Hello, community! How do you attach your battery enclosures onto your deck reliably? I always believed that it would be attached via screws but I have some concerns:
Concern 1: The battery box is made of MDF, which, at least personally, has proven to not like screw threads and the material will rip out with force. Especially if I wanted to countersink the screw heads so they don’t poke into my battery which will only weaken the material further.
Concern 2: Even if I were to replace the MDF material, with the size of the box, with some large jostles the screws may come loose. It would be very annoying to continuously take out my nicely packed battery to re-tighten the bolts and re-pack it again.
Concern 3: Could the connection be too rigid? Would adding some kind of rubber divider material between the box and the deck assist in dampening some of the blows of riding?
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My current solution is to add large washers on the inside of the battery box and add major padding above the screw heads to prevent any contact and hope the material holds.
Do you have any suggestions to consider? Please let me know!
and IMHO to do this, drill the bolts all the way through the deck OR use T-nuts but do NOT use threaded inserts. Put a bead of butyl rope inside the bolts all the way around the enclosure. Don’t use ABS or carbon fiber enclosures. Fiberglass seems best but kydex and some other non-conductive (aka: not carbon) composites also work reasonably well. Run all wiring through the enclosure and not over the lip.
In lieu of sealing the enclosure to the deck with butyl rope, you can use butyl tape to seal a very thin (1mm) rubber/polyurethane sheet to the top of the enclosure, and then just hang it from the deck with minimal amounts of bolts. This method also works well for a concave mismatch: for example, the enclosure is flat but the deck is concave.
edit: oh, you mean a lunchbox, not an underslung enclosure
Alternatively, strap it on and put some Velcro on the bottom. The Velcro will keep it from sliding around, while the strap prevents it from lifting off the Velcro. No holes needed, plus it’s really quick and easy to remove the box to charge indoors without having to lug the entire board inside.
