Starter Battery Location

[dprice]

Just curious on peoples opinons are locating the starter battery in the engine compartment.

On a MkII there is about 6.5" or so on the starbrd side of the engine.  Optima Battery has a model they call the Group 51 Yellow Top.  It is only 5 1/16" wide.  CCA of 500 AMPs, MCA 625 AMPs.

I was considering adding a removeable shelf attached to the side wall of the engine compartment and strapping the battery on to it.  

Upside would be short cable runs and not having to break out the fibreglass resin to build a shelf in one of the other areas usually mentioned.

Downside might be excessive heat.  Optima claims to be very resistant to both high temperature and vibration.

My other thought would be to mount the Starter battery disconnect switch on the face of the engine compartment behind the stairs.  Primary reason is to keep the cable runs short and prevent having to run up to the  Elec. Panel and then back again.  I was planning on mounting the Emrg. Parallel switch under the head sink with a Duo Charge.  Since neither of those would need to be accessed under normal conditions but are accessible enough if needed.

I did not want to mount the main starter disconnect here as well, as in an emergency it would be a little harder to reach quickly.

Any/All thoughts appreciated.

Thanks

[sail4dale]

Been thinking about a starter battery and I wonder if anyone has used these automotive emergency starter battery units.  They recharge either from the cigarette lighter plug or an AC plug in.  They are small and don't have to be mounted.  If and when your main batteries get too low to start, hook up this unit and go from there.  They are in the $50 range and can even be taken on RV trips.

What is the down side here?  It sounds too easy.

[Ted Pounds]

David,

Sounds like a good idea to me.  Car batteries are mounted in the car's engine compartment and that seems to work fine.  I nave a MK I so I'm not familiar with the layout, but if it fits I"'d say go for it.

Dale,

I looked into that too.  Seems like a reasonable idea. Since I had an avaiable charger line (mine has 3 outputs) I decided to spend a bit more and do a permanent mount.  But basically I'm just going to use mine as an emergency backup.

Ted