DeWalt Battery Mounts: Water Bottle Cage?

[PeteCress]

I want to mount my two DeWalt 9360 batteries low in the triangle using the two sets of water bottle cage mounts there...
viz:
Seems like TyCreek's alu strip would make a good base - as in http://tinyurl.com/ya3ae7x

... and maybe mount the controller on the alu strip above or below (bco need to slide battery into it's mount) one of the batteries.

Attaching batteries to the strip would be something in the vein of Kin's (http://tinyurl.com/ycclyhd) or LI-ghtcycle's (http://tinyurl.com/y8mo3g3) battery mounts for Kin's interface board.

After that, it will be some means of hiding the batteries and protecting them from weather.

Has anybody done this yet? I'd rather go in to it standing on the shoulders of giants than on my own shoe laces...

The requirements are:

• Want: Get the batteries down low
• Want: Easy removal of mounting system when converting bike back to non-electric
• Want: Keep the top tube accessible at the bike's balance point so it can be lifted with one hand.

• Must: Allow riding in heavy rain
• Must: Move the batteries off of the rear rack
• Must: Allow easy removal/insertion of batteries for charging
• Must: Hide the batteries from view (the assumption being that DC9360's are the ultimate in fungibility/steal-appeal... right up there with Honda EU2000 generators)

Alternate approaches?

The easy way out would seem tb just a waterproof pack cloth tube hanging from the top tube with a waterproof zipper on it to access the batteries and let them sit in there loose.

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Sure! I like that idea, use the water bottle mounts for a battery pack. my father uses a similar but cruder method where he has four DC9360 batteries individually strapped to the lower triangle & seat post tube using large hose clamps, however he hasn't had the PCB's in any kind of mount, thus he has had regular trouble with wires coming loose from the PCB's due to vibration or getting yanked when taking batteries in and out.

Here's a pic of his set-up:

I would strongly advise that you have something more along the lines of Kin's battery mounts to protect the batteries from weather and to secure the leads coming from the PCB's

I have since added a plastic cradle that holds the sides straight on the first 2 batteries going up the lower triangle. He has also added a 4th battery going up the seat post tube.

 

[PeteCress]

.. he has four DC9360 batteries individually strapped to the lower triangle & seat post tube using large hose clamps

He has to undo all the hose clamps every time he charges the batteries?

Is that another battery that I see peeking out from under the luggage rack?

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

.. he has four DC9360 batteries individually strapped to the lower triangle & seat post tube using large hose clamps

He has to undo all the hose clamps every time he charges the batteries?

Is that another battery that I see peeking out from under the luggage rack?

Yes and no. Yes he has to un-do all the batteries individually to charge, and no to more batteries on the rack. What you see is a small bag behind the seat holding excess coils of wire and the majority of the connectors.

He has had better luck in recent months, but I still would like to make him a more solid set-up. Re-soldering the PCB's has caused a few to become useless because the board has become over-heated on many re-soldering attempts or the copper has been torn right out of the PCB.

 

[kfong]

Looks good Pete, not all bikes have double water bottle packs like yours. If it’s a steel frame bike I would imagine it would hold up. If it’s aluminum frame, I would worry about the weld points getting stressed by all the vibration and road pounding.

Your next problem is the carrier. It would need to be solid. I would make the mounting out of aluminum. The Lexan plastic I used for my carriers are working out fine but won’t see as much stress since they are mounted to a fiberglass backing board with 6 screws. With your setup, you will need something a lot more solid. Aluminum would be my choice since you have only 2 contact points unless you add U type supports from the back surrounding the tube. Then it is possible to go with Lexan. It sounds like 2 batteries is all you need for your application so your solution does seem like a course I would go with.

I did something similar with my BMC build but since my frame is aluminum, I CNC two plates to act as a box construction and use the water bottle holes as additional mounting points. I even went through the trouble of matching the radius of the down tube and added a machined strap for the top section. I wanted it to be solid for the trails I plan to be riding this summer. Pics.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12654&start=0

 

[PeteCress]

Your next problem is the carrier. It would need to be solid. I would make the mounting out of aluminum. The Lexan plastic I used for my carriers are working out fine but won’t see as much stress since they are mounted to a fiberglass backing board with 6 screws. With your setup, you will need something a lot more solid. Aluminum would be my choice since you have only 2 contact points unless you add U type supports from the back surrounding the tube. Then it is possible to go with Lexan. It sounds like 2 batteries is all you need for your application so your solution does seem like a course I would go with.

I agree 100% about using Alu as the base. The other problem I'm mulling over is the weatherproof covering....

In the meanwhile, I have gone with the materials at hand:

The hanging bag has enough room for the controller, the bunched-up phase/CA/throttle wires that I haven't cut/reconnected yet, the toroid choke, and a single battery. It's a roomy fit - i.e. easy to zip/unzip and easy to get a hand in there to retrieve the battery.

The seatpost weirdness is to accomodate a right-of-bell-curve body. The rectangular thingie on the top tube is a bento box for odds and ends that get accessed frequently.

The second battery (when used...) lives in the trunk bag and is daisy-chained to the toroid choke in the forward bag.

The trunk bag still has plenty of room for a third battery but, as you observe, 4 AH seems to be all I need for what I do.

One of my goals is to make the process of flipping the rig between eBike and non-eBike modes as painless as possible.

Consequently the next step - between now and the bottle mount thing - is going to be a set of Neutric 8-pole speakon connectors down where the wire connects to the eZee motor. (viz: http://tinyurl.com/yb5w6pt) joined by one of these bad boyz: http://tinyurl.com/yd68lm6 and covered with a sleeve of polyethelene. That will make the front wheel less inconvenient to remove/replace - not that I'm going to be doing it that often.... but I've got to cut/re-splice those wires anyhow in order to fit my second torque arm.. so I might as well do it with a little more elegance than the current 3 separate trailer connectors plus hall connector plug.

The weight distribution in this config is vastly better than on my other rig where the single 10AH battery is on a rear rack high up. On that one getting out of the saddle feels really ponderous:
OTOH, I just put about 12 miles of hilly riding on the rig above carrying both batteries and it feels really pretty much the same as it does in non-eBike mode... just a little heavier. Basically a joy to ride compared to my first effort.