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M998 battery tray and brackets

NVAM998

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Virginia
Hi,

New to me 1986 M998 with some bubba work done to it. I need to clean up that battery area, remove the 12 V stuff, etc. I see someone tried to arc weld to the chassis side of the shunt. The battery trays I have seen online have holes for the threaded hooks and a bracket on top. Maybe this was before that version? I can't believe they just let the batteries bounce around (like the previous owner did). Any suggestions or pictures of the proper setup?

Thanks for any help!
 

peggrw

Member
26
58
13
Location
West Virginia
Can't help you on the proper setup but here's what I did. Got a M1097 for free and haven't spent much on it. It had two dissimilar 12V car batteries loosely sitting in the battery box without tiedowns. That's not good in these hills. The original battery pan was for the 6TL batteries and couldn't afford those. Threw the original pan out, cleaned out the battery box area and then purchased two 12V Group H6 AGM batteries from Walmart for $170 each. Could have purchased two wet lead acid batteries for much cheaper but I run the HMMWV up very rough mountain trails on my property and wanted more durable AGM batteries. I cut two plywood floor panels to the shape of the box bottom with a bandsaw and attached two wood strips to those that would keep each battery from moving laterally. Drilled 2 eyebolts through each panels and through the floor which allowed me to both tie the wood battery pan to the floor and to use the eyebolt as an anchor point for standard Walmart battery tiedown hooks. You can probably see how I built the tie down bracket.

20231223_091510.jpg

The whole setup took me about 2 hours.
 
Last edited:

NVAM998

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
39
42
18
Location
Virginia
Thanks for the input. I guess I'll have to do something similar. I'm on more rolling hills in Northern VA but the washboard roads will knock a filling out.

I'm adding a battery tender (dual 12 V. Looks like you have that or maybe a 24-12v converter or solar charger? I suspect I may need batteries some time soon and will probably go with some type of sealed.
 

peggrw

Member
26
58
13
Location
West Virginia
Thanks for the input. I guess I'll have to do something similar. I'm on more rolling hills in Northern VA but the washboard roads will knock a filling out.

I'm adding a battery tender (dual 12 V. Looks like you have that or maybe a 24-12v converter or solar charger? I suspect I may need batteries some time soon and will probably go with some type of sealed.
Just a 24V to 12V converter energized when the run signal is received. Found an hour meter in my parts drawer last week and added that since mileage means almost nothing on military vehicles. Though 3 hours on a 30 year old vehicle isn't all that helpful either.
 

NVAM998

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
39
42
18
Location
Virginia
I'm adding a 24/12 dc-dc. Guess I should use the run signal to a relay - I think I have seen others discussing that as well. I was going to wire it to a battery cutoff but if I leave it on it will kill the battery eventually. And I know I'll forget.
 

peggrw

Member
26
58
13
Location
West Virginia
I'm adding a 24/12 dc-dc. Guess I should use the run signal to a relay - I think I have seen others discussing that as well. I was going to wire it to a battery cutoff but if I leave it on it will kill the battery eventually. And I know I'll forget.
The Orion 24V-12V dc-dc converter (blue box) has a built in enable input. I routed the 24V run signal directly to that. The clear plastic box at the top of the pic is just a 12V fuse box.
 
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