Skid plate mounted battery (Pics)

[badger]

I redid my skid plate mounted battery and am extremely happy with the way it turned out, and the stability it provides is great! It had 5" of center cleance and now it has 4.75" of clearnce. I only lost .25", not bad at all for the gain in lower CG.

Here is the custom packs I built to fit in the tight area. I know they are not straight, they actually need to be shaped exactly this way to clear the drive shafts.



Gotta love the braided wire!



The skid plate is now hinged with a 4 mm screw perma locked in the threaded hole in the chassis. Clips hold the other side up.





Here is a shot with the skid/battery tray down.



With a battery strapped in.



Its hard to see the amount of clearance I have, but I did not want to loose too much center clearance so I mounted it as close as possible.





Side view with the battery in.



I just slotted the skid and bolted the strap in place. Keeping the screws and nuts as low profile as possible.



Here's the other side of the 4mm bolt. I taped the hole and used permanant thread lock so I don't have to use a nut.



Side shot with the skid down ready for a battery.



And since I can't have my tranny mount on my skid plate I simply tie rapped the motor to the cross member. It tranny does not move at all it is suprisingly secure with this simple method. Does not look that great though. Ohh well.

[TRD]

Nice work. Do body pins hold the skid plate up in the rear? we will see how well it works tomorrow

[badger]

Yep the body pins hold the rear of it up. They work fine.

[PinchFlat]

That is excellent... the batts down low will make a HUGE difference. And you will never miss that 1/4" of center clearance you lost.

[Jeckler]

Pretty cool. You're right though, the motor "mount" looks pretty ghetto.

[JasonInAugusta]

The tranny mount thing is a simple fix.

Get some extruded "L" aluminum from Lowe's or Home Depot and make a bracket that bolts to one of the chassis plates and to the motor mount plate on the tranny.

[badger]

Originally Posted by wheels

Pimpin aint easy

I learn from the biggest getto ass mofo!

[badger]

Originally Posted by JasonInAugusta

The tranny mount thing is a simple fix.

Get some extruded "L" aluminum from Lowe's or Home Depot and make a bracket that bolts to one of the chassis plates and to the motor mount plate on the tranny.

Yeah, I deffinitly want to fix that. I kindof see what you are saying since I have already bought some "L" aluminum, I just have not spent the time to figure it out yet. If I am going to make a bracket then I want to do it right.

[Bigbadwhitey]

NICE!! I mite Be Gettin A TXT So...I'll Be Doing That.

[EeePee]

I wonder if low and centered is "better" than a lowered up front stock location?
Guess a few more BBs could help with that...

Looks great though man.

But the top few pics aren't working for me.

[badger]

Originally Posted by EeePee

I wonder if low and centered is "better" than a lowered up front stock location?

IMO this setup is far better then my old lowered front setup. The battery is actually lower then the lowered front configuration and the weight in the center of the chassis makes the truck much more stable on side hills and up and down steep stuff.

[Grizzly4x4]

That is seriously hardcore Badger. 8O I hate the thought of building my own battery packs.

The loss of clearance should be worth the gains you will see from the lower, more centered CG.
Seriously badasse setup you got there.

[badger]

Thanks Griz, I was really happy with it yesterday at the trail ride.

Making the battery packs were easy... once you have remade one 10 times! 8O I have never even built a battery pack before this so I had some learning to do.

[AFJ]

that sweet!! you sure cant keep it as it is!!
good job

[badger]

Originally Posted by AFJ

that sweet!! you sure cant keep it as it is!!
good job

Thanks. You are right I can't leave well enough alone... last night I installed my Novak brushless SS 5800 in it just to see what it would do.

HOLY CRAP! This thing moves now with the mammoth and a 9 tooth pinion! It will almost pull wheelies if the trackion is good. 8O And the torque is amazing, way to much power for a crawler! The wheel speed is fun though.

[kona_joe]

Cool Mod!

Lowering the placement of weight on a TxT makes such a dramatic difference in performance.

Joe