Mild Depression . . .

The forward carrier for eight of the batteries was welded and painted, but it occurred to me that I didn't want to try and position each battery individually in the frame after mounting in the chassis as this involved too much lifting and carrying so a couple of lifting eye bolts were also fitted so that the batteries could be fitted on the ground and then the whole "kit and caboodle" lifted into place.

You my have noticed in the previous post that somehow I had the mudguard mounts slightly out of line (which would explain why only one was touching the new spring and the other didn't) which could be seen from the pipes inserted in one not lining up with the other.
It was only a small amount but it was enough to stop the battery carrier mounts lining up as well so it was off with the mudguard mount

for a bit of cutting and welding.


















After which the batteries were loaded into the carrier and some retaining bars made from aluminium angle (you can see I am becoming weight concious all of a sudden) with some blocks made from a hard foam pressing down on the batteries and lifted (with a bit of finger crossing as it weighed about 400kg) into position.


















The rear set of mounts for the remaining 4 could also now be positioned.  These are slightly different from the front set which were just bolted into place using existing bolt hole positions which were convenient enough that the carrier could be designed to make use of them. However the rear set had no convenient holes nearby and I was not about to drill any (it's not a good idea to drill holes in a chassis anyway) especially as they would need to be right in front of the main rear house mounts and therefor load on the chassis - a recipe for disaster!  Fortunately I had some extra U-bolts made at an earlier stage it the project which I ended up not using and they were perfect for the job.  You win some - you lose some.



















The carrier frame and the chassis mount end up having a 15mm thick disk of urethane (from a shock absorber mount) sandwiched between them

and a through sleeve which is extra long goes right through all that.  This allows the carrier to sit on the pad and when the chassis twists the carrier will stay straight while the sleeve moves up and down (to the limit of the washer) and thus cannot bounce out.

Next a rear carrier was manufactured, loaded ready to go

and also lifted into position.

All the inter-battery links are in position but now I need to couple up the main positive and negative links to the inverter/charger which is still in it's original position inside the house.  It's tempting to think about moving that outside onto the main chassis, there is a nice spot for it, but it would mean that a really waterproof container would be needed to think about any creek crossings!!  I think this part falls under the "If it ain't broke - don't fix it" category.

However it does mean repositioning the master switch (this is a temporary routing while setting out and conduit will be added for the final installation).

Some bulkhead conectors were also required to get the power from the outside to the inside.  The 12volt Shop had some but they were not the right size (200 amp required), would take some time for the correct size to arrive and as they were made by the Blue Sea Company would be prohibitively expensive.  Fortunately I had some 3mm copper sheet, 20m diam. brass bar and 50mm diam acetal; with that and an hour or so I can achieve the same thing.

















Now all I need is to get some more 70mm^2 cable cut to length and terminated with the proper lugs and I can hook it all back together.

It was so close before, in fact all the electrical systems were working, it was just that the weight distribution was so bad that any improvement was worth it.
All it takes is time and more money . . .
I think that mild depression is getting an upgrade . . .