Battery relocation made simple. Questions.

I am going to do a battery relocate to under the bed soon. With that being said, I am no stranger to wiring, but I have also never done a battery relocation before either now that I think about it.

- Where are the main ground connections located in the engine bay for the battery?

- In order to wire up my newly relocated battery in the rear, where will I be grounding the new connections (I intend to ground the battery to the frame as the main ground)?

- Power wires. I am not going to be running a dual battery setup, so I have no intention or use for an isolator. However, what will I need for the run from the battery to the alternator and junction block?

If anyone has write ups or drawn diagrams those would be immensely helpful. I will be using an AGM battery as well for the record.

Resolved. See page 3 post 55 and 60.

 

Wow. Why put the battery Under the bed? Seems to be a crappy location.

 

Weight distribution purposes. A more solid mounting platform for the battery to be supported on. Since I like to run the truck fast and hard over rough terrain offroad.

 

No suggestions?

 

Only suggestion I can think of is that some member long ago did this on XRU. Not sure where those threads are, and it is hard to search with my phone. :/

 

Search dual battery setups. I remember pics of a member who had both batteries in the bed. Then you could PM that member.

 

I know the Xrunner guys tend to do the race(y) type of mods that actually somewhat falls in line with what I want to do in this particular case. I have searched quite a bit and haven't found any solid info or diagrams, pictures of routing etc. Of what is involved with the relocate.

Dual battery setups are wired a bit differently then simple single battery setups. Typically you will see an isolator, circuit breakers, and fuse protectors added into the circuits not to mention you will see the secondary battery somehow wired in parallel to the first. It becomes a real rats nest of wiring which doesn't pertain to my particular situation of just wanting to mount a single remotely to the rear. That's why I'm asking what I am, there isn't a whole lot of info out there on how to do a single wired simply and cleanly to the back.

 

Two distribution blocks such as these(from Painless Performance):

Mounted to the fender where the factory battery is, then transfer everything that's hooked up now to your battery to those.
Then mount your battery where you want it, run a long 1/0 gauge cable from positive to positive, two short 1/0 gauge cables, one from frame to battery negative and the other from frame to distribution negative.


I've been on the fence about relocating it. For one it's a long distance for the power to run to the starter.
Second, even though it's about weight distribution, I notice that when I take off the front left lifts the most since it's diagonal to the drive wheel. I think that extra weight may actually help reduce front end lift.

 

This is a great post. I was actually trying to figure out some info about distribution blocks.

As far as lift is concerned. I am not too much worried about it. I am more worried about how sunken I can visually see one side of the battery is. There is always the frame mount option in the current location, which I am not close minded to either.

As far as power is concerned, that is a concern I have as well. So I don't know if it will be a huge issue or not.

 

Yeah, those blocks would then be used for jumping people, or yourself.

 

If you do relocate the battery, and ground it to the frame, you will need to also run a secondary ground cable from the frame to the engine block, as that is the primary ground location since the starter and alternator BOTH use the engine ground for grounding themselves.

 

Right. And also tying all accessory wiring that you used to have previously attached to the battery. GM has similar setups on their 5th gen. And newer Camaro's because they are running trunk mounted batteries.

Moving the battery to the rear would free up some working space however. That is one other plus side of a relocate.

 

Wouldn't that ground wire from the negative distribution block to frame cover that?

 

So the secondary ground that you are talking about. It can be mounted anywhere on the frame as well as on any open mounting location on the engine?

What about all the other main grounds currently on the engine? Should those remain untouched?

 

Best bet is to use a volt meter with long leads and check continuity from the grounding location where you plan to mount the battery to the OEM battery at the OEM location of the one currently on the truck. If there is continuity I wouldn't see the purpose of running a separate ground from the engine block. I am not an expert at DC circuits though, just AC If I am wrong please someone correct me with relevant info.

Edit: Do you plan to relocate the battery to the bed and add a 2nd battery or just add a 2nd battery under the bed?

 

I want to remove my current OEM mounted battery, relocate it to the back, under the bed with a custom mount fabricated for it and leave the OEM location free and clear of that weight to prevent cave in of the stock radiator support/ fender well sheetmetal. Just one battery in use all the time. That's it.

Then again if it's too much hassle im always open to getting a frame mounted front end battery tray too.

 

Well in that case you should just extend the ground wiring from the block and the hot wire.. Basically just make them longer. Or land the ground wire from the block to the frame and just tie in to the frame at the back but you would still have to make the hot wire longer.

 

In regards to mounting the battery in the rear? Or frame mounting it in the front? I'm no understanding what you mean by extending wires?

The downfall to mounting rear is a VERY long hot wire run which is where you lose a lot of energy due to its length. The grounding is no as much of an issue. Which is why I'm relatively open to frame mounting in the front, then you still run into the problem of limited strength due to the fact you can essentially only fabricate up a L style bracket to hold that 40lb. sucker unless you cut into the fender well assembly to add a diagonal support to the frame.

The issue then is that you may hve possible wheel intereference during uptravel.

 

You will also have to protect the battery from impact, dirt and possibly water