Battery Tray Corrosion

[007jim0]

Hi, We are new members of iRV2 and enjoy the comments and feedback.

We have a 2005 Mountain Aire 4304 and have lots of corrosion in/on the battery tray. The batteries stay clean, it's the tray and straps that corrode. I have finally given up on the straps. Took 'em off and pitched them. Any solutions out there?

Thanks, Jim and Donna

["007"]

Welcome 007jim0 to the Newmar forum.
Here is a link by Oemy that may help clean up your tray's.
Scroll down the page.
Enjoy the forum and do post often.

[Chuck 1935]

Did you see the posts about putting minreal oil in your batteries. You put in 2oz in each cell of a 12v battery and 4oz in a 6v golf cart battery. They also sell a product called Thermoil which does the same thing. It keeps the acid from escaping and causing corrosin, BatteryDe-Mister.com - Up to 3 times Longer Battery Life! Guaranteed.

[ktm500mx]

you could try hydrocaps which keep the batteries from excessive gassing
and has a good by-product it reduces the need to re hydrate your batteries

[EngineerMike]

For straps, go to a plastics store (Tap Plastics in our area) and look for some thicker sheet goods from which to cut & drill non-corroding straps; get stainless allthread for holddown rods, go to a truck supply shop & buy white mudflap blanks (24x30 inches) and cut them to size for the batteries to set on. Before reassembling the battery layout, clean everything, and douse the tray with ammonia cleaner 2 or 3 times and scrub it well, rinsing each time, then prime & paint it and let it dry several days. This should keep things nicer. The oil in batteries thread is a good one to consider as well.

[007jim0]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think I can lick this now. Thanks again

[RJay]

Mike is correct on the use of plastic tie down straps. The acid doesn't affect synthetics but you still have to be concerned about the metal hardware. For the battery box I mixed a half a box of baking soda to a gallon of water and flooded the battery box with the solution. I let it sit for about a half hour and then flooded the battery box again with plane water. Let it dry and you can prime and paint the box. IMHO mineral oil is the way to go. It's readily available at any Pharmacy and it's cheap, about $1.60 per 16 oz. bottle. You will need three bottle if you have 4-6 volt deep cycle batteries.

[Radioman]

Ditto on the mineral oil. Made a big difference for us. We tossed the straps when the buckles corroded (before we added the oil) and now it's easier to keep the tops of the batts clean. Looks better - neater - too.

[Dav5942]

Tried the "hydrocaps", worked for a while, but not the answer. Just order Lifeline AGMs hopefully no more hastle.

[EngineerMike]

Two other tricks for hold-downs:
1) go to Harbor Freight or Target or wherever and buy some thick plastic cutting boards and slice them into holddown strips and drill where needed.
2) Heavy duty zip ties. This is how I currently have my four tall AGM 6-volters tied into place. I buy the 175# test black 36" zip ties and carry 20 or so w/me in the coach. I have all four batts tied together with a structural tube running between (part of the tray, separates them into two banks of 2), then one zip tie over the top & under the tray, then two around the back & pulling the group of batts against a stop on one end so they can't slide anywhere (two so there is redundancy on this restraint which I judge to be the most important safety wise).