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EarthX Battery Box Fit?

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DwightFrye

Active Member
I have an RV-7 and use the 3-sided Van's battery box for the PC680. I'm thinking about getting an EarthX ETX680 and their BB-MU Multi-Use box. I want to verify whether the bolt pattern for that battery box is identical to the Van's 3-sided box bolt pattern. My desire is to have this be a plug-and-play swap, if at all possible.

Their website says that the bolt pattern is the same as the Van's 4-sided battery box, but I have no idea how this compares to the older 3-sided box. Anyone got insights for me? Thanks!
 
I don't know about the three sided battery box but the EarthX battery box does not fit the bolt pattern of RV7A that is on the firewall. It can however easily be modified to match the bolt pattern. I suspect there is no difference in bolt pattern of three sided vs four sided since the bolts go thru the angle piece that is riveted to the FW and those are fix position.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the information. This conflicts with what the EarthX folks seemed to be saying, but I figured that worst case I can drill new holes. Apparently it will _almost_ fit the existing battery boxes, but not quite. Pity.
 
Fit my 9A

The bolt pattern absolutely did match the firewall on my 9A. No problems at all.

Edit: I installed an ETX900.
 
Last edited:
JohnInReno said:
The bolt pattern absolutely did match the firewall on my 9A. No problems at all.

Edit: I installed an ETX900.
Click to expand...

Great news! I'm guessing that if you installed the ETX900 you are using their "multi-use" battery box. I am going to use the same thing, so have hopes that it'll be plug-and-play. Thanks!
 
I replaced the standard Vans battery box with the EarthX multi use box. It was plug and play for my installation. Everything matched exactly. No drilling involved.
 
RVbySDI said:
I replaced the standard Vans battery box with the EarthX multi use box. It was plug and play for my installation. Everything matched exactly. No drilling involved.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the additional confirmation. In theory my battery and box will be here by Friday ... guess what I'll be doing this weekend? :)
 
I replaced the Vans Battery Box with an EarthX battery box on my RV-7. The hole pattern was the same.
 
Maybe I am crazy here, but why not just get the dimensions for the boxes and attachment holes and then compare?
 
Just a few days ago I changed out my OEM-Vans PC680 and battery box for the EarthX ETX900-VNT and BB-CU battery box - they are NOT a direct bolt-up replacement. The Vans box has the steel flanges that you rivet on and use for the nutplates - the BB-CU does not - so if you've got the holes already drilled for the Van OEM battery box then the BB-CU battery box will be about a half-inch too narrow in width.

Still worth the effort, in my opinion.
 
Earth x battery box

Maybe I did something wrong when I installed my Earth x battery. I used the Vans battery box mounted on the firewall of my RV7 and just used a bit of elbow grease to convince it to fit. I made new hold down brackets so I could use the same bolts and holes. I found that it is VERY important to wire up the alert circuit to a cockpit indicator. I wired it to my Skyview and created a new widget. I am still impressed at how well it cranks my IO-360.
 
airguy said:
Just a few days ago I changed out my OEM-Vans PC680 and battery box for the EarthX ETX900-VNT and BB-CU battery box - they are NOT a direct bolt-up replacement. The Vans box has the steel flanges that you rivet on and use for the nutplates - the BB-CU does not - so if you've got the holes already drilled for the Van OEM battery box then the BB-CU battery box will be about a half-inch too narrow in width.

Still worth the effort, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

You are correct that the BB-CU doesn't match the Van's bolt pattern, nor do they claim that it does. The box that they claim _does_ match is the BB-MU (multi-use) box. We'll see if that claim is accurate this weekend. :)
 
DwightFrye said:
You are correct that the BB-CU doesn't match the Van's bolt pattern, nor do they claim that it does. The box that they claim _does_ match is the BB-MU (multi-use) box. We'll see if that claim is accurate this weekend. :)
Click to expand...

Correct - which is why I was careful to specify which battery box I was installing, for the larger vented ETX900.
 
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