Smittybilt 2800 Dual Battery Tray

UPDATED REVIEW:Okay, so as I said in the original review, it took a little prep work to get installed but it fit great. It's a tight fit though, so make sure that you don't accidentally damage anything during install (meaning you AC, if you have one). Installing the base plate wasn't all that fun either, though. If I had to do it again, I'd disassemble the front and side of the engine compartment so I don't have to crawl under the Jeep. It's a long reach in a tight place only made worse by the fact that my Jeep is lifted.ORIGINAL REVIEW:So the package finally arrived, but it had been opened already. I think that the delivery driver dropped it off at the wrong house. Any case, my first impressions are kind of mixed on it. The powder coating on it isn't exactly perfect, there are some spots that have been chipped away to reveal bare metal. Another issue I have with the powder coating is that whoever had put it on didn't consider covering up the threads before powder coating it, so it's a bit of a pain to thread the rods on.Other than the powder coating, I also did notice that the design is a bit inconsistent. For example: the bottom tray is bigger than the top; and the spot where you put the rod through on the top tray to secure it to the bottom are different sizes, and I think one is threaded and the other isn't. (Shrug) I'm sure that it will work just fine, but it does require a little work before you can install it.Overall, despite it not being delivered on time (or to another house on another street more likely), the poor quality of the powder coating, and the fact that it requires a little prep work before install, I think that this purchase will deffinitely have been worth it and will look great once installed. I will update this review once I have it installed in the Jeep.

The Tray set installed fine but when you stack the batteries depending on how you position them - the side terminals get in the way and the batteries don't sit level. In our install the batteries are faced the same way to both negatives are aligned as are the positives. I made a 1/8 in plate out of some plastic I had and drilled large holes where the side mount terminals go. Then I glued on some inner tube rubber on both side - with the top side covering the holes and the Bottom Sides open so the plate dropped over the terminals and went out to the edge of the bottom battery allowing the weight to go off the side terminals and allow the trays to sit level. We also put an extra nut under the top tray to help support the upper battery weight some rather than having the top strap clamping down on both batteries. Basically we clamp down the upper plate against the bottom battery to the pressure we want and then back the nuts up from the bottom against upper the plate locking it n place. Then the Top strap only pulls down the top battery against the nuts under the upper mounting plate.Because of the extra bulge where the Top terminals are connected to the side terminals in our arrangement you need to notch out the area where the terminal bulge is to fit the upper battery shelf over the battery. If you look at a battery It is obvious and even shows some in the picture.When we were done the batteries were aligned for ease of wiring, the AC lines, computer connection and all terminals were clear and accessible.

The product was delivered and had rust already showing where the coating did not get applied properly at the point where the two plates are connected together.The other problem is that the all thread will not fit through the sleeves that are welded on the side of the tray, they need to be drilled out to allow the all thread to fit.

The material used was great. The bottom plate fit perfectly. Then the problems started. The middle tray that was supposed to fit over the optima battery was to narrow by 1/8th inch. To get it to fit I cut it off then rewelded and filled in the weld to add the 1/8th inch. The pipes on both sides had great welds, but the angle of the pipe was one inch off at the height of the optima battery. I had to cut the pipes off screwed the studs into the bottom platea and use nuts to set the height and alignment of the plate then rewled the 2 pipe guides to the middle plate. After doing all this, everything worked great.

I want to give it 5 stars but the allthread sleeves were a huge pain to get lined up. It was a very tight fit but that can be expected when putting two yellow tops in a Jeep tj.

Although the description says "Designed to be used with Ultima batteries"... this is NOT true. I purchased one to be used with two Ultima Blue top batteries and they did not fit... and there was no way to make it fit based on the battery design. I returned it for a refund.

Not alot of space to work with. Not a quick install.

Have always had good experiences with smittybuilt and honestly I'm a little disappointed the holes on the second pan don't line up to the all thread and their were no directions at all and the packaging was beat to hell paint chipped offWill work but I'll have to do some fabrication to do so