Where do i get said wing ?

is it easy to install, paint, remove stock ???

Phil

 

If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the M7 wings:

 

I just checked, and the 25 buck "March" discount still works ($132 before shipping). Just wanted to share...

 

GotBatteries was the cheapest I've found the PC680. Relocating the battery to the back is a big plus for the MC. Saving the weight is also good. The PC680 is narrow enough to fit behind the side panel. I suppose the Braille would be as well but it's twice the price. Can't say the 4 lbs difference is worth it.

 

I guess we should address the deltas as there are certainly pros and cons between the two... First, price... The Braille can be had for $132, and the PC680 for 73 bucks. The PC680 needs posts though, so figure another 10, or about $83. The price delta is a bit less than 50 dollars. But, is the 50 bucks extra worth it? I suppose that depends on what one values...

The Braille is 1.5 lbs lighter (11 vs 13.5 lbs), but that's compared to a PC680 minus posts, so about a 2 pounds...

The Braille has 29% more Cold Cranking Amps (360 vs 280).

The Braille can take a deep charge, while the PC cannot.

The Braille has 7% fewer Amp Hours.

As revealed, I have the PC680. I unfortunately let it drain-down too far when I was designing and constructing my exhaust project about a year ago. The battery did recover, but it has not been the same since; sort of struggles a bit upon start-up. And if I don't drive for more than 4 days, I've been unable to fire her up - again, to clarify, only after I let it discharge too much last year. I'm quite sure it would still start just fine if that never happened...

When one has such a battery, it's not prudent to tax it much or for extended periods when the engine is not runnning. Sitting in the parking lot for an hour, playing music while the wife does some grocery shopping is something I never felt comfortable doing with the PC680. In it's current state, I cannot leave the running lights on for less than an hour, and expect to start her up. I went to lunch a couple weeks ago with colleagues, and needed a jump to get back to the office (yes, I accidentally left them on ). I feel that if one never lets the PC680 drain-down too much, it will serve one very well.

I however like the idea of quite a bit more CCA's, and the ability to deep charge, if needed. I take my MINI to work on Monday's and Friday's, and it sees some action on Saturday mornings before the wife wakes-up... Someday, my MINI will be strictly a Fall/Winter ride as she will remain garaged in the Spring/Summer, after I build a Caterham, or mod an Elise. The Braille appeals to me, and the 2 extra pounds saved is sort of icing I suppose...

 

I was MTHing and left the car in the "On" position for about two hours. The lights inside came on, but the car wouldn't crank. (of course this happened in the morning when I was going to work). Anyway, jumped the car, drove to work, everything is fine. After reading TonyB's post on no deep cycle on the Oddessy, I'm happy I went with this one. Life is back to normal. And Tony, I regularly listen to the car radio when I tinker. I just limit myselft to around an hour or less with the Braille. With the stocker, I never worried.


Matt

 

Cool, nice having someone else pave the way on such stuff, and sharing! Good to know that I can play the iPod, or listen to KCBS or whatever for about an hour, and be ok. That's adequate for me...

With the wife still asleep, I just got a 5" piece of aluminum angle cut to better mount this battery (see above photo). I've been driving with it in the wider dimension PC680 configuration, strapped down tight, but it still slides around a bit. It has taken some creativity to get the leads to mate-up to the terminals given the differences. It appears that I need to switch the positive and negative terminals by fliping the Braille to get a more desirable orientation for connection. Still experimenting...

Checking your PM now Matt...

 

I finally installed my Odyssey today. I was AMAZED at how much the factory battery weighed. I used some pop rivets and a piece of L aluminum from Home Depot- took about an hour or so. The car starts up just fine. I'll keep you guys updated if any problems pop up.

 

what the hell is that dinky a$$ battery doing in a MINI?????

what motorcycle did you steal that out of???

i wouldnt trust that if my life depended on it!!

 

Good thing it isn't in your car then!

 

i'll stick with an optima, not a motorcycle battey

i doubt that little thing would take daily driven abuse. looks like a race battery.

 

Check the front of the thread- there are several people posting that use this on their daily driver and I'm sure there are many others that haven't posted. Like I said I'll keep you guys posted and let you know if I have any problems. I kept the stock battery so if the problems start coming it will take about 10 minutes (swap battery) to fix them.

 

the weight savings would be nice, but i'm not getting stranded over saving 15 lbs

 

If one was trying this for the first time, I could see the concern. I'm at 2 years, and others (in different cars) have regularly seen 5+, with 6 and 7 years not being uncommon...

15 pounds here and there, heck I'll take it. It's logic like that has helped me get to minus 168 And I'll be down 220 or so pounds when I'm done with the striptease. This is still with A/C, stereo, fully upholstered, and other goodies added to make it a more enjoyable, and practical ride...

