Battery charging questions

[Egon]

Tubes or also refered to as valves in some localities were what the first computer made use of.

Egon

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't know how much effort you want to put into reading about the origins of the term "snake oil", but here ya go: Snake oil readin' )</font>

Hey, that's great! I'm always joking with my doc about wanting to get some genuine snake oil.. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I use a Battery Tender on my T-Bird, Triumph motorcycle and Kubota with great success. They come with the usual charger jaws and one you can attach to the nuts on the cables which has a female plug on the end.)</font>

My current situation is that I had a massive corrosion problem, broken bolts, clamps that wouldn't come off the battery terminals, etc. I was over my head.. so my John Deere dealer sent out a guy who put in a new "Strongbox Hibernator" battery, and I have a "Battery Tender Plus" hooked up to it.

Very handy.. now I have three plugs dangling from the tractor.. engine heater, hydraulic heater, and battery charger. I just leave the battery one hooked on all the time at this point.

Question: after the install of the new battery, I put on the Battery Tender and in a few hours is was reading a steady green.. meaning fully charged and in float mode.

Yesterday, I fired it up, let it warm up for 20 minutes, then did some work with it for maybe another half hour, figure roughly an hour of running. When I shut it down, I hooked up the Battery Tender, and it immediately went into "red" mode, meaning battery is at less than 80% charge. An hour or so later, it switched to flashing green mode, meaning over 80% charge and topping it off. A few hours later, it finally went to solid green mode, meaning it was now fully charged and in float mode again.

Is this normal??

After running the tractor for about an hour, my battery was *less* charged than it had been before starting it up. Kind of makes one wonder about the alternator, etc... or maybe it's just that I know squat about batteries. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My intention is to leave the Battery Tender hooked up constantly.. because I've heard this extends the useful life of the battery. Would people tend to agree?

I smeared electrolytic grease on all the terminals, and will check them routinely from now on.

The new battery is, I gather, standard John Deere issue.. six caps, as opposed to the old one with only two large rectangular caps.

Okay, any thoughts generated from this bunch of babble of mine?? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[normde2001]

No, not normal. You need to find out why your alternator is not charging your battery. I would have to wonder if the dealer left it like that, or did hooking up the "battery tender" cause a problem?

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( No, not normal. You need to find out why your alternator is not charging your battery. I would have to wonder if the dealer left it like that, or did hooking up the "battery tender" cause a problem? )</font>

I have no way of determining this.. and, in fact, the dealer hooked up the "battery tender" himself by connecting up and running the wires while he was installing the new battery.. and the battery tender was sitting right there so he could see what it was and, I would assume, would have commented if he felt it was unwise to use it. All I did was plug it in and turn it on. Is it possible that the battery tender is misrepresenting the situation, and *always* follows the same sequence when first hooked to a battery?

I know that, with the old battery, despite all the corrosion, etc., the tractor would always start with no more than a flick of the key.. and had done so, and still does, since I owned it (I'm on my third winter with it, and the old battery was still working fine.. I just thought it was a good time to replace it due to age and the corroded condition.)

I'll call the dealer and get their take on it all. I should also probably be able to measure the output of the alternator, in some way, right?

Tks,
Bob

 

[Bird]

Bob, don't you have a multimeter? You can check voltage at the battery with the engine off (12.6 volts?) and again with the engine running at perhaps 1500 rpm (13.2 to 14.4 volts?) and if your meter is a clamp meter, clamp around the positive cable with the engine running at the same rpm and see what amperage flow (if any) is going toward the battery (or possibly from the battery which wouldn't be good /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif).

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bob, don't you have a multimeter? You can check voltage at the battery with the engine off (12.6 volts?) and again with the engine running at perhaps 1500 rpm (13.2 to 14.4 volts?) and if your meter is a clamp meter, clamp around the positive cable with the engine running at the same rpm and see what amperage flow (if any) is going toward the battery (or possibly from the battery which wouldn't be good /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif). )</font>

Hi Bird,

I have a multimeter, and I have a couple of electrodes with it, and I could run these checks on the battery voltage, but have no way (that I know of) to check current flow, direction of current flow, etc.

If I really had a charging problem, wouldn't I have had a problem in 2-3 years of routine running without ever having used a battery charger? Seems like the alternator must be doing it's job.. to some extent..?

I'll measure the voltages and report back.. might have to go buy batteries for the multimeter first though. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Egon]

Aw Trev; cut the poor battery a little slack. the chances are everything is working as planed.

Egon

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Aw Trev; cut the poor battery a little slack. the chances are everything is working as planed.

Egon )</font>

Yeah Egon, you're probably right (as usual.)

People tell me I think too much! They're probably right.. I'll have to think about it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob

 

[mainiak1]

Yes it's normal, I have a battery tender on my 790 John Deer tractor and it charges after it has been running. It goes off within an hour.
mainiak1

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Yes it's normal, I have a battery tender on my 790 John Deer tractor and it charges after it has been running. It goes off within an hour.
mainiak1 )</font>

Oh, interesting.. mine took more than an hour before it was back to a solid green light.. but it's good to know that I'm not the only one. I'll just run it for a while and see what happens. Next time I fire it up, I'll also see what voltages I'm seeing at the battery terminals.. but it must be charging to some extent or that old battery should have died a year or so ago...

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Jeff396]

Hi Trev,

My Battery Tenders always show red when hooking them up after running any of my vehicles. I have not noticed how long it takes to change from red to green though. I've had the one on my T-bird for about 4 years and have yet to have the car fail to turn over briskly.

Jeff

 

[Trev]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Hi Trev,

My Battery Tenders always show red when hooking them up after running any of my vehicles. I have not noticed how long it takes to change from red to green though. I've had the one on my T-bird for about 4 years and have yet to have the car fail to turn over briskly. )</font>

Thanks, Jeff... good to know!

Bob
Jeff

 

[ZJ_HR]

Bob,
It's easy to see current flow, even you don't exactly know amount of Amperes.

Connect your + (red) measuring stick on minus (-) pole on battery, and - (black) measuring stick on end of grounding cable (where it is bolted to tractor chassis). Then set your digital multimeter (DMM) on DC mV range.

Turn lights on - DMM will show (-)XXX mV, because you draining battery. (If differet, replace places of sticks).

Then start engine. Check on idle, and then on higher rpm. Normally in both cases, it should be (+)YYY mV on display.

As you don't know resistance value of grounding cable, you can't measure exact amperage, but it will help you to troubleshoot failure in charging circuit. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Voltage of good, full charged battery is about 12.4-12.6V, before starting engine and with no load.
When you start engine, voltage must increase up to 14.4V, with no load, as Bird mentioned before.

Hope this helps,

ZJ

 

[Trev]

Thanks ZJ, and welcome to the forum!

Yes, that helped!

Bob

 

[ZJ_HR]

Bob,
Thanks for welcome. Tractors and farm machinery is my big "love".
I have some experience with tractors electrics, like repairing alternators, starters etc, so if you need some help, drop me a message. I'll be glad to share my knowledge to help you or somebody else. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

ZJ