Battery Leads Coming Loose

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Yes, that is illegal, and a huge safety concern. What happens if your drill goes a little too far when making that hole? You drive right into the battery, causing damage and a potentially dangerous situation (battery could internally short and catch on fire/explode, it could leak/spray battery acid, etc) For the sake of everyone's safety, there is a blanket safety rule against any modification of the battery beyond attaching the leads with appropriate fasteners.

I'd say there's a right and wrong way to do all sorts of operations, but that the risk his procedure entails isn't especially dire. Take precautions (e.g. a drill stop, a piece of sacrificial material under the hole, etc.) and it's not inherently unsafe.

The rules, however, tell a different story. It's prohibited by 2013's R65.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by bbuncher12

To connect our batteries to the battery leads, we use a small bolt and locknut and torque them down to make sure that the battery leads do not come lose, then we cover the lead and connection to the battery in heat shrink tubing. However, we have been having issues with the leads becoming loose and flopping around because the bolts are not holding well. What methods do you use to keep the battery leads attached to the battery, and do you try to avoid this problem? Thanks!

There is a very simple technique to prevent this. Simply add an external tooth lockwasher between the battery terminal and the wire terminal. Not only do the teeth on the lockwasher bite through the surface crud, the lock washer will prevent any twisting between the two terminals which ultimately cause the hardware to loosen. Once tight, follow with heatshrink as you have been doing.