ranger bed box
Ranger EV Bed Box installation
Goal = install a box in the bed that is fairly light weight .... can hold 7 group 31 batteries ...
be as small as possible to allow maximum useage of the bed of the vehicle for other items
keep the batteries from moving ............ and when the time comes be able to remove it without anybody knowing that it ever existed .... 
 
  When I install the larger group 31 batteries it is important to be able to access them quickly and easily so as to be able to drop the lower pack if need be .........
 
  I am doing 2 rangers right now at the same time both are group 31 batteries and both have 7 extra batteries in the upper bed ... I do this as I do not like to stack batteries as this causes a hot spot in the packs .....  to get the longest life out of a pack of batteries you need good air flow and good ventilation in  the packs between the batteries ... I try to achieve this by doing this ......
 
On to the quick installation of the Bed box for the pack .............
 
You can also store stuff on top of this box since I used a very high quality panel that we use in our business on the Lanes, there is 16 lb balls dropped on these every day and they will take some punishment ... they are a highly glossy and fully sealed panel so even if they get wet it is not any problem at all ...........
To start with of course I have already installed the pack of batteries lower pack and this is the upper pack that you are looking at ...  this is a set of the Odyssey PC 2150 group 31 batteries .
I do the exact same with the DEKA 9A31 group 31 batteries , they are almost the exact same size they are close enough all the spacing is exactly the same .... I of course already have the upper pack wired , and I have already added the only hole that must be put in the bed , this is for all the wiring that will be needed , it is a 2" PVC pipe coupling, it is great because it screws together and makes a great seal and also since it is all plastic the wires are protected ....
This is a closer picture of the left side, there is already a hole in the stake hole pockets that I use to hold a bracket for the upper cover on the pack ...  It is quite easy to just put the bolt through the hole and through the bracket and put on a nut and tighten them up without any changing of the bed of the ranger this way .....  you can also see it may be a little bit crude but by taking wood and cutting it to size you can put them at the ends of the pack to make it so it can not move back and forth in the bed , it seems to work really good and you can get a great tight fit on the pack ...
 
You can also see I am installing a DS-50 charger in the bed , that is a different page but you can see it fits .
and This of course is the right hand side of the bed with the pack installed and you can see I did the same thing on this end, some wood spacing to keep the pack tight ... added the bracket to get ready for the upper board assy .........................
I added some urethate tall bumpers to the bottom of the top plank ... I cut the top plank to 52" long side to side  and 14" wide front to back .....  the bumpers are of course once the top is bolted on with the quick install wing nuts to keep the batteries from moving up and down at all .....
I then drilled the two holes in the ends so that this piece can just be set right down on the batteries and over the studs so the wing nuts make the assy. a really easy and quick removal to get to the batteries if needed ..............................  I also added later on some brackets that are bolted to the top piece that slide down in front of the front piece making it so you do not have to bolt it together since it makes for a super tight fit without any bolts .......
and here it is set in place , getting ready for the front piece .....................
Time to slide in the front section , I cut it a little bit shorter side to side 49" and 11 and 1/4" tall
so that it will fit perfectly under the top piece , this is of course all dictated by how high you make the hold down spacers bolted to the bottom ...........  so as again to not put any new holes in the ranger other then original , the custom made bracket was bolted to the panel and the existing hole is used to hold the front section in place, the front section of course is to hold the batteries in place so we slotted the hole in the custom bracket so we could push it up against the batteries forcing them to be held in place by this panel, and the top panel has the brackets to also help .........
 
 
and here you have the finished product ...  the next section is of course the installation of the DS-50 wall charger that you see in the picture .....
I am getting it to this point quickly as the rain is starting to set into our area this year and I have to get it in tomorrow to get a new canopy on the ranger ev ...
  Since obviously this is to make the box as light weight as possible and easy to access the batteries it is not water proof but the canopies are .
 
  The canopies that I have installed on these are the new tops made by Lifetime , they are completely inside aluminum frames and the total weight of the entire canopy is only 80 lbs.
 
   the company even claims a 8 to 10% increase in mileage due to the design to cut down on wind resistence .......................
 
Well there you have it ...  a battery box that when removed in the future when smaller batteries become available you will hardly even know it was ever installed ..............