Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
My front battery rack is made from a steel section of the side of a trailer.
It is VERY beefy.
After removing the radiator and other things from the front of the car, there really wasn't much left!I think a heavy front battery tray adds a crash-test star to a Metro!Since it was so nice and solid, I used the battery tray as the attachment point for the tow bar. In the photos, you can see the tabs that the tow bar goes into. It's a nice feature to have if you ever want to show off your electric car at some distant event, or have any sort of trouble and need to tow it home.
Although I am not sure if the "tow Geo" would be up to pulling the electric one!  |
Wow, that rack looks so beautiful, makes me cringe to look at mine in comparison....but it works. I limited myself by keeping that funky looking dip-down bar rather than cutting it out and putting a straight piece like you did.
I DID have the advantage of not needing the hood retention latch since my hood bolts down thanks to the previous owner. That also meant I could remove the bar going straight down-that thing REALLY gets in the way! As far as towing goes, I bet my car isn't too far off from stock weight now that I have 4 (and hopefully very soon 6) of the smaller group 24 batteries, so I bet my tow Geo could handle it; but then, I don't think there are any events anywhere around here. I had my heart set on showing it at the "Festival in the Park" here in town, but my car was finished exactly a week after that event.
But on the subject of batteries, I just found a Craigslist post from Exide and they are paying $7 per car battery, or 20 cents per pound of battery!!!! I am one VERY happy camper right now!!!!
I have those 6 Trojan T105's I got from the golf cart that I wasn't sure what to do with, and it turns out I might get more for them than I paid for the golf cart!! And, of course the boat place sells them to me for $7, and it looks like I should get $11 for them. (The group 27-29 marine batteries weigh 55 lbs according to my scale). So even if I buy a bad battery from them, I can turn around and sell it for a profit.
