Batteries

[Ray Davis]

Wonderful. Thanks!

[rfoster]

I use my coach often - generally every 2 weeks. My chassis batteries have never failed or even acted weak. I have a Liberty with on board engine battery charger and it stays powered up 99 percent of the time.- batteries should be optimally charged - right? Today I turned the key and nothing but red lights, the speedometer moved to 10 mph. Whats up with this? I retrieve my All Star Battery Tester (see Mangos prevoman.com tool list) and after unhooking the terminals on the batteries three out of four fail the test and indicate a dead cell in 3 out of 4 batteries. These batteries have been in the coach since 05, this is early 08. I found it odd that 3 out of four die in the same week? Can anyone shed light on this issue. The batteries were not dry or cooked or disfigured in any way. They were in need of water but not what I would consider dangerously low.

I might also add of that I have replaced more car batteries this year than I have in the previous 13 years. Is this a global warming thing?t

[garyde]

Hi Roger. You don't want to run your trickle charger full time as it will boil the batteries, especiallly if a cell is weak or if you have low water. Typically, a charge for an hour or two should be enough. I accidently left my charger on with low water in batteries and it fried them.

[truk4u]

King,

Gary brings up a really good point. I think your charger is a single stage and socks the juice to your batteries. The Quests Chargers we have been installing are 3 stage and end up in float mode at the end of the charging cycle. You can leave this charger on full time with no worries.

[rfoster]

Gary and Truk: Thanks for the feedback. I have been leaving the charger breaker in the on position thinking that it would kick into float or trickle when the batteries were charged sufficiently. I will this afternoon perform some gyrations to see just exactly what kind of charger I have while installing the new batteries. There could be a quest Charger in my future.

[Jeff Bayley]

Peter-

This is Jeff who you sent the Trek Mate manual to (thank you again).

I saw your post on batteries. You referenced the battery in the Pro Driver. I didn't know that had one. My Pro Driver never seemed to function right for the first 3 years I had the bus but it was never important enough for me to fuss with it. Then, a few months ago, I had an erratic idle problem. The coach idled like it wasn't firing on all the cylinders. After a bunch of looking in the wrong place by the techs (as usual) a Detroit tech disconnected the Pro Driver from the dash and the problem went away. They didn't say anything about replacing the battery but I suppose doing that could be useful before buying a new Pro Driver (don't know how much they cost and I also DON"T have a manual for it either incidentally).

[MangoMike]

Fast Roger,

I had one cell go bad in one of the chassis batteries. It seemed that this triggered the Quest charger to go bulk mode. As a result the guys working down in the bus barn called me to say that the bus was stinkin'. Thinking another Taco Tour was in the works I headed down to check things out. The batteries had been cooking on bulk with an extreme smell of sulfer. Batteries were installed in 2004.

it looks like one bad battery can bring the group down.

Mike

[Coloradobus]

You're right Mike,
One battery can do the others in. 4 days after Katrina hit found us in Jackson Mississippi with a rotton egg smell and battery balance light On.
Turns out one battery had a dead cell, and everyone else began to cook.
We were lucky to find an Exide dealer who was open, had power, and employees. However, we had to install them ourselves for they were closing and that area around Jackson was under marshall law at the time. Whew!
We installed them and got out of there.

[rfoster]

As a follow thru on the battery charger, my Liberty is equipped with a Magnatek 900 charger. Searching thru the parts manuals that I have I found a small tri folded pamplet from Magnetek and guess what-- IT STATES "Charge the batteries about 10 hours per month to avoid overcharging when vehicle is in storage." Not necessary to charge chassis batteries if used on a regular basis.

Having made this discovery I have obviously been overcharging my batteries. Thanks for the feed back from all.

Now with Mango's recent rotten egg adventure- whats a guy to do - the Quest Charger sounds like if you get a dead cell, it will turn up the heat (go to bulk) and cook the rest of batteries? Buy a timer?

[truk4u]

King,

Any charger will continue to pump the juice to the batteries, not knowing there is dead cell or two sucking the life out of the others. It's an easy answer with the Guest, if the red light is on for a prolonged time, you have a problem. I check mine after about 24hrs from turning it on to make sure it's in float (green light). Mango never looks in his engine compartment, he's too busy repairing whiskey dents.