Battery Maintainers

[eventer79]

Mmmm, good point, that was the part I was wondering about. I am looking at a much bigger one to keep a deep cycle charged as it's running my fence charger but wondered if a smaller one would be worth it for maintaining the tractor, seeing as we get plenty of sunlight down here and I have lots of open spaces to put it. I shall continue my research.

For now, I guess I'll have to drive the tractor more, bummer. ;-)

 

[3930dave]

Mmmm, good point, that was the part I was wondering about. I am looking at a much bigger one to keep a deep cycle charged as it's running my fence charger but wondered if a smaller one would be worth it for maintaining the tractor, seeing as we get plenty of sunlight down here and I have lots of open spaces to put it. I shall continue my research.

For now, I guess I'll have to drive the tractor more, bummer. ;-)

5watt panels are pretty inexpensive to try on the tractor. Any decent one will have a Schottky diode inline with the charge cable already (prevents the panel from loading the battery when dark). Try one of these, and just check the battery voltage with a meter to see how it's keeping up with battery drain.

Once you get to 15watt panels, you probably need to add a regulator to avoid risking overcharging. You can buy the components separately, or get something on sale like a Coleman kit - 3 of 15+watt panels with a frame kit and regulator, sometimes a small inverter is thrown in too.

I have generators around, but solar is nice for keeping light electronic loads going, w/o firing up an xKw gas burner. Cheaper to run, and much quieter. :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[94BULLITT]

In my experience it takes a charger rated with ~ 3 amps of continuous power output to keep a battery maintained on a modern automobile with their constant current draw, maybe associated with factory alarm systems and the computer system(s). I tried in vane to get the Schumacker 2 amp trickle chargers to work on a 1996 Jeep GC and a 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT. Only when I upgraded to the CTEK 3.3 amp units did my auto batteries stay charged.

I do use Battery Minder 1.3 amp units for the devices not having a constant current drain, such as the standby generator, garden tractor and trailer battery. And just ordered two more @ $20 each at a Northern Tool sale ($50 at Amazon) today. These should also work well for a tractor battery.

I also used to power all of these units during the day time with a high quality 50 Watt solar that ran a sine wave inverter for the battery maintainers and then would let normal line power handle the night time maintaining.

I can top off a car battery with my Noco G3500 and then switch it down to the small battery mode (.9 A) and it will hold 100%. After all of the electronics shutdown on a vehicle you should only have about a 100mA drain on the battery. Are you sure the chargers were putting out 2 amps? Maybe there was something wrong with them.

 

[Mechanos]

I like the G3500 so much I just bought a G7200 for my bigger batteries.

 

[sdef]

I can top off a car battery with my Noco G3500 and then switch it down to the small battery mode (.9 A) and it will hold 100%. After all of the electronics shutdown on a vehicle you should only have about a 100mA drain on the battery. Are you sure the chargers were putting out 2 amps? Maybe there was something wrong with them.

I did not check current draw/output of the Schumaker's v. battery draw without them hooked up. Just know I had identical experiences with multiple units on multiple vehicles by different OEMs. I think the factory alarm systems are the culprits.

My CTEKs are equivalent to the NOCOs and I never have a reason to switch them to any other mode, as they are fully automatic. So why switch to the small battery mode and lock in to this lessor capability? I just hook them up, select the AGM mode and let them run- 24 x 7. Have done this for years and they all work perfectly. Or I select the large battery mode on a conventional flooded battery with the same stellar results.

I replace all of my auto batteries with AGM Optima when they need replacement, as Optimas have proven themselves to me throughout the years where other AGMs have not. I have abused the Optimas- ran them down to nothing with a winch or inverter and they just keep working after being recharged.

