Free lightweight battery mounting (Deka ETX14)

Wassup fellas, well It's a shitty day and I got bored.
I bought an ETX14 battery a while back (seems to be a favorite amongst the drag race crowd) weighs only 12lbs!

So I've been browsing pics and threads to see what people are doing for mounting, I see fancy braille mounts, I see drilling holes in the firewall for a basket type mount etc... figured someone would want to do it with the OEM stuff on the cheap and here is what I did...

So the OEM battery tray/mount has the perfect sized hole for the ETX14 battery, problem is there is a little hump in the way.
SHAVE THAT BITCH DOWN!.
If you don't own a dremel I don't know what you are doing with your life.


The battery falls right in there (don't shave too much you want some friction).
Problem now is there is an empty little pit where the battery can dip into and lay very crooked.. solution, muthafuckin plastic cup, trim the lip off till your battery is sitting flush.


Now what, OMG the OEM strap is to longzzz!
No problem, line that bitch up (tight) and drill a SMALL hold then thread your hold down bolt into it, BAM new tie down.


To swap, pop out the baby battery and pop your OEM battery back in, put the rod in the orignal hole and done.
All for the low low price of free, sexy little baby battery.

I am only using this for the track, will not be using it daily so not concerned about how long it takes to drain etc...

Nice.

Sweeeeeeet

Dat battery tho! Lol. Good work.

Great idea!

I just wish I could keep my car from draining it after two days.

This thread pisses me off.

I got the etx18......with its extra 5 lbs of weight. Didn't know about this smaller one... EffYouSeeKay!

No world record for you!

think this would work with the odyssey one? I am looking to do this next summer

ndinadis said:

think this would work with the odyssey one? I am looking to do this next summer

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Not sure I will look up the measurements, but I think it's just a little longer.
Also this has more CCA than the odyssey one and is lighter.

BMR Tech said:

This thread pisses me off.

I got the etx18......with its extra 5 lbs of weight. Didn't know about this smaller one... EffYouSeeKay!

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This is how you forum.

fdjizm said:

Not sure I will look up the measurements, but I think it's just a little longer.
Also this has more CCA than the odyssey one and is lighter.

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odyssey pc680 is 14 vs 12 lbs but does have higher CCA 220 vs 200 and has been tested to actually put out 400.
In some threads of long term use, the odyssey seemed to hold up better, if it did die it was easier to bring back and offered a 3 year warranty.
I was debating on which and it just seemed like the small bit of extra weight was worth the piece of mind. Im sure Terry Fair (Vorshlag) can prob weigh in more as he seems to have chosen to run the odyssey pc680 as well.

Yes CCA will be higher at normal temps, CCA is what the battery would do at 0 degrees.
The ETX14 has 220cca as well (on the label and site), but I've heard no complaints with the odyssey.
Also I see some sites putting up 170cca on the description with the odyssey.

http://www.batterymart.com/p-Big-Crank-ETX14-Battery.html

I did this a few years ago. Instead of cutting the battery holder I simply laid mine on its side. I also took a soldering iron to the hole after I drilled it so the hole wouldn't fray.

^that's a good one too!
I was thinking I should probably melt the hole edges a bit also.
soldering iron would do the trick, I didn't know if laying the battery down was a good idea or not.

fdjizm said:

^that's a good one too!
I was thinking I should probably melt the hole edges a bit also.
soldering iron would do the trick, I didn't know if laying the battery down was a good idea or not.

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These sealed batteries can be installed in any position IIRC.


EDIT - I see your 12 lber and raise you a 5 lber. Pretty much the same specs but a whole lot lighter. Lithium Ion FTW. Pricey as shit though MSRP $1312.49

https://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/braille/product_batteries/ml14c

s8v4o said:

These sealed batteries can be installed in any position IIRC.


EDIT - I see your 12 lber and raise you a 5 lber. Pretty much the same specs but a whole lot lighter. Lithium Ion FTW. Pricey as shit though MSRP $1312.49

https://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/braille/product_batteries/ml14c

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Yea fuck a bunch of that I think I will be OK in my 30 mile round trip to and from the track for 75 beans.. haha.

