Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ?

   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #1  

redka

Silver Member
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Feb 27, 2008
Messages
204
Location
Middle GA
Does disconnecting the negative battery cable slow down or prevent battery drain? Through the winter months I may not use the tractor for 5-6 months. The battery will discharge in that length of time. I don't have electricity at the property to use a battery tender. Will it help to disconnect the negative cable from the battery terminal? Thanks
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #2  
Yes, it will prevent residual draw from draining the battery.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #3  
Not necessarily. Disconnecting one lead from the tractor may not make a difference unless something on the tractor is drawing power with the key off. To test this, disconnect one lead and connect a voltmeter between the battery post and the disconnected cable. If you get a reading something is drawing power.
I think there is more chance for battery drain across the surface of the battery. If the surface is neutralized with baking soda and water then dried a stored battery will usually hold a charge better.
Take a voltmeter and put the red lead on the positive terminal. Take the black lead and run it across the surface of the battery from neg. to pos. and see what readings you get. If the surface hasn't been cleaned you will get a reading. That reading is a battery drain and the surface needs to be neutralized.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #4  
Yes, I routinely disconnect batteries not used over winter. Alternators leak a little current through the diodes and voltage regulator, some worse than others. It only takes a few milliamps over several months to drain a battery.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #5  
Good replies here. Obviouly it could not hurt. Could you pull the battery out and take it somewhere that you could keep it on a float charger? A little more work of course. I keep all my low use batteries (trailer, Generator, tractor) on battery maintainers.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #6  
Yes, most newer systems have some level of parasitic drain. Most are acceptable and never cause a problem during normal use, but when stored for long periods can cause drain your battery.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #7  
Not necessarily. Disconnecting one lead from the tractor may not make a difference unless something on the tractor is drawing power with the key off. To test this, disconnect one lead and connect a voltmeter between the battery post and the disconnected cable. If you get a reading something is drawing power. [snip]

George, do you literally mean a voltmeter, or a multimeter set to read amps? I don't see how you'd read volts that way, since there's no electrical potential across the battery post to it's disconnected cable.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #8  
Solar powered trickle charger?
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #9  
George, do you literally mean a voltmeter, or a multimeter set to read amps? I don't see how you'd read volts that way, since there's no electrical potential across the battery post to it's disconnected cable.

Set to read amps, usually, milliamps. The meter will show "if any" drain such as a clock on the radio etc.
A battery will loose it's charge over time, depending on how long it sat will determine the amount of loss. Sometimes turning on the headlights or trying several times to start will "wake-up" a dead battery.
These trickle chargers keep the battery "awake".
I've never heard of the "baking soda" theory.
 
   / Disconnect cable prevent battery drain ? #10  
I've always read that a lead acid battery will naturally loose voltage over time, some say that even while not hooked up the losses can be from 40 to 50% over the course of a year, older batteries even more, so I always take them off for winter storage if I don't have a battery tender on them.
 
 
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