Good to hear from you. When I pulled the battery tray out of my truck (and it looks like I was the first person to ever do that) there were no grommets on the two holes in the middle that you're talking about. My best guess would be that they are simply drainage holes. If the vehicle was forded across a river or stream that was higher than the bottom of the door you'd probably get water in the cab. Since it's not a good idea to have lots of water in the battery area under the seat I summized they simply put some drain holes in the floor. Or I guess you can also say they're for ventilating the battery compartment. Not that the seats make the compartment air-tight or anything. Or maybe they're just there to lighten the vehicle! Just kidding.
Gerry wrote:I thought the same thing and left them open. If they had grommets it would trap water in the well.
I think Gerry is correct on not grommetting all the holes in the floor board.
Why Dodge grommeted ANY of the holes in the first place is a mystery. The raised lip
of grommets helps retain water in the floorboard area. Maybe just leaving all grommets
out would allow better drainage. The exception being the tube and grommet for the
battery tray.
The not so perfect welding job by the factory of the seat box created unexpected "weep" holes
for even more drainage.
Grommets, no grommets, too late for me. I re-installed the box and tray yesterday
with the grommets as shown in the pic. above. I will not take it apart again in my life time.
Besides, it never rains here in southern Arizona.
Thanks, Jerry
Nice work Jarhead! On both my M43 and M37 have the capsulated nuts welded to the underside of the floor pan and also both of them have the down drain tubes welded to the battery tray! I also have a third tray on the bench that has a 1/8 nipple threaded and welded for a drain spout.
I really like the grommet Ideas with most of our trucks never seeing deep water again that makes sense installing them.
hb
The wiseman who listens to his students stays a wise MAN!
Here's a pic' of the bottom of the battery tray from my gallery. No evidence of any "tube" welded or
attached to the drain hole. Was it a replacement tray with no tube? Beats me. Also see another
pic of the top of the tray in my gallery. JB
I'm summizing that the battery tray you have is a later one. I say that because the ORD 9 I have is dated Jan 1954, so it doesn't reflect changes incorporated in the later trucks. I know the battery hold down bracket was also changed, the earlier ones are just a square perimeter with braces on the corners, while the later ones have two bars in the middle between the batteries so to speak. My ORD lists a connector and a seperate drain tube for the battery tray, which were probably eliminated in the later version. I tried to find a pic of the drain tube connector online, but so far no luck.
Bob:
You are on the right track. My battery tray has the hold downs in the middle. Like you said splitting the batteries.
So if it's a later tray then it may not have come with a drainage tube. Wondering how the tube
would be attached. Might be part of a "kit." (?)
JB
Home 
Just kidding.