Just an FYI because I be riding nerdy something.
I was keeping track of the voltage drop from a full charge.
9:15PM on 12/7 the voltage 5 min off the charger was 13.17.
Then the battery just sat in the garage, I took the voltage today (12/9) and it was 13.06 So in two full days it lost 0.11 volts.. I assume 2 more days it would be 0.22 and so on and so on...so in about 8-10 days it would get to 12.60 12.70 volts and that would still be decent enough to start the car... so yea this battery wouldn't do well unless driven at least once a week for a full charge. /nerdiness

fdjizm said:

Yea fuck a bunch of that I think I will be OK in my 30 mile round trip to and from the track for 75 beans.. haha.

Just an FYI because I be riding nerdy something.
I was keeping track of the voltage drop from a full charge.
9:15PM on 12/7 the voltage 5 min off the charger was 13.17.
Then the battery just sat in the garage, I took the voltage today (12/9) and it was 13.06 So in two full days it lost 0.11 volts.. I assume 2 more days it would be 0.22 and so on and so on...so in about 8-10 days it would get to 12.60 12.70 volts and that would still be decent enough to start the car... so yea this battery wouldn't do well unless driven at least once a week for a full charge. /nerdiness

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Nothing wrong with nerding it up, I do the same kind of stuff. Are you only putting it in on race days or will it be a daily driver kind of thing?

Also do you have a proper charger for it? You should use a charger that's able to charge AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries. Also regarding the voltage loss, an AGM battery should only lose about 3% per month. That being said I think your experiment results are skewed a little. The reason is because I think you were testing a HOT battery even though you left it off 5 minutes. Generally speaking a 100% fully charged battery should be right around 12.75V. What model charger are you using? Be careful not to overcharge AGM batteries.

I use a Schumacher SSC-1500A. I like this charger because it charges standard, AGM, and Gel batteries. It charges at 3, 8, and 15 amps. It also trickle charges as not to overcharge the battery. It ramps up the amperage in the beginning of the charge but slowly lowers the amps nearing the end. It does this so you get a better complete charge without false fully charged readings. I think you might just have a charger that charges at around 13 Volts no matter the battery condition and thus giving you the results in your test. So I bet if you left it off the charger you would find that the voltage would stabilize to around 12.6 rather quickly and then only lose a little bit every month after that.

s8v4o said:

Nothing wrong with nerding it up, I do the same kind of stuff. Are you only putting it in on race days or will it be a daily driver kind of thing?

Also do you have a proper charger for it? You should use a charger that's able to charge AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries. Also regarding the voltage loss, an AGM battery should only lose about 3% per month. That being said I think your experiment results are skewed a little. The reason is because I think you were testing a HOT battery even though you left it off 5 minutes. Generally speaking a 100% fully charged battery should be right around 12.75V. What model charger are you using? Be careful not to overcharge AGM batteries.

I use a Schumacher SSC-1500A. I like this charger because it charges standard, AGM, and Gel batteries. It charges at 3, 8, and 15 amps. It also trickle charges as not to overcharge the battery. It ramps up the amperage in the beginning of the charge but slowly lowers the amps nearing the end. It does this so you get a better complete charge without false fully charged readings. I think you might just have a charger that charges at around 13 Volts no matter the battery condition and thus giving you the results in your test. So I bet if you left it off the charger you would find that the voltage would stabilize to around 12.6 rather quickly and then only lose a little bit every month after that.

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It's literally only for the track, ride there, race, ride home battery out.

I picked up a Deltran battery tender plus, says I can leave it on indefinitely and it does all it's automatic magic. I will check it today when I get home but that 13.06 was after 2 full days.

Ok, I have a brand new ETX14 at my disposal so let me do some tests. Will report back later.

Me: 0
OCD: 1

I bought the ETX14L because it would get closer to the terminals.
Positive is on the right so when flipped around the terminals are closer to the firewall, yes I am aware I have issues.


FYI battery out of the box from delivery is at 13.08 v