Plastic tray for Thor Aria house batteries

[engrprof]

Another quarantine project done today: Put a plastic tray under the 4 house batteries on our Thor Aria. The batteries were just strapped to the metal compartment floor with two 1" wide cloth straps so they shifted quite a bit. Not a good situation in my opinion. I found a plastic tote bin cover measuring 21" x 15" inside lid dimensions. That fit the 4 house battery dimensions well. I drilled 8 3/16" holes so the tray could drain itself (pic 1, should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise). I took a picture of the battery connections to make sure I could reassemble correctly. Because of the tight compartment space, I could not tighten the cloth straps enough, so I placed some lath wood strips in between the batteries top and bottom to make them tighter and prevent the tray from shifting (pic 2). I also inserted some wood pieces between the batteries and the tray. Maybe a fix you Thor Aria owners might want to consider.😏

[aznytfury]

I ended up flipping the direction of the batteries, welding additional supports under the tray and adding another row of batteries to give me about 700 ah of capacity. I had to ditch the straps...but the batteries aren't going anywhere now

[m1noel]

I like it!

[GVP-The Boxcar Children]

Indeed! Something for us to consider on our Aria 4000.
Thanks!
GVP

[Hugh.vines@att.net]

I need that set up on my riding mower in never have to stop good job

[engrprof]

Nicely done! But, how are u going to check water level and fill cells, especially the back 2 batteries? That's why I installed the Trojan caps and water fill tubes. I was lucky that a local Interstate Battery dealer gave me the caps for free. I bot the squeeze bulb/hose from Trojan maybe for $15. After every trip I hook up the squeeze bulb/hose/distilled water assembly. When the bulb quits "squeezing" I know that all 24 cells are full, and then I quit and unplug the hose. Very quick, easy and no acid spills/leaks.

[aznytfury]

Originally Posted by engrprof

Nicely done! But, how are u going to check water level and fill cells, especially the back 2 batteries? That's why I installed the Trojan caps and water fill tubes. I was lucky that a local Interstate Battery dealer gave me the caps for free. I bot the squeeze bulb/hose from Trojan maybe for $15. After every trip I hook up the squeeze bulb/hose/distilled water assembly. When the bulb quits "squeezing" I know that all 24 cells are full, and then I quit and unplug the hose. Very quick, easy and no acid spills/leaks.

Thanks! The pictures don't reflect it because they were right after install, but I added the flow-rite filler system on top afterwards. Makes it easier to fill for sure.

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by aznytfury

I ended up flipping the direction of the batteries, welding additional supports under the tray and adding another row of batteries to give me about 700 ah of capacity. I had to ditch the straps...but the batteries aren't going anywhere now

Attachment 23433

Attachment 23434

Attachment 23435

Attachment 23436

Thanks Aznytfury,
I am running with your idea. I just ordered 6 Lifeline 300A AGM's to install the same way. I am also going to weld in some extra supports as we will have about 540lbs of battery on board. Hopefully, I can get them all in and everything will be able to run all night (one of our originals is toast-went from fully charged to 3V in 40 minutes completly disconnected).
Mike

[aznytfury]

Originally Posted by m1noel

Thanks Aznytfury,
I am running with your idea. I just ordered 6 Lifeline 300A AGM's to install the same way. I am also going to weld in some extra supports as we will have about 540lbs of battery on board. Hopefully, I can get them all in and everything will be able to run all night (one of our originals is toast-went from fully charged to 3V in 40 minutes completly disconnected).
Mike

Awesome! Good luck...it was a pain to get that last one to fit.

I used a heavy duty tie-down strap as a lifting mechanism and that helped.

[m1noel]

Got the 6 lifeline AGM 6CT's installed. Now we have 900Ahrs. Hopefully with the solar we can cut down on the generator usage some.

[NMRVer]

900AH is very impressive. How many AH were the original 4 batteries, if you don't mind. I'm thinking of following your example.

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by nmrver

900AH is very impressive. How many AH were the original 4 batteries, if you don't mind. I'm thinking of following your example.

About 410