Weight Loss Mods

[sakimano]

Given your battery is located behind the front wheels already if you’ve gone the LW battery any gains you’ll see will be negligible at best.

this^^^

battery re-locate seems like a pipe dream for performance but it never seems to work.

You’re moving a 35lb (if you’re moderately light with the optima) to the rear of the car…which in itself is not really a notable amount of weight to shift (1% of the car). The car is 15 feet long, and the battery is already ‘mid-mounted’ between the axles. It’s about 4 feet from the front nose. Putting it into the trunk at say 12 feet from the front nose means you’re shifting 1% of the car’s weight back about 8 feet. Not a huge change there.

Further, adding ~10 feet of the heavy gauge, quality wire you need to move it there, and then building a proper bracket and sealing it off to meet safety standards is going to eat into a good portion of your ‘weight loss’ by going LW battery

Finally you’re looking at a new fire hazzard that should see you punted out of just about any racetrack worth their salt on technical inspection.

All in all, it’s a questionable use of your mental, physical and financial resources.

[bangoman]

Bee - your car looks sick. Love those LW rims, those look something I could live with.

I know of two people who crashed their cars after installing two stage airbag B7 type airbag/steering wheels in cars that were B6 type single stage airbag wheels originally.

BOTH didn’t have their airbag go off even though the rest of the airbags DID go off (both cars hit something pretty hard in the front.

So I’d say it’s a non-starter. Anyway, flat bottom steering wheels are over-rated. They’re designed for race cars to allow drivers more leg room, and they’re on some supercars to allow getting in and out more easily. Neither of these things are an issue in a 4 door sedan. I think it’s just overkill.

The TTRS and Euro RS4 wheels are nice and fat however so lots of people get them for that but the flat bottom thing is lame and unnecessary. It works on a race car that has maybe 180 degrees of wheel travel to go lock to lock, is about 12" across thus always has two hands on it…and therefore there’s never any risk or need to remove your hands from the wheel. On a road car that is 3.5 turns lock to lock, it’s absurd to be missing a big chunk of wheel. I drove an RS4 with the Euro wheel for a weekend and I hated it. I kept having trouble when shuffling the wheel on turns. It felt rice to have this flashy race car wheel and all it was doing was hurting like a big superfluous wing on a 130 hp Civic lol.

Good info to know re the B7 steering into a B6 - confirms what I suspected but needed confirmation to believe. I do love the GTI’s flatbottomed steering wheel, however. (Why are we talking about steering wheels in a weight loss thread?)

[justincredible]

Given your battery is located behind the front wheels already if you’ve gone the LW battery any gains you’ll see will be negligible at best.

this^^^

battery re-locate seems like a pipe dream for performance but it never seems to work.

You’re moving a 35lb (if you’re moderately light with the optima) to the rear of the car…which in itself is not really a notable amount of weight to shift (1% of the car). The car is 15 feet long, and the battery is already ‘mid-mounted’ between the axles. It’s about 4 feet from the front nose. Putting it into the trunk at say 12 feet from the front nose means you’re shifting 1% of the car’s weight back about 8 feet. Not a huge change there.

Further, adding ~10 feet of the heavy gauge, quality wire you need to move it there, and then building a proper bracket and sealing it off to meet safety standards is going to eat into a good portion of your ‘weight loss’ by going LW battery

Finally you’re looking at a new fire hazzard that should see you punted out of just about any racetrack worth their salt on technical inspection.

All in all, it’s a questionable use of your mental, physical and financial resources.

I agree. The moving of the batt sounds like a great idea till you look at the original placement of it. The OEM bad is located in a good spot already. Simply removing the bulk of the weight is going to give the max benifit moving the batt isn’t needed

[komseh]

Do you guys think this battery would be sufficient to power our cars? It only weighs 21 lbs and retails for $188, $178 on amazon.

http://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/batteries/b3121/#
Voltage: [?]12 Volts
Full Charge Voltage:13.8 Volts
Short Circuit Current (Max Amps):3000 est.
Pulse Cranking Amps (PCA): [?]1380
Cranking Amps (CA):742
Cold Cranking Amps (CCA): [?]550
Amp Hour (AH) - Electrical Capacity: [?]31 amp hr
Reserve Capacity (RC): [?]1hr 15mins
Internal Resistance:4.0 milliohms (.004 ohms)
Life Cycle @ 10% DOD: [?]3100 cycles est.

[sakimano]

Do you guys think this battery would be sufficient to power our cars? It only weighs 21 lbs and retails for $188, $178 on amazon.

http://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/batteries/b3121/#
Voltage: [?]12 Volts
Full Charge Voltage:13.8 Volts
Short Circuit Current (Max Amps):3000 est.
Pulse Cranking Amps (PCA): [?]1380
Cranking Amps (CA):742
Cold Cranking Amps (CCA): [?]550
Amp Hour (AH) - Electrical Capacity: [?]31 amp hr
Reserve Capacity (RC): [?]1hr 15mins
Internal Resistance:4.0 milliohms (.004 ohms)
Life Cycle @ 10% DOD: [?]3100 cycles est.

I’d be inclined to go with something more robust…the 21lb braille (also sold as DEKA for half the price) batteries seem to like to die when it gets cold. Lots of people used to run them, but I’ve heard quite a few of them say ‘fk the LW battery’ after their cars wouldn’t start. Jason from JHM changed it up. I think beemercer had a problem with his too.

There’s the Optima that weighs around 35 lbs…still saving you 25lbs…that should work well, and if I’m not mistaken you can grab one at Wal Mart.

[beemercer]

dont take my situation into consideration, I’m pretty sure my alternator wasnt up to snuff (it had always made noise, didn’t realize it until it failed, I replaced it and the bearing whine went away) so that could have played a part in it.

[boravr6]

i have a walmart bought optima redtop.

Ill let you know in march how it held up ;D

[A43zero6spd]

Optima’s are designed for sound systems I believe. Personally I’d rather go with a good Interstate.

[motorsports916]

Actually optima is built for a vararity of uses. Hence why there is a few different types of the optimas themselves.

[RodV8]

Personally I’d rather go with a good Interstate.

x2. Best battery and warranty i’ve ever had. Never had an issue.

When I worked at Napa auto parts in Truckee,ca years ago, This is all we would sell since this was the only battery that would work in extreme cold temps. Just letting you know for the cold weather guys/gals.

[A43zero6spd]

I’ve had more than 1 bad experience with Optimas, since both of the ones I owned crapped out on me I just switched to an interestate because I was told they were the best for colder climates. Personally for weight loss I would rather explore other areas than the battery and just stick with the reliable.

[justincredible]

I’ve had more than 1 bad experience with Optimas, since both of the ones I owned crapped out on me I just switched to an interestate because I was told they were the best for colder climates. Personally for weight loss I would rather explore other areas than the battery and just stick with the reliable.

Very smart I agree… You can loose 25lbs of batt weight and still be safe with several great batt options out there that will put you in that weight loss range… When you get to the point of using a bralle and getting stuck with a no start. Any weight loss isn’t worth that.