Thread: Battery Tray
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aroostifer
 
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Default Battery Tray

Hey,

Thanks to the group for advice on my last post about my propane sniffer
meltdown. Sniffer is now replaced, remounted, rewired (with fuse.)

On to the next project: My 1978 Catalina 30 has a painted wood battery
tray which is basically crumbling with wet rot.

The way I figure it, I can either:

1) Use the drill and fill method to saturate it with epoxy and maybe
glass over it.

Pros: pretty easy

Cons: I'll never get the "wood" (more like wood-chowder at this point)
dry, it will eventually just rot again

2) Build a new battery tray out of Starboard

Pros: easy to build, rot/corrosion/proof

Cons: old wood is bonded to raised fiberglass area on the bottom of the
hull. would need to rip that out and figure out a way to fasten the
Starboard to the fiberglass (maybe SS bolts epoxied in place?) Plus
Starboard is expensive. (But I've already got a big sheet of it laying
around, so not a big deal.

3) Build a new battery tray out of epoxy coated marine ply

Pros: Will bond nicely to the fiberglass. With proper care, I can make
it rotproof.

Cons: Bigger pain in the butt to assemble, coat, etc.


What do y'all think? Any other options?

- Ari