[PSUBS-MAILIST] battery pod

[Rick Patton via Personal_Submersibles]

Well I just got blindsided by my first, what I would call major problem,
since I started this project which I guess is pretty good but it might be a
major one. On any project, you tend to look forward the best you can when
you fabricate something to make sure you are not painting yourself into a
corner but this one may have got me I think.

My battery pod design is a little different than what's on the plans. I
attach the end caps a little differently but I also take the power into the
sub a little differently as well. I wanted to be able to remove the
batteries when needed without a lot of trouble though the end caps will
usually always stay on. I built an aluminum tray for each side that all 4
batteries fit into end to end and that tray slides along two pieces of SS
angle welded into the inside. One leg goes up and the other leg points
inward at each other.

After building the aluminum trays using 1/4" flat bar, I snuggled the SS
angle to both sides of the tray adding a little slop to it so they wouldn't
be too snug and bind then put them inside the pipe and went down until the
SS angles touched the inside of the pipe and tack welded the SS angles in
place plumb and true. Before doing all this, I made a plywood template of
it to confirm that I would have the clearance I needed based on using the
12 volt wet cell battery the plans call for.

Even with the thickness of the SS tracks and aluminum trays, I had a
comfortable clearance for passing my sealing ring. Well,,,I found out that
with the batteries in the tray, they will not slide under/past the copper
all thread that comes in at the 32 degree angle from the hull and I cut
those about as short as I could to be able to get the 2 nuts on them with a
lug. From what little I understand about wet cell batteries, I guess they
come in different classes based on certain things so I don't think I can
just go get ones that are a little shorter. I am all ears guys! I have had
usually non P subbers ask me why I didn't use new state of the art lithium
batteries or golf cart batteries but I am limited on space and
dimensions and also a lot of thought went into trimming the boat out using
that particular battery.

Rick
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