House battery holder ?

[jimp]

Doing some battery maint, checking h2o levels, etc, and pulled the house battery out using the slide as that's the only way to access the battery imo. Possible with the slide out I guess, but the slide is not out right now.

Checked the water levels and charge level with a DVM, and then slid the battery back into the compartment and tried to lock the house battery in place with the lock on the front of the battery slide. Well, the rivets on the cross bar that has the hole for the lock to engage and hold the battery in place had broken/snapped, either from corrosion/age. I have an 08
greyhawk 31ss with the slide on DS.

What will be the best/easiest way to re-attach the cross bar so I can lock the house battery back in place? It looks like I have enough clearance between the actual battery slide mechanism and the cross bar location to use a bolt and nylok nut but getting to the old rivets to drill 'em out will difficult IMO with the battery in place. It does look like the entire house battery compartment will unbolt from the RV floor but not interested in that option at this time

Drill out the rivets and and use rivets again (no experience with using rivets) or drill out the old rivets and use some bolts/nuts? No welding experience either.

[Kave&Lucky]

grind off and punch out rivets out of both cross bar and frame then use bolts, lock washers and nuts or bolts and stop nut or lock nut (what I call them).

[Gma-n-Gpa]

Agreed - grind 'em off and replace with your favorite hardware - apply some grease to block corrosion.

[jimp]

Got it done, drilled out the bad stuff, drilled new bolt holes and got it mounted/installed the way it should have been when manufactured. thanks for the tips and advice.

[stans02]

If the rivet isn't in the way, just drill a new hole. That way if you don't have a grinder it will still work. A 1/4 inch bolt, and nut will probably do the trick. Put the nut on the bottom if it falls off the bolt will still be there. Stan

[cyclops]

jimp, glad you were able to get this taken care of! Hey by the way, on your '08, does your battery tray slide out far enough to actually do battery maintenance without unhooking and removing your battery? On my 2012 it seems the cables are too short to actually slide the tray past half way out, so I have to disconnect and remove the battery to maintain it. Then when buttoning it back up, I have to get under the coach and make sure the cables are out of the way on the back side so I can slide the tray in far enough to latch it. Does anyone else have this problem, and if so have you resolved it? Thanks!!

[jimp]

My battery slides out far enough for me to do the battery maint (checking the connections for corrosion and h2o levels), but I use a "mechanics mirror" as I call 'em to peek into the last couple of holes. The cables could be longer but the slide stops before the battery is clear of the door opening. My cables are slightly in the way when closing things up and I have to adjust 'em a bit to get the slide to lock into place.

I guess you could make or buy longer cables but I had the mirror handy as I face the same situation in my boat, so....