89 Chieftain Battery Tray

[Jamo]

While cleaning up the coach battery tray I noticed something on the underside of the tray. There are two welded plates on the underside designed to capture two "ears" on the side of the battery box that will keep the tray from falling on to the ground when the tray is slid out to check the batteries. I'm running two six volt batteries and the rear most battery post has a short battery cable on it to prevent the tray from being pulled all the way out because then it would fall on to the ground.


I'm still thinking of installing two heavy duty drawer slides to the tray making it easier to check the battery levels but it would mean lengthening the rear most cable to allow the tray to be slid out far enough to be able to easily check the battery level. Has anyone else done this modification?

[Rickf1985]

I would also be really interested in this modification. Mine sounds just like yours. I always assumed the previous owner butchered up the original setup but it sounds like that is how it is. I have long cables and I put metal milk crates down outside the tray and slide it out and set it on the crates.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

You could also purchase a battery watering system and not have to worry about modifying anything.  A battery watering system is a set of replacement caps, linked together with tubing.  You simply pull out the fill tube and put distilled water in it...and it will distribute to all your battery cells.  The replacement caps have a little indicator that floats up and lets you know the batteries are full...so you can check them at a glance instead of pulling them off to look inside your batteries.


One of the members here, Elandan2 sells them through his small business, Dupree Products.


http://www.dupreeproducts.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=5


Kev