2011 Ford E350 Elkhart ECII Shuttle bus sliding battery tray

[SWAShuttleGuy]

Hey guys,


I have a 2011 E350 ECII Elkhart 24" shuttle bus with dual batteries on a sliding tray. Located on the passenger side behind a little battery door just past the double entry doors.



I was inspecting the batteries, they look good, only 2 years old, and noticed the power connections inside the battery box have some corrosion on them. The plan was to slide the tray out to allow more room to access the connections and clean them.


Here's the problem - the tray has sliders, bearings etc, and is mounted to a frame but I am unable to locate a release, cable, toggle, or whatever that would unlock the tray and allow it to slide out.


There are two lever type devices, one on each side, that appear to do something but there is no connection to them except where they are bolted to the tray frame. No cable, no spring, nothing that jumps out and screams this is a release.


Does anyone know where I should be looking to locate where the release is if what I'm seeing was a release but has failed?

 

[nikitis]

Not sure about your situation but I can tell you a lot of battery trays are in lack luster shape. They don't get attention because well it's just a tray that holds batteries, most people don't want to spend money and time addressing their battery trays and don't.

It's likely there was a level to a quick release or maybe you can pull the tray out and once pulled all the way, lift it up or down to see it is only held in by a hump on the rails possibly? Some trays have humps to prevent them from falling out completely on their own should the door open in a turn.

Don't want the batteries falling out while driving.

 

[SWAShuttleGuy]

I agree, the battery tray is overlooked and in some cases, just a tray.


This one, lol, appears to be 'just a tray'. Turns out that with a mechanic friend of mine, we slid the tray out and looked at it. While weathered some, it appears to have been a tray that has/had a release on each side, spring or cable unknown as the hardware wasn't there. Over the years and previous owner, those releases failed and the tray was locked into place with an 'L' angle screwed into the bus frame just inside the battery box door.


The tray sits down a little and is locked into place even without the 'L' bracket. But, that bracket will remain in place until I replace the tray.


Come spring/early summer, I'll be looking into replacing the tray and maybe the entire box with a Buyer's Box or something similar and fixing that issue.