Need Cheap Battery Trays

[Metallover]

Well now that we know of some cheap trays, what are some cheap straps? Velcro tape stuff?

[saucisse]

How about the Hyper9e battery tray? Cheap and clean...

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by rawfuls

Just noticed, that, I got the 3", wish I would've gotten the 4"

I could cut the whole box, in half, and screw the half side (the lid) into the side, and theoretically, have two trays, from one.

Is this possible, have you tried it Finnster?
Sounds like something that would work quite well.

This would let both sides have standoffs on all four corners, and can use GMaxx straps diagonally, or is that not safe?

I guess I could do two straps on one tray..

Also, width wise, I'm not gonna cut it, I have to little space to cut, so even if I do cut it, it wouldn't be stable as I'd like it.

I'll just put some foam in, and let it have some cushion.
Oh, and I need to buy some velcro.
Grr

Ok, sry that took a few days, but have been busy. The pics above are my old tray I removed. Orig it was for a 140mm long pack, then I cut it up in half width wise to extend it for Zippies. Ran that for over a yr w/ no problems. Its a bit dirty :) Cemented a little ABS scrap on the side for extra protection

I have Neus now, and the other tray I showed is the new one and all one piece. I don't want to remove it, so posted the other pics so you could see the bottom and the overlap I was talking about.

I would remove the standoffs personally. They tend to get in the way really, but you can keep them if you want. As far as making two trays from one, IDK. You would want to make the one wall really strong, but I can't see how you would attach the side in a very durable way. With my method above, using overlapping material and ABS cement, the bonds are extremely strong. Seems like just attaching along the 1/8" wall would be not that strong, plus you would have to make a very straight cut to you don't have gaps. My way can be pretty sloppy and it doesn't matter.

As far as attching to a TVP. Its a bit harder, but I had some ideas. I was going to conv my sav XL, and bought stuff, btu never did it so its not tested. My plan was to make a tray as usual. If I couldnt have one tray inside the TVPs, I was going to make two trays and bolt them on the sides. I bought some small alu stand offs to use. Then I was going to cut up part of the lid as reinforcement and cement to side to increase thickness around the mounting areas. Then I would countersink the bolt holes (in reinforced areas) and mount the trays into the tvps with panhead screws (so they are flush inside the box.)
The bolts would pass thru standoffs (maybe 4mm tall) and into the TVPs where I would drill and tap a screw hole into. Could put a nut behind too. Thinking 6 bolts per side. If I felt it needed it, I would get the flux tray mounts and use two on the bottom to extra support.

All my trays use a single strap down the center. In the hyper they are mounted to the chassis. Since the .5 uses a small batt, I used CA glue to bond the strap to the box itself. Has stayed tight for over a year. Not sure if I'd do this for the big batts tho. Then again, CA is used on tires, so maybe it would work. Wide strap and enough glue it shouldn't go anywhere.

For the Sav, attaching straps (2 straps IMO) width wise may make more sence, then I'm sure teh CA glue trick would work. You could screw mount them, but that's a pain, and the straps tend to rip around screws if a lg washer isn't used.

CHEAP STRAPS

McMaster Carr has great straps, and they are like $1ea. See pic.


It may or may not make sence for you to make these. The big advantage they are cheap, reconfigurable and can be made to ANY size. Some of the OEM trays are ok (like novaks, tekno etc) but they are limited in range of sizes. There are no trays for the 110mm sized 2100mah batts like I have in my .5. Most OEM trays don't fit 50mm wide batts either, let alone A123s or such.

Plus making custom stuff is a fun part of the hobby (for me anyways.)

[Finnster]

BTW, if you get straps from MMC, make sure to order the std straps, not the heavy duty. The HDs sound like a good idea, but the velcro is only rated for 100 cycles, and doesn't hold itself well.

[Metallover]

Thanks for the info man! I'm really looking forward to working with abs... It should be a lot different then pvc.

Not to say I don't like it though. I love it.

I wonder if they have project boxes at mcmaster? They would probably be cheaper then radioshack, am I right?

[BrianG]

For straps, I use this stuff. It's cheap, lasts a long time, and works well. After I cut and drill the mounting hole, I singe the edges with a lighter. All my non-RCM trays use this.

[rawfuls]

I have 15ft of cheap eBay Velcro, held up very well actually.
12Ft for about $7 bucks.

It has the adhesive backing, but I put them together, and make a full strap.