Cab aux battery for inverter and FMCSA

If that is in the cab you need to vent it properly, when they charge they emit a explosive gas, hydrogen. Then if things go bad and it breaks open you have a heavy lead box flying around and it is full of acid.

 

Must be vented and secured

 

Western Star has (or had) an option for the 4 batteries to be installed under the passenger side bench seat, rather than in an external box.

 

It's not good to have that gas generator in the cab and sleeper with you. There is a big reason we have batteries away from humans. Several of them actually. PMDriver covered many of them. I can think of more.

Your inverter is going to draw on that little battery and exhaust it in a hurry. It's way better to install that inverter under the bunk accessible from the floor behind one of the cabinets in the side box and run heavy wire to the big pack of 3 or 4 batteries in the frame behind or below your cab.

Take that battery out of your cab today, disconnect everything from your inverter, go to a dealer for your truck and pay a few hundred dollars to have them install it proper and safely.

You can get bad hurt or even killed in many interesting and not so pleasent ways. Chemical burns will be the most dangerous, potentially putting you into a burn ward for a period of weeks or months with many procedures you will never wish on anyone pending. (Not to mention the billing) One of the easiest and most destructive ways is to be around the acid gases in your battery in the cab exposing your eyes to it. Your eyes will do what they can to flood it away with big tears and so on, but you will find your very livelihood threatened because your sight is now damaged or destroyed.

If that does not scare you into taking the battery out of there today, then I cannot help you. If there is anything good at all I would have told you. But today, with this situation... there isnt anything worth the risks plural.

 

Merritt makes between the rails, catwalk battery boxes.

 

This is why I like freightliner battery box position. But it's plastic.

 

How are you charging the inside battery? I doubt the DOT gives a darn about your battery, but you should at least buy a cheesy marine battery box for it and find a way to vent the box outside of the cab.

Good luck.

 

Yes it is a DOT violation, and even if it wasn't do you want that battery smashing you in the head in case of a rollover or other accident? It must be inside a protective enclosure with proper ventilation and securement. The wiring must conform to applicable SAE standards for protection from abrasion, overload (short circuit/fire) and be properly secured.

It always amazes me to see the collection of unsecured objects in some cabs. As a former tow truck operator I have seen quite a bit of damage done from loose stuff in crashes, cleaned up a simple roll over where the driver was hit in the head by his microwave oven and hospitalized. Look at the image, the white box is the microwave. It came out of the passenger side of the bunk and bounced off the driver's head. Dang near killed him! As you can see, this wasn't even a very violent roll over, mild as far as truck wrecks go.

As for the DOT regulation here it is:
§393.28 Wiring systems.
Electrical wiring shall be installed and maintained to conform to SAE J1292—Automobile, Truck, Truck-Tractor, Trailer, and Motor Coach Wiring, October 1981, except the jumper cable plug and receptacle need not conform to SAE J560. The reference to SAE J1292 shall not be construed to require circuit protection on trailers. (See §393.7(b) for information on the incorporation by reference and availability of this document.)
§393.30 Battery installation.
Every storage battery on every vehicle, unless located in the engine compartment, shall be covered by a fixed part of the motor vehicle or protected by a removable cover or enclosure. Removable covers or enclosures shall be substantial and shall be securely latched or fastened. The storage battery compartment and adjacent metal parts which might corrode by reason of battery leakage shall be painted or coated with an acid-resisting paint or coating and shall have openings to provide ample battery ventilation and drainage. Wherever the cable to the starting motor passes through a metal compartment, the cable shall be protected against grounding by an acid and waterproof insulating bushing. Wherever a battery and a fuel tank are both placed under the driver's seat, they shall be partitioned from each other, and each compartment shall be provided with an independent cover, ventilation, and drainage.

 

Get the battery out of the cab. I'm surprised your mechanics didn't just pull it out of there.