Battery Info

[DarkBlack]

the upper left and lower right one failed completely.

The upper right one is positive in this 24 V system, and the lower left is negative. What I don't understand is why those two, first and last in the chain, are dead

I’m confused. You seem to contradict yourself on which ones died.

In any case, I’d add one more cable, connecting the series battery pairs..either the +, or the - terminals, whichever is easier access.This will halve the chances of undercharged batteries due to its series “partner” having a higher voltage drop, by putting them in parallel.
For the price of one cable, it’s well worth it in my opinion.

 

[Hay Dude]

I bought this one at Harbor Freight in Tyler.

View attachment 2105403

Lot better buy than amazon ($26-$28)

 

[rScotty]

I didn't think about the cables. They were expensive, and they are pretty thick, but I don't know the details of them off the top of my head. I'll look at them too!!!

Our 2008 Kubota came with a the typical old style flooded wet cell type battery with the cell top caps. It was a decent battery. It lasted well, but like many of its type the wet cells outgassed enough to corrod the cable terminals. They needed cleaning every year or two and eventual replacement.

A few years back, I was again once again cleaning the cable ends when I noticed the cable had an odd "floppy area" back about six inches from the cable end. I slit the insulation to look, and found that battery acid fumes had crawled up the copper wire inside of the cable insulation and eaten away most of the copper wire. No wonder it wasn't starting right.

New cables made using flexible ground lead wire bought at the welding supply shop - mentioned above, plus some old fashioned soft lead cable ends, and switching to an AGM style battery have hopefully fixed it.

rScotty

 

[LouNY]

I've never used a Load Tester before, but I've seen them use it at NAPA when bringing a battery in. They always have something like this.

Amazon.com

Is there an advantage to the digital ones? I'm sort of leaning towards something like the Schumacher that I post the link to. I also see that there is a Neiko that looks indentical to the Schumacher, but for about $15 less.

Amazon.com

I like the 500 amp ones, they will put more of a load on the batteries.

 

[grsthegreat]

I bought this one at Harbor Freight in Tyler.

View attachment 2105403

Those are generally maxed out at 100amps, you should test batteries at 50% of rated CCA. SO A 550 CCA battery should be tested at 225 amp draw for i believe its 10-15 seconds. Mine beeps when its done.

My carbon pyle tester is also harbor freight, but its rated 500 amps. I dont see that anymore, now they have a 1000 amp model.

After i hit a battery with the carbon pyle tester, i then test it with electronic Midtronics tester. The battery must pass both, or i replace it. I maintain lots of generator batteries, plus lots of my own.

 

[LittleBill21]

I bought this one at Harbor Freight in Tyler.

View attachment 2105403

same one I use. you get about 10 seconds, or a solid minute if you got a strong enough leaf blower....

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I’m confused. You seem to contradict yourself on which ones died.

In any case, I’d add one more cable, connecting the series battery pairs..either the +, or the - terminals, whichever is easier access.This will halve the chances of undercharged batteries due to its series “partner” having a higher voltage drop, by putting them in parallel.
For the price of one cable, it’s well worth it in my opinion.

Sorry, it's the upper right and lower left that are bad.

I'll have to think about adding that cable.

 

[LittleBill21]

Sorry, it's the upper right and lower left that are bad.

I'll have to think about adding that cable.

is this 4s or 2s2p?

 

[John_Mc]

Speaking of battery issues, yesterday I found one that puzzles me.

These batteries have been flawless for about two years, always maintaining a good charge for months. Don't know if it's related, but recently decided to be nice to them and add some water. They didn't need much, some cells none.

Also in the process of rebuilding the power control box for this vehicle, basically a solenoid that provides power when the battery switch is turned on, and one that sends power to the starter's solenoid when activated.

With all systems seemingly good to go, the starter acted like the batteries were low. The voltage was still up there, but when load testing them the upper left and lower right one failed completely. Never had anything like that happen before.

The upper right one is positive in this 24 V system, and the lower left is negative. What I don't understand is why those two, first and last in the chain, are dead while the other two tests perfectly. Yes, stuff happens, but in this case, how?View attachment 2105400

Put them on a solar charger and with desulfation on the two bad ones. It'll be interesting to see if the specific gravity is still as bad as it was yesterday.

So the two with the issue are the two with the Pulsetech on them? Those Pulsetech units are only supposed to be used on batteries that are frequently charged. The Pulsetech is a desulfation system that runs off the battery power (rather than plugging in to the wall), so they put a constant slow drain on the battery to which they are connected.

If the batteries are not charged on a very regular basis (e.g. by running the vehicle in which they are installed), it will drain the battery. Leaving one battery in a series set up partially drained will cause real problems for your charging system: one of the batteries in series will be constantly undercharged, and one will be constantly overcharged, shortening the life of both of them.

In addition, putting the Pulsetech units on some batteries but not others is likely causing a battery imbalance.
It's hard for me to see from the picture how you've got the 4 batteries wired up, but I believe it's as shown in this diagram:

With the Pulsetech units connected to B2 and B3, those batteries will be slowly drained. With a 24V charging system connected at the +24V and GND, it's likely that B2 & B3 will be chronically undercharged while B1 & B4 will be overcharged. All 4 batteries run the risk of being damaged, especially if the imbalance becomes significant. Even if you run the vehicle regularly to charge it, you will not be able to equalize the batteries just from the vehicle's charging system. If you are going to run this type of battery maintainer (powered by the batteries themselves), you really ought to consider running them on all 4 batteries. An alternative set-up would be to regularly charge each battery individually with a 12V smart charger. Alternatively, you can buy a 12V, 4 Bank battery charger, and charge all 4 batteries individually at the same time. (I use a 12V two-bank smart charger which is permanently mounted in my 24V antique military pickup which has two 12 volt batteries. When I put the truck away, I just plug an extension cord into the charger and leave it. It keeps the batteries properly charged and balanced.)

Since your existing batteries are already way out of balance, you could try to recover the weak batteries by connecting them individually to 12V battery charger/maintainer with a desulfation feature. If the batteries are too far gone, it might not be able to bring them back.

Whether connecting batteries in parallel, it's important that they be in a similar state of charge when first connected.When running batteries in a series connection, the weaker battery will limit the output of both batteries. Since you have a Series/Parallel setup, both of these are considerations. If you are replacing batteries, I'd recommend replacing all 4 at once.

 

[John_Mc]

is this 4s or 2s2p?

From what I can see, it's two in series, and then those two series strings connected in parallel.