Battery Placement

I am finally getting back to installing aux batteries and an inverter. The inverter (Sunforce 1000 Watt) has a hard time fitting in under the passenger seat, even with only one battery. I also have a swivel seat to install, so it has to stay low.
Someone once had pictures of putting batteries under the driver side chassis, next to the fuel tank. I haven't found that post again. It seems like a good solution, but maybe too difficult for me. Still investigating that.
Since I have a 118, the space is limited. I could fit one battery on each side behind the rear wheels. I think that would put more weight off center? For that matter, why not stick them in the front door step wells,
I already have two Blue Optima batteries. I found this and thought it might work well along the right side, along the wall, under the back seat. 24"x9"x9."

If someone could find that post about under mounts, I'd be interested. Other ideas?

If you were to put the batteries under the vehicle, would you care if it shows at the bottom. Like visible for people to see.

maybe a little. There is a spot on the opposite side of the slider that is about the right size. Not sure how to hang them.

Hmm im thinking custom battery mounts but in such a short sprinter there is not alot of space. How often do take out your batteries?

Only when replacing. Also would have to keep dirt out.

Well, here are a few older links to batteries "under" a Sprinter (but i couldn't find (see below) the *exact* one i wanted, which showed a steel frame hung under the floor.
It had a hinge on one end, and securing bolts on the other. Unscrew the nuts from the bolts, and the battery rack swung down for maintenance (with the help of a floor jack to avoid those "ouch" moments)

The other contenders:
Cut hole in floor: http://classbforum.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=341
Check out post #6 in this thread to get to the official MB documents about under-floor spaces: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4175
Lots of ideas: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2674
a thread linked from that thread: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327

*Bingo*: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6088 (the PDF file at post number 5)
Heck: here: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12871&d=1240899677
(i hope that works) ... it did)

--dick
p.s. an excellent thread for ideas: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6045
p.p.s. look in a Yellow Pages (whuzzat?) under "Van Conversions" .. any local shop should be able to create a solution.

I mounted 2 optima d27m's under the passenger seat of my rv conversion. One is on its side the other is upright. They fit nice in there. Just have to make yourself some hold down straps or brackets.


Sent with this high tech chingadera!

Here are some pictures of my install. I managed Two blue top agm batteries and an inverter all under the seat. I had to modify the inverter to make it fit.
I removed the face and extended the wiring. I switched the fan from sucking out to blowing in so that it would work with my install. I created a new box for the inverter with venting out the side and blocking off the old location of the face plate.
Air comes in the side of the seat base and out to the side of the inverter and goes out the top.
Here are some pictures.

This is the overhead view. I used solid core 4g wire and put on shrink wrap. The location of the circuit breakers will be accessible with the swivel seat installed. Top of inverter is covered by a rubber pad to avoid water intrusion and electro issues. To the right of the breakers, you can see the wires coming out of the inverter. This is also where the hot air will come out and rise out of the seat base.

Close up of the wire area. I used some flashing tape I had handy to line the box.

A close up of the circuit breaker area.

This shows the side access. You can see the back side of the inverter in there. Note that I used actual extension cord wire to extend the AC. It comes out as a two way plug (cut off both ends of an extension cord). One goes to the face and the other runs under to the driver side and to the back.

The location of the face plate. I have to have it 3/4" beyond the factory cover for this area. Working on this.

At last the weather was good enough to crawl under the van. I ran a 4G wire from the solenoid under the driver's seat up to the battery to finish this project.
I think I did pretty good, found a fuse that would fit in the power box.

Looks good. The faceplate would look good mounted to the cover plate so you can see and access it really easy. Might want to redo the #4 wire insulated with heat shrink tho. Why not just use regular thhn or thwn #4 stranded?
The shrink wrap may not be enough insulation for the wire.

I eventually did mount the faceplate on the hole cover. It only needed 3/8" offset to clear the parts behind the door. It is a little bendable, I'm thinking of some sort of reinforcement.
Good idea on the insulation. I was looking at removing the whole Power Center to install that fuse exactly like the others, but it started to rain. (van doesn't fit in the garage. ) Can add the insulation at that time.
I went hard wire because it was easy and I thought it would help hold the parts in place. The resettable circuit breakers are held in place by the hard wire. The long run to driver side and hood are stranded wire. Maybe it comes from the electronics background. At one point I was thinking Circuit traces on a board. Maybe because I shop at Home Depot too much, that is where I got the wire.