fiberglass cloth starting with a very fine material on the first layer and ending up with a heavy grid pattern on the last layer ending up with a 1/4 inch wall thickness. I had support angles glass on the outside bottom edge that was 1/4 thick that allow me to bolt the battery box to the bed of the pickup through into the frame rails. After the fiberglass cures, than you can have the inside surface spray with a two part hot mix of porcelain epoxy coating which is a very hard surface. The other way, is to purchase the fiberglass sheets yourself from the fiberglass company that are can be epoxy coating. I have use this method to make a battery box that is only 12 inches high by 43 x 54 inches that fit in the pickup box between the wheel well housing. Install equipment box 12 inches high by 16 x 60 inches that houses the battery charger, contactors, circuit breaker chassis, and fuses. The fiberglass company can supplied all the material to attach the sheets together and show you how to do it. The last method is to use aluminum sheeting which I would use if I was to construct a car which I would make out of aluminum. The aluminum support structure should be not less than 0.08 inch or we call 80 thousands. To just to make the box, lay out a pattern for a sheet metal cutting pattern. The sheet should have flange about one inch that is bent 90 degrees which allows the side sheets to fasten to by either rivets or welding if you have the machine to do this. The side sheets should also have a 90 degree flange on one end, so it can be fasten to the next side sheet. Also the top edge of the side sheets should have a 90 degree flange for a cover to lay on. You may have to put a mid cross panel about midway in the box to support the sides if require. Roland ----- Original Message ----- From: Willie2 via EV<mailto:ev@lists.evdl.org> To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List<mailto:ev@lists.evdl.org> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2016 10:30 AM Subject: [EVDL] battery box I'm looking for a source for a weather tight, probably fiberglass, box. About 4'x6' and 2' high with a lift-up top. Can anyone suggest? Some custom fiberglass shop? _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20160312/ad403fe4/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
