I'M SO SMART


Just like it says, I built myself a dummy battery.

I have been exploring ideas as to where to best mount extra batteries on the battery-challenged trucks in my fleet.

Sometimes, one can be badly fooled when taking measurements and thinking something is going to work out just so.

And, a big old Group-31s full of acid is nothing I want to be holding here and sitting there, as I decide just how and IF it is going to work.


SO.........., since the lightning and rain has kept me inside for most of three weeks, with no let-up in the near future, I took some odds and ends of sheet-stock cut-offs and built myself a REPLICA, or DUMMY if you prefer, Group-31s battery.

My dummy is identical to a Group-31s in every measurement, including having two 3/8" "terminals" on top; I even painted it black.


Since it is hollow, I hinged and latched the top, so now I have a nice box to store all of my battery odds and ends, most of which I seldom use anymore since I have went almost entirely to the stud-top batteries, instead of the maintenance-intensive lead-post style.


This dummy weighs at most two-pounds; whereas a Group-31s will weigh in at closer to 100-pounds, and is slipperier than a blue-gill when trying to keep from dropping it on something that don't need it dropped on.


Now, I can use this almost weightless fascimile of a battery to best decide where to install auxilliary batteries.

Since it is exactly a match in size/shape to the real thing, wherever it fits, the real thing will also fit.

 

I'm in your position as well with the rain and I swear rain makes us hyper humans all goofy

For mocking up a remote battery location that sounds like the deal, Knowing your work i bet it has scrolled edges and a polished shiny finish
pics?

 

 

^^ classic

 

No need for pictures.

Just look at any old Group-31s battery and it looks just like it(except for the hinges and latch).

I really need to sit down and get this picture business figured out once and for all.


I tried to get some of the "Cummins conversion" outfits to manufacture/sell styrofoam dummy engines for just the same purpose; I even offered to let them use my patent, but no takers yet; and, alas, I do not have the technology to produce one for my own use.

 

Hey you guys quit hogging all the rain--we need rain bad--pastures are dying--yard is dying dang it--and it's hot n dusty.

 

Sooo...... is your sheet-metal creation SMACNA-approved?

 

You live in Texas,

I go there twice a year and have yet to see a drop of rain

 

So.... what is the purpose of this thread? I'm confused.

(we've also been getting an abnormally high amount of moisture too, I can't keep my truck clean, it's mildly annoying)

 

NOT sheet-metal, miscellaneous odds and ends of "manufactured wood" product.

 

you can come and take all you want. today was the first day in 12 days that we did not see a drop of rain. and it is suppose to rain again tomorrow and Sunday.

 

now i now where our rain is coming from.lol

 

Now if that were me I would have a handle on it and turn it into a Lunch Box.

Just think how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you could stick in there.

Imagine the looks you would get walking into the lunchroom carrying a Group-31 battery in one hand and a Coke in the other, Bet no one would mess with you.

You need to stick on some battery labels on it.

 

I did put a handle on it.

As soon as one of the guys comes in for tire-service, I had planned to ask one of the many employees at our local battery factory to procure me a complete set of decals for a Group-31s.



I LIKE the lunch-box idea.

 

I modified a factory battery tray to fit on the passenger side inner fender, had to relocate the radiator overflow though. Looks like it was supposed to be there all along.