battery trays or no battery trays???

[kfxguy]

Building an saw rivercat. Wondering if industrial strength Velcro will hold the batts in place in a hard blow over? Who is and who isn't? I already started making trays but man its gonna be tight getting my hand in there for straps.

[Darin Jordan]

In my experience with this, you will want to add straps as well.

What some do is to get the velcro style straps, and tape then in place with the Industrial Velcro. Then you have both holding the cells....

If you are TRULY going to SAW this, and you are building it for 4S or more, then you will have to make it survive speeds in excess of 90mph, and, more importantly, big, bad, and VERY violent crashes at those speeds.

We aren't in Kansas any more! Errrr... well, I guess some here might be... :)

The last thing you want is for your cells to bust loose and slam the hatch cover off the boat... Not good.

[kfxguy]

Darin, thanks for the excellent idea. This is going to save me alot of trouble.

[Darin Jordan]

Darin, thanks for the excellent idea. This is going to save me alot of trouble.

No problem.

I was actually thinking about this with my Mystic 29 Minus-Two. After it burned, while cleaning it up, I have removed the factory battery trays and was trying to decide if I can get the cells to side down in the sponson bottoms. I'm not sure there is enough width there for the cells, but I may build in some trays that are angled down as they go from inside to outside. Might make it easier to slide the cells in/out.

[kfxguy]

Im going to puddle a little bit of epoxy in the ride pad area to kinda make it a little closer to flat. Then I'll lay my inlay down and use Velcro with straps. Great idea. One less thing I have to worry with on this build. Rather the batteries as low as I can get them too. I put my batts low in my cheetah and 4 out of 5 blow over a it'll land back in the water right side up....which is awesome in my book!

[785boats]

Just make sure that you prepare the parts of the hull properly where you are going to have any epoxy. Or it may well let go in the tumble.
As resin cures it leaves a 'waxy' film on the surface Nothing sticks to it properly. Use some 120 grit paper & sand the area. Then wipe down with some Acetone.

It's also a good idea to cut some noodle to wedge between the top of the batteries & the underside of the deck. That way the packs can't get any momentum up if the straps do break free in a tumble. They won't smash into the deck.