Battery boxes were TOO sealed!

[ted.lowe]

i thought i'd pass on this tidbit for what it's worth.  i've always been proud of my battery boxes (made by my cousin the lifelong professional welder).  They are strong but not too strong (18 gauge steel i think), insulated, weatherproof and very integrated into the S-10.  However, i recently discovered one flaw, they were TOO sealed!

When i was replacing my 2nd battery pack (2 packs in 10 years for approx. 30,000mi) with my 3rd pack (20 x Trojan t-125's $2,488.67 from Battery Service including FVEAA discount and palette price), i found that two of my boxes had standing water/ice in them.  Some rain got in my bed and leaked into the boxes and because they were so sealed...  easily fixed with a 3/16" hole drilled in the lowest spot of the box to allow future draining if necessary.  Anyway... here are a couple of pics:




Here are the batteries and insulation removed from the above box:

[tim.moore]

Seeing that makes me think the idea of having my wife and son scrubbing down each battery and then putting them in individual plastic bags was totally unnecessary. If you Ted did not have a battery short, or ground fault interrupter problem with that kind of standing water then no body will.  I never baking soda and watered my batteries, (except the family bagging day),  I just blew them off with an air compressor, and wiped them down.  The Trojan batteries are very hardy, glad it was a simple drilling solution.

[todd.dore]

Nearing 7,000 miles on the Lithiums, and the battery boxes are totally clean!  Only a small brown powdery substance that is over one of my copper bus bars - not sure what the hell it is!  Seems like very fine saw dust, and it is so minor you have to look hard or you will miss it.

Anyway, Lithium leaves no sulfuric acid backwash behind - just clean healthy boxes.

I cannot tell you how horrid the insides of the boxes were when I changed over from PbA - I had to scrub those bad boys down with major baking powder and scrape away parts where the acid starting eating into the box.  Fortunately no structural damage!