Since more and more people are switching to Lithium based batteries those GEMs no longer need the under-seat battery compartment open to the road underneath. Since often the lithium pack occupies only the center 4 battery bay it leaves to decent sized areas on each side of the central compartment.
Without doing some sealing up of the whole under-seat area those side storage areas are only useful if you put your stuff in a Pelican case. It gets dirty, dusty and wet in there.
Has anyone made up designs to put polyethylene(root barrier), delrin or vinyl sheets in there to block off the outside and make the area useful for storage?
Now that I’ve got the compartment cleared, I’m going to attempt to make a left and right pattern in cardboard. Once I do one side, I will see how well it flips so maybe just one pattern.
I have a bunch of that 36" 40mil polyethylene sheeting and will try making bended tabs which fit over the lips of the battery boxes so I can use sheet metal screws to hold in place. Or I’ll staple it to the 2x4s I’m planning on filling in the main box area so to hold the lithium pack above that support beam.
I feel a lip just forward of the battery compartment under the front seats so a good edge to butt up against and seal(low expand foam spray).
I made the samsung pack sit flush with the frame, with stacked up 1" x 4" boards, I wanted to avoid having a sheet of plywood act like a drum
I had some 4" x 6" foam, I shaped it with a serrated knife to fill the gaps, I sealed the some gaps with duct taping mylar [grocery store freezer bags], covered some blocks with mylar. The method morphed as I did the work. The foam reduces the road noise
I store my shopping bags & a couple of tiedowns.
I will redo just covering the foam blocks with pond liner for water proofing, the pond liner tape should have a long life
The silver mylar with bubbles insulation taped in would be an easy option
For the 2008, here is the driver side section. There is a 1/4" or 3/8" aluminum rib running down the frame rail which separates the side section from the center section. This butts against that rib and overlaps the curved undercut of the body by about 1".
Dimensions:
20" long with 12" on one end and 10" on the other.
A 3/4" fold along the 12" end if you want some area for spray foam or double sided foam tape.
Maybe some 2" wide velcro stips could be attached under the wide battery strap to hold that part in place.
For a 2002, there is no frame rail rib, The rear frame support in about 2" further back(will need to extend to 22" long and there is also no angle support across the front side of the compartment so there will need to be some extended tab added with a “Z” bend so it doesn’t act as a scoop.
For the 2008 GEM, here is the center section. This also would fit the 2002 but would need to be sealed up against the bottom of the front body since no vertical support is available as in the 2008.
Dimensions:
16 1/2" x 7" with cutouts for electric wires, brake lines and E-brake cables down to 3 1/2" from the rear side of the cover.
About 3" from the rear cover end will get bent down and fixed to inside of battery box.
