Battery charging

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K31
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:35 am
Location: Central Plains

Battery charging

Post by K31 »

My Optima red top batteries have been slowly losing their ability to hold a charge, down to barely a week. After searching through the threads, I found one where somebody had installed a Soneil 24v 1.5a constant current charger (btw, his e-mail address is no longer valid), so I ordered one. It came yesterday afternoon -- with no instructions or manuals. It consists of a removable power cord with grounded plug for a 110v household source, a black box with an LED but no switches, and a permanently attached cord with three 18-22 gauge stripped wires at the other end -- black, green, white insulations. OK, so now what? :?
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David Dunn
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Location: Arcadia, CA

Post by David Dunn »

Instead of patching the symptom, fix the problem! My Haf, the Pink Cow and the Vampire have sat without starting up to 6 months without problems starting on Optimas.
Check your charging system... see what your voltage is across the batteries, without and with the engine running.... the molex connector is the number 1 reason that the batteries don't stay charged on Pinzes.... besides people wiring a ton of electronics crap into them that have a parasitic draws :?
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The Trojan Horse... the 1st Pinz used to covertly carry troops into battle .




ATL Pinzgauer XM 718K TUM(HD) 6x6 FFR (aka The Green Grail)
K31
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:35 am
Location: Central Plains

Post by K31 »

Dave wrote: Instead of patching the symptom, fix the problem!

The problem is that I get 1 or 2 s-l-o-w revolutions from the starter, and then the battery doesn't have enough juice for any more turns. IF the engine started, the alternator light went out and the little VDO gauge with battery on it read about 28v. There was apparently enough charging occurring to last a few days, but no more.

Dave wrote: Check your charging system... see what your voltage is across the batteries, without and with the engine running....

A little hard to do when the engine won't start -- which is why I bought the charger.

Dave wrote: the molex connector is the number 1 reason that the batteries don't stay charged on Pinzes.... besides people wiring a ton of electronics crap into them that have a parasitic draws

Oh, THE molex connector! I looked on the Pinz repair manual electrical system schematic and don't see a listing for a molex connector, or any other socket type plug in the charging system. What am I missing?

Beyond that, I don't have any electronics crap in it -- stock army except for the Pertronix ignition and 12v brake lights, no radios. And I religiously use the battery isolate switch.

Thanks for the helpful comments, Dave. Anybody else want to tell me how they wired a Soneil 24v 1.5a charger into their Optima 24v battery system?
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David Dunn
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Post by David Dunn »

Ignoring the problem and adding a charger is like having cancer and taking pills to avoid the pain.

Obviously , you can check the voltage wit hit not running, and once you jump start the Pinz, you can check it running. If my memory serves me right, at about 21.5v, you'll have extreme trouble starting the truck ( depending on the condition of your engine and starter), and once started, you should get from around 28 to 32v ( high side).... if the voltage reading doesn't go up with the engine running, it meaning you aren't charging ( or possibly a bad battery).
Back in '01, my 710M met with the slow battery death, to the point of not starting one day. I did the above mentioned test, and found the lack of charging voltage, and with checking connection, the engine rpm dropped ( alternator load) and charging began. It was the connector on the right side of the engine where there is a connector goes through the sheetmetal. It is very common for this contact to corrode .... there are tons of threads on this and the yahoo forum on this.

The battery charger is sometimes a nice little extra to have for a part time vehicle, but is like being on life support to keep it living, and one day, you'll be in the middle of nowhere holding a plug and not have a place to put it
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The Trojan Horse... the 1st Pinz used to covertly carry troops into battle .




ATL Pinzgauer XM 718K TUM(HD) 6x6 FFR (aka The Green Grail)
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David Dunn
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Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:08 pm
Location: Arcadia, CA

Re: Battery charging

Post by David Dunn »

K31 wrote: It consists of a removable power cord with grounded plug for a 110v household source, a black box with an LED but no switches, and a permanently attached cord with three 18-22 gauge stripped wires at the other end -- black, green, white insulations. OK, so now what? :?
BTW, the charger sounds as if it is for independent charging of each battery..... my first choice would be to plug it in and read the voltage across the leads... in automotive terms, black would be ground on the "bottom" battery, green to the common post between the batteries, and white to the + of the high battery. BUT, check the voltage and polarity before attaching them to any battery

There should be a website for the manufacturer with their wire hookup though.
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The Trojan Horse... the 1st Pinz used to covertly carry troops into battle .




ATL Pinzgauer XM 718K TUM(HD) 6x6 FFR (aka The Green Grail)
K31
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:35 am
Location: Central Plains

Post by K31 »

Dave, thanks for the follow-on advice. It'll give me some other things to look at in the garage tomorrow -- as soon as the temperature in there gets above 30! :)
Jerbearyukon
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Location: Whitehorse Yukon Canada

Post by Jerbearyukon »

I found that my converters would draw power even if nothing else was on so all I do every night is turn off the main 24 cutoff switch.

I checked this by putting an inline ammeter (10 amp) and turned everything off but the cutoff switch. There was about .8 amps flowing. I suspected it was the converters so I disconected them and the phantom went away......

Your choices....puit switches independantly on them or just shut off the main one.

I choose to shut off the main one everynight. You also lose 65 % of the charge out of a battery if it gets real cold....I have the alaska battery warmeers under 'em and a magnetic oil pan heater and it is plugged into a timer. It comes on and heats everything up for 2 hours in the morning before I take her out...NO PROBLEMS since

Jer Bear
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