My MINI (BMW) battery went into my dune buggy, and has been there ever since. Just sold the dune buggy with it as well. These work just fine so long as one doesn't plan on utilizing them when the power is off for extended durations of time...

 

i have an aditional amp for my sub in the car. i'm worried that it might drain the battery while running (with car running)

i dont run my amp with the car off, but i do listen to the stereo while working on my car.

i dont know if i want to take the chance.....

i dont have the cash now anyways lol

 

anyone know the specs for the OEM factory battery for reference?

 

For this to be the case, the average current required by the electrical would have to exceed the alternator capacity. But this would happen no matter what battery you chose, it would just be a case on how long it would take to drain your reserve.

I do to. I've gone over an hour with no problem starting, but I have left the car "on" for 1-2 hours and had problems. This is where larger batteries help most.
That's fine. No one is forcing you to!

Then I guess it's all moot.

But really, for sizing batteries and alternators, there are two things you need to keep in mind. One is storage capacity. This is needed for
1) Long storage.
2) Lots of use with the motor off.
3) Current Boost when instantaneous demand exceeds alternator capacity when motor running.
The other is current capability. This times volts is the amount of instantaneous power that the battery can deliver. You aint gonna crank the motor off of D-Cells in series!

For really big stereos, you need a big alternator (For the average current needed to power everything) and a big reserve (for those big base whumps!). These are both accomplished with large batteries, but it doesn't need to be done this way. Do a high cap alternator, small battery, and boost capacitors (Acts like a battery but is passive electronic device). Interestingly enough, this is a BETTER way, as the caps can supply power FASTER than a battery (that is time limited by a chemical reaction, diffusion, and surface area). Check out Maxwell Labs "Ultracapacitor" boost caps. Higher energy density that the car battery! Anyway, this is the best way to go, as the batteries pay a heavy weight penalty. The stock is something over 30 lbs... So it's about a 20 lb savings! You could put two in there, save 30% of the weight, and have about the same cranking amps.... OR do some other little tricks.....

Matt

 

From the MINI brochure-
Battery capacity (Ah) 55
Alternator output
120A for MC and 105A for MCS
1680W for MC and 1470 W for MCS

Lightweight battery spec comparison data
http://www.helix13.com/html/images/h...llecomparo.jpg

 

well, the additional amp is only 350 watts, and its not a high current amp, so i dont think there would be any problems......just need money!

 

rednwhitecooper- you sure did come around quickly.

 

TonyB,
Is there a post where you detail how you took all the weight off your vehicle? I am down to about 45 pounds now (battery, exhaust, crank pulley) and am always looking for more- I'd be interested in reading how you got so much off, thanks.

" 15 pounds here and there, heck I'll take it. It's logic like that has helped me get to minus 168 And I'll be down 220 or so pounds when I'm done with the striptease. This is still with A/C, stereo, fully upholstered, and other goodies added to make it a more enjoyable, and practical ride..."

 

The Braille is now in place. Here are some photos that I took along the way...



You can see here where I re-located an aluminum angle back further to fit the smaller Braille (as compared to the PC680)...







The back of an old blue shirt serves as a nice cover for the Braille. I'm going to get a prettier and heavier blue fabric later though...



Jason, as you can see in these photos, I have no rear seats (45 or so pounds, along with belts and hardware). I lost not only the stock battery (35 lbs), but the box and bracket as well (about 8 pounds). The Braille, with the above mounting system, and aluminum cover plate for the battery box is 15 pounds, which equates to a 28 pound loss. This opened up the door for my straight exhaust which is like 18 pounds, compared to 45, or 27 more. So, just right there is:

45 (seats)
28 (battery & box)
27 (straight exhaust)

That's an even 100

And yes (from your PM), wheels and tires are a must. From the stock 16's, I lost just over 10 pounds per wheel/tire. I got the Volk CE28Ns 16x7 which weigh 10.75 lbs, and Yoko AVS ES 100s (205/45s). So, that's over 140 already...

The Wilwood front BBK helped lose another 11, and up front, and 3 of that is rotational mass (1.5 in each rotor). Coilovers help shed some more, as do control arms, sway bars, and other stuff to get a few more here and there...

I still haven't done the crank pulley yet, nor flywheel, and seats and that's another 50 or so, up front and rotational (except for the seats ).

 

Late to the thread, but could one of you guys that took out the stock battery please give me the dimensions? I'm going against the grain here and looking to install an Optima, but I can't seem to find the stock dimensions via the search engine. TonyB, help please!

 

I'm the wrong man for that info now. As I might have shared in this thread, I put the stocker in my dune buggy, then sold it a couple weeks back. I believe Matt still hast the stock battery, and can provide those dimensions for you...

 

9" Wide (9.5" if you count all the bumps and stuff.

7.5" Tall

7" Deep.

Not totally rectangular, with bumps and such....

Matt