hey guys i was thinking about relocating my battery to my trunk. now i can buy the kit from summit for about $80 with all the stuff needed. now my question is do i need a sealed battery box since the battery would be in my trunk?

 

you do, unless you have a gelbattery

 

If the battery is sealed then you don't need a box. If you're going to bother relocating the battery, pick up an Odyssey PC680 or something similar, save some weight while you're at it. I run the PC535 myself, it's enough to do the job.

 

looks like im gonna need a sealed box becuase i just have the duralast battery from autozone

 

why is it that we need a sealed box for?

 

Because fumes from the battery are harmfull and they will kill you. They are just leaking out in to your car and getting to you and your passengers. So a sealed box vents the fumes to the outside of your car saving your life. And if you wreck it will help protect the battery some what from blowing up and throwing battery acid every where which will eat you up.

 

lead acid batteries emit corrosive fumes. Gel batteries (sealed and other styles) don't have that problem and are self contained with no internal serviceable components.

Lead acid batteries are not fully sealed like a gel battery is.. there are usually caps on the top of a lead acid car battery that allow you to test the specific gravity of the acid to figure out what state the battery is in, and to service it by adding distilled water. if you left one sitting upside down, the acid would easily all leak out (and f*ck up the concrete in your garage as well). but it is partly by design so they don't blow up as violently if an anomalous charge event occurs.

The sealed boxes are to contain the fumes emitted by the lead acid battery and vent them properly when contained in an area like the trunk.
http://www.rpmoutlet.com/musv6batt.htm is a good link to see a well thought out sealed battery box setup, complete with external vent.

as a side note, i like the PC680 family of sealed batteries, but winter in colorado and the amp hour rating on the battery is not sufficient for my needs at this point. Things like a car alarm or other known parasitic draw issues above and beyond the normal parasitic loss designed into the car might be issues if you don't have a battery with a high enough amp-hour rating to cope with it. Nothing sucks worse than leaving your car to go on vacation for a week with the car alarm on and having your battery be deader than hell when you get back. It won't happen with the lead acid batteries, but you might run the risk with the pc680 or similar if you don't do the research ahead of time.

 

Hmm how much fumes are leaked by one? I have had mine in the back for a year, no visible effects anywhere. It's in a black box with a lid at the far back right corner. I haven't seen anything to speak of...not even a smell.