Battery on fire!

[Tommadd10]

Recently I was running "Wheeler Pass" a 12k foot mountain pass trail outside of Vegas, in my '91 Blazer. Its a pretty rural area, near Creech AFB where the drone pilots are stationed. In fact, you can see Mount Baldy, a mountain inside area 51 from the trail.

While I was on the trail my radio started acting funny, first sign of an electrical problem... I got out and wrestled my hood open, to find that my factory battery tray had broke free, and my battery had fallen; and was sitting upside down, between the wheel well and the bottom of my radiator. The battery was arcing and had the glow of a gentle camp fire shining from underneath. It was quite exciting....

The battery tray was intact however the thin pieces of metal it was bolted to had sheared off. So my question is for you aggressive off-roaders and overlanders. Have you had to upgrade or fortify your stock battery tray? I am planning on going to dual batteries and was going to order a driver side tray for the 2nd battery, but now Im wondering if I should look at other mounting solutions all together. Thanks for any useful advice!

 

[HankScorpio]

I had the hold down fail and the battery ended up against the header, melted a hole through it but thankfully no fire. @SpeedlabDan will tell you a story about battery fires. Spolier: it didn't end well.

 

[6872xtc]

While I haven't done anything to my factory trays, they are somewhat weak. If I was to do anything, I would look at making a complete new one, using factory mounting points, using a bracket or channel across the top. It should be easier to get a firm hold on the battery vs the clip on the side.

 

[rampage]

You could get something like a sealed battery box. You slide the wires through a couple holes and have a vent hole so there isn’t any exposed metal to short out (unless it comes in contact with a header). A quick search comes up with this:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...Y2z4ZLe3T-qP5AHc69IpBPAfOCt-2iExoCQY4QAvD_BwE

 

[ZooMad75]

Fortify stock mounting points. The captured nuts in the fender are easy to tear out. Weld them in better or weld in new nuts. Make sure your inner fender isn’t Swiss cheese where the tray mounts to it. Even in dry climates the battery can leak acid and rot out the tray and inner fender below.

Make sure the battery is held tight. A loose battery will stress the tray and it’s mounts.

I’ve put a ton of rough off-road miles on my rig with dual batteries and not yet had a problem.

 

[mrk5]

I haven't had trouble with the factory trays yet either. My fenders are falling apart but the battery trays seem okay. I'm running 2 batteries in the factory driver and passenger side trays.

 

[USSkoval]

I had a battery tray rust out on my '78. The battery flopped over and shorted out on the fenderwell. It melted a hole in my fenderwell, melted the terminals out of the battery and melted the negative battery cable. Luckily no fire.

I simply bolted a race car type battery tray to the factory mounts and it has been very sturdy for a few years now.