Anyone know why there appears to be an empty battery tray in front of the left wheelhouse of my 2007? Will dual batterys be a future Tahoe option? My dealer has no clue as to its purpose or future application.

 

The tray is actually a bracket that stiffens the fender and wheel well area, it was decided to make it usable and shape it in the form of a battery tray just in case anyone wanted to install a 2nd battery.
If you look at the opposite side there is a similar black bracket underneath the air filter box.

 

i dont get it ???? why didnt they install the battery there

 

There were several reasons that th battery was moved to the upper passenger side of the engine compartment.
Weight distribution, vibration isolation, crash test and aftermath results being a few of them.

 

I've had the second battery installed on my 2007 GMC Yukon XL. The wiring harness under the hood is all prewired for the second battery. You're right most dealer's service departments don't know anything about it when you mention it. It took me talking to about 5 before finding someone that even had an idea about it. I had to pull all of the schematics myself to take to the dealership to do the install. It seems like some dealer's service department will respond to "RV or trailer kit" when talking about the second battery. I've also had some response to diesel battery kit. It's pretty nice having the extra power, and the alternator obviously recharges both of them. I have most of my "extra" electronics connected to that second battery, and I also run a power inverter from time to time.

The 2nd battery is sitting right on that tray.

 

You mean that the 2nd battery is pre-wired already?? So all I need to do is get another battery (identical to the existing one) and just hook it up??? It couldn't possibly be that easy...

could it??

 

Ha, ha. Yeah right!!!! No it isn't that easy. Like I said most dealerships didn't want to touch it. The one that I found had actually done one a week or two before I brought mine it. There's no real "kit" for it but there are a few parts. The total for parts, including the battery, and labor was $500.

Most information on the 07's, most techs don't know much about them. It's kinda' sad actually.

 

Wasn't there an earlier post about the 2nd tray being used when the hybrid version comes out?

 

TMW597
Wouldn't maintaining 2 batteries shorten the life of the alternator? Just wondering.

 

My understanding is there's a regulator at the battery itself that regulates the alternator on the 07's to only charge when the batteries voltage slips to a certain level, unlike most cars that just charge all the time as the car is running.