Even more Battery Chat

All the fun battery chat below got me to thinkin of even more (LOVE sparky chat, its an enginners thing I reckon) lol. Its been some time back that I posted a Question over on an RV Forum of the advantages or disadvantages of using two twelves in paralell versus two sixes in series to maximize stored available energy, and, of course, other factors such as longevity and cost and charging issues etc. come into play.

Soon I will be attending a Seminar about the use of Lithium Ion batteries for stored RV energy, should be interesting.

Anyway, it turned out to a 4 page discussison in case any are interested, theres some good info and expertise over there.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25526854/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1.cfm

God Bless yall

An ever curious John T
Battery Discussion

Years back I did the maintainance on the township road grader-snowplow. It had a V8 Cummins in an Austin-Western . It used 4 big 6 volt batteries. 2 on each side hooked in series for 12 volts then both sides in paralell keeping the whole system 12 volts. Worked fine as long as I kept the cables & connections good. If one battery went bad I replaced them in pairs unless it failed early & was replaced under warrantee.

Hey JT . . . have you ever tried to buy a new dry battery that has never had acid in it? I got checking around recently and it's not easy or cheap.

I'd like to have some new spare deep-cycle batteries that can be stored with an indefinite shelf life. One place so far told me it can be done on special order but the price goes up a lot.

Note I'm not talking about a "dry charged" battery. Those are filled with acid at the factory, charged, and then drained and shipped empty. Once that is done the time-clock is ticking and you can't store them forever - empty or not.

A whole lot of battery problems can be traced to bad connections. I have a feeling, which is not backed up by scientific fact, that the system with the fewest possible connections is the best, given comparable battery capacity. A few days ago I got a call from a neighbor who was stranded in the woods with a tractor that wouldn't start. a few minutes work with a pocket knife and a wrench fixed the problem, which was a bad connection at the battery. Just kind of got me to thinkin', which is not necessarily a good thing.

Ive found that exact thing to be true sooooooooo many times BAD, CORRODED, LOOSE, BURNED CONNECTIONS

Some dudes car wont crank over, raise the hood, theres a huge pile of white build up all over the battery post.

John T

Nope never have but I like your idea so you dont have to buy one thats sat on the shelf and aged. Instead, buy the case with its lead plates then fill it with your own acid

Keep us posted if you find a source at a decent price

John T

I buy my motorcycle batteries on the interet, they come dry as you cannot ship with acid. I buy my acid at the local parts store.

Yep, you can keep them dorment until ready to use. Another trick is use a good quality tender for that first charge. Takes abour 24 hours, however it is best way to charge a ew battery, extends the life.

Lloyd

Do you remember .. when they ship tractors with DRY batteries ??
been awhile back so my age is showing here ...

mark

We filled our own batteries in the early 70s, and yes, in 1976 MF was still shipping tractors with dry batteries.

Yes Mark I do remember that infact I filled hunderes of them at the shop but after 1969 Case chose to send them with filled ones, we were much happier cnt

last dry ones I bought must have been 10-15 ys ago at least.

soundguy

I bought DieHard motorcycle batteries from Sears that were dry. The acid came in a separate container. I use one on my Troy Bilt tiller for starting. Hal

I get mine at the loacl john deere ih dealer, they come dry, they fill it after you buy it. brand name is strongbox.

While still on active duty I helped out a lot of soldiers with their car problems. The strangest one was a guy who lived about 5 blocks from the unit. New car and after he had it about 2 months the battery was dead. He ask me about it and the first thing I ask him was how far he drove it. His reply was to and from work and once every 2 weeks to the PX and commissary (4 and 6 blocks from his quarters). Problem was he wasn't running the car long enough to recharge the battery all the way up from starting......ever! Jump started it and had him drive it about half an hour....Problem solved sorta.....he was so deep in debt he couldn't afford to drive it, one tank of gas had to last him all month!

Rick

if you would like to learn and interesting fact or two about batteries see if you can find the documentary on who killed the electric car, one that sticks with me is the man who invented a battery that far surpassed any other type that would have helped the electric cars performance as far as battery life, after being bought up by gm gave a short presentation then done the politically correct thing and watched it all go down hill

No that's not what I am talking about. The Deere Strongbox is dry-charged. It is filled at the factory with acid, charged, then drained and shipped.

I know several "survivalists" who want totally dry new batteries. The purpose is to put them in stock and save for much later use - perhaps during a time of crisis when new batteries cannot be easily purchased.

The batteries shipped empty and filled by dealers are "dry-charged." They were filled with acid at the factory, given an initial charge, then drained, dried, and shipped. They do NOT have indefinite shelf lives like truly "never filled" batteries do. I assume you already know but it seems some other people do not.

Like many of you, I maintain a lot of batteries (35+). I have had good success putting an ounce of hydrogen peroxide in each cell once a year. It helps take the oxidation? off the plates. That being said, I still replace 1 or 2 a year. I have an odd shaped 6 volt that I bought dry from an alternator shop dry 10 years ago for my 49 Pontiac. I sure hope it is still good. The only other dry battery i bought was a clear one for a 1972 Honda motorcycle I have. It only holds a charge for a couple of weeks no matter what I do.

We can get dry batteries from our local Cat dealer.

LJD
Wouldn't a "dry charged" battery that had been filled, charged, then drained at the factory then
shipped and purchased last as long as a "dry" battery if the purchaser filled and drained the battery 3 times with distilled water to thoroughly wash all of the acid out? In accordance with all applicable OSHA and EPA regs of course. I don't know that this would work, just asking if it would.

This question is based on my previous personal experiences
while pulling wrenches at a Cat shop. Before OSHA or EPA regs complicated such investigations, I drained, flushed, and then cut used batteries apart and mounted them on pallets to observe what possibly led to their failure. I had several pallets exhibiting several brands and sizes of locally available batteries.

I found that if I
flushed them 3 times, I didn't have any
holes in my jeans and shirts after I cut them
apart. Maybe I just got lucky?

Out of approx. 20 batteries, 2 or 3 with cell connector fractures, 1 or 2 with various apparent manufactured in defects, but most with the lead sulphate accumulator trenches under each cell full and shorted across the cell. We speculated that it was the result of the fragile lead sulphate crystals being subjected to too much shock and vibration before being recharged back into spongy lead and sulfuric acid.
Its amazing that lead acid batteries actually hold up as well as they do for as long as they
do.

Are talking about optima batteries? I have 2 that were on my 97 f250 powerstroke when i bought it about 4 years ago. Really like them.No acid to leak . I understand they can be mounted in any position.

I've been told "no" by two battery company tech guys. Once filled, charged, and drained, shipped and called "dry charged" the plates start to degrade slowly. They will not store indefinately like a new battery that's never had acid in it. The Deka rep told me they used to get a fair amount of special orders for new, totally dry batteries but don't sell them any longer.