Just curious what everyone has done for the battery hold down. Is the stock hold down enough in a crash/roll over? Or are people installing a heavier duty, aftermarket battery hold down/tray?
Is the stock battery hold down enough in a crash / roll over?
- Thread starter Airjunky
- Start date
I hadn't realized until recently that older TJs have an actual bracket that go over the battery. I thought they all had the wedge. I feel like the bracket would hold better than the wedge. I'm sure a bracket could be retrofitted onto a newer TJ with the wedge
I believe that's actually a temperature monitor. In abnormal temperatures, the PCM reduces the charging voltage to avoid damaging the battery.
The big issue in a rollover or wreck is the battery terminals themselves contacting the hood or other metal and setting things on fire
Really? Temperature switch? That's interesting.
I don't think the battery terminals/leads have enough slack to reach the hood even in a roller over? Only reason I say this as I just took my terminals off the Jeep like 2hours ago lol, as I was cleaning out the tray and cleaning up the terminals as my battery is basically leaking so will need to get a new one. The battery leads are pretty short and connected tied to the inner fender.
If you've got a 60 pound battery bouncing around, it could break those connections no problem. That wouldn't be a big issue, except that now the battery posts can reach metal and short out and ignite something.
Alternatively, if the hood were to cave, it could lay across the battery posts and short out the battery. I don't think it would be very likely for the hood to cave there given the shape of the Jeep. However, you'll notice in a lot of other newer cars, they'll put a robust rubber cap over one or both battery terminals. This reduces the odds of a short in a collision or rollover. If the hood caves in, it sits on the rubber caps, not the bare battery posts.
Mumblewood
TJ Enthusiast
I’ve flopped mine and was in a BAD accident and have the bracket style (03) and it worked great. The flop was slow but the accident was a street bike T-boning at an estimated (by police investigator) at 100 MPH right at the passenger front tire, had his shift lever stuck in between the tire and rim. Wiped out my entire front end of the Jeep, and destroyed the front axle
If it wasn't, my guess is the vehicle never would have passed safety standards / tests in the first place.
This^^^
Every impact test, frontal or side, as well as 99% of the durability testing that was done during development was done with the stock battery tie down system.
I can say from experience that I never saw one fail during desert durability.
I have no first hand experience with crash testing other than to say if there had been a failure there would have been a redesign before release.
If they are properly installed the odds of the battery flying around are slim to none. If you either dont know how or just plain dont bother, then the battery will easily move around. My case of lazy let the battery hop up and weld to the hood. Actually welded to the hood. Damn heavy trying to lift the hood with a block of lead hanging onto it. I've had a few good hits over the years. And the only time the battery has ever come loose was from my lazy a$$.
I installed a full wrap around metal clamp for my battery, even though it is overkill.
Godless Nature
Member
I think I would be going through some heavy cabin fever if I was thinking about modding my battery compartment.