Just got a new bus today with frame mounted battery box.... box looks fairly heavy and stout...time will tell on my roads around here, lol... I am not super impressed with air dryer location... basically same place as it use to be except battery box structure surrounds it and has a hole big enough to take dryer off bus thru but not big enough to change cartridge without removing complete dryer from bus... Kind of wondering how fast dirt and gravel will fill up around batteries with front of box basically open...set back about 2 inches from door...of course what goes in thru opening can fall out...
Appears to have more hand room around batteries and believe door is larger too...Has a pair of really nice looking drawer slides on each side of the battery tray, May not be so nice after a few months in the salt and dirt? but looks a lot better than previous version to me.... Actually looks quite neat and clean the way cables and batteries are in there ...all in all looks like a step in the right direction..
If I can figure out how and find time to upload some pics.. I will
We have had number of units delivered in our fleet with the new style battery box. I had the same concern as you did about getting road debris into the box. I have been told in the near future they will be supplying a cover as an option to eliminate this concern.