movielover40

Just curious if anyone moved their car battery to the trunk.

Been reading several websites that are very positive about how it helps balance car weight.

Living in Michigan extra weight in trunk should also help traction in winter.

Is it worth the trouble?

greg

Norm Peterson

I doubt you'd ever notice the difference in front vs rear weight distribution in street driving other than those winter traction situations. There just isn't enough happening vehicle dynamics-wise.

It's a little different at the dragstrip, or at autocross, or possibly at a HPDE track day out on a road course . . . once you've acquired some experience and enough consistency for smallish changes in run times/lap times/ET's to reliably show up.

I did up my own trunk mount on a 1979 Malibu, which was a car of very similar size (108" wheelbase) and weight (3500-ish) to the lighter trims of S197 Mustang. That car wasn't the household's primary car any more, but if I hadn't done a lot of other mods to both the engine and the chassis/suspension for autocrossing and corner-carving in general I wouldn't have bothered.

You'll need some heavy cables for reliable starting and charging, so your car's total weight will go up some. I'm not sure I'd trust a simple sheetmetal screw with a star washer to be an adequate ground connection (at least for long term, and probably not for winters in the shorter term), so that means routing two cables up to some sort of reliable junctions up front.

Expect to be drilling holes through the trunk floor (that you'll want to seal up) and using a battery box. Some racing/competition organizations might require venting the battery box outside the car, if that matters. And you'll want to find a place to mount it all where it won't be getting in the way of loading any large items you might need to use the trunk for.

Don't assume that any shop that isn't at least a part time race shop will do a good job. Some years back, my son had a trunk-mount battery kit installed in his Chevelle, and some knucklehead at the shop actually ziptied the positive cable to the car's fuel line for support!!!


Norm

Scott2

Have had mine in the trunk for years without any issues. Ran a 1 gauge positive cable on a 200 amp fuse to a distribution point in the passenger fender well, a 4 gauge positive on a 150 amp fuse directly to the alternator and a 1 gauge negative to the factory ground location in the engine compartment. I guess a little weight could be saved by grounding the battery in the trunk.



Battery disconnect wired in.



I didn't specifically relocate for weight transfer as I am using the OEM battery location for a intercooler reservoir.

movielover40

Guess I'll pass.

Thanks for all the replies...