about 22 pounds that is...
In keeping with one of the overall themes of this vehicle and holding to the "light makes right" theory I made one of the easiest upgrades one can make to a performance vehicle by replacing the stock battery.
The stock battery shipped with the Nissan Frontier is (from what I've gathered) built by Interstate Battery and is a fine battery--as general purpose batteries go, but it is very heavy, weighing in at 39 pounds and taking up a good deal of space in the very front of the vehicle.
I have been intrigued by Braille batteries for a couple years now. They have campaigned a 350z in the past and have been continued supporters of a number of Nissan efforts as well as have seen their product in numerous top of the line racing vehicles from the 24 Hours of Daytona, to NASCAR to Formula Drift.
I could have gone SUPER light with my choice as they offer batteries all the way down to tiny 3.7 pound Lithium batteries (albeit for $950) but needed to balance my need for all weather performance (as the Frontier will be run at all times of the year) and budget constraints. What I ended up with is the 17 pound B2317 which is small enough to cut my battery weight in more than 1/2 while still providing the cold cranking ability to turn the 4cyl. engine over in the New England winter—all for under $200. To this I added the aluminum mounting kit which adds negligible weight and provides a solid way to secure the battery.
Received in just a handful of days after getting the battery directly from Braille (why bother with a middle man??), installation was relatively easy though the convoluted Nissan terminal wiring and fuselink do not allow for many mounting positions without tearing into the harness--not something I wanted to do. So the battery remains in more or less the stock location but has saved a great deal of weight (0.6%!!) for something so simple—plus it just looks cool...
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