I had a couple bad experiences with those portable power units, so designed my own using a Minn Kota trolling motor battery box as the base unit and separate AGM in each of my vehicles, setup with in-vehicle charging, NOCO charging posts, 12 VDC outlets with fuses and circuit breakers, etc., along with a sine wave inverter connected through fused, external terminals. Also have 20' long, 2 gauge jumper cables in each vehicle. And yes I have had to use them for myself

I just pulled the unit out of the Jeep for pictures and decided to charge it since it has been sitting unused for months, since being decommissioned from the solar battery charging configuration. Using a CTEK 3.3 amp charger, the battery was topped up within 10 minutes from its long storage. It is a Sears Platinum I am testing as it has 10% higher energy density than the equivalent Optima. So far it is working out well but has yet to see the extremely deep discharge cycles my Optimas have been through.

Power pack photos in case anyone is interested in building a really high performance emergency power/jump starter unit:

 

[eventer79]

5watt panels are pretty inexpensive to try on the tractor. Any decent one will have a Schottky diode inline with the charge cable already (prevents the panel from loading the battery when dark). Try one of these, and just check the battery voltage with a meter to see how it's keeping up with battery drain.

Once you get to 15watt panels, you probably need to add a regulator to avoid risking overcharging. You can buy the components separately, or get something on sale like a Coleman kit - 3 of 15+watt panels with a frame kit and regulator, sometimes a small inverter is thrown in too.

That's the general plan -- I figured since I learned how to wire a solar panel to keep a battery charged ages ago, it was a good time to finally use the knowledge!!!! A few that I've looked at (Northern Tool, etc) include the kit with the regulator/reverse charge blocker. For the tractor, I figure once I get settled in at the new place, it can't hurt. I can "borrow" the big 110V charger from work to fill it up, then put some sun on it to keep it from getting too lonely.

 

[oosik]

I have used the CTEK Multi US 3300 for many years with never a problem. I take the batteries out of vehicles/equipment that are winterized, bring them into one shed and bring them all to full charge every three months with the CTEK.

 

[3930dave]

That's the general plan -- I figured since I learned how to wire a solar panel to keep a battery charged ages ago, it was a good time to finally use the knowledge!!!! A few that I've looked at (Northern Tool, etc) include the kit with the regulator/reverse charge blocker. For the tractor, I figure once I get settled in at the new place, it can't hurt. I can "borrow" the big 110V charger from work to fill it up, then put some sun on it to keep it from getting too lonely.

With zero electronics on my tractor, I use a removable battery disconnect switch to isolate the battery when parked. Not so much for added security, but more for a neigbour kid playing on the tractor, and leaving the lights on.

With anything modern that stays parked for long periods, yep, a decent solar panel will be a help offsetting the parasitics that come with advanced tech. The low cost panels of today are better, but it's still worth verifying their output every now and then, as most don't last forever. Not so much an old tractor issue, but I've often found the cig lighter socket to be a real PITA connection to rely on - some vehicles are fine, others are really finicky to use.

That's one reason many guys will use a dedicated (fused) battery connection for whatever they're charging with.

CHARGE ! :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[eventer79]

ROFL, I don't think my lights even work right now, it is possible the switch is broken. At least I have insurance against that!

 

[94BULLITT]

I did not check current draw/output of the Schumaker's v. battery draw without them hooked up. Just know I had identical experiences with multiple units on multiple vehicles by different OEMs. I think the factory alarm systems are the culprits.

My CTEKs are equivalent to the NOCOs and I never have a reason to switch them to any other mode, as they are fully automatic. So why switch to the small battery mode and lock in to this lessor capability? I just hook them up, select the AGM mode and let them run- 24 x 7. Have done this for years and they all work perfectly. Or I select the large battery mode on a conventional flooded battery with the same stellar results.

I replace all of my auto batteries with AGM Optima when they need replacement, as Optimas have proven themselves to me throughout the years where other AGMs have not. I have abused the Optimas- ran them down to nothing with a winch or inverter and they just keep working after being recharged.

I had a couple bad experiences with those portable power units, so designed my own using a Minn Kota trolling motor battery box as the base unit and separate AGM in each of my vehicles, setup with in-vehicle charging, NOCO charging posts, 12 VDC outlets with fuses and circuit breakers, etc., along with a sine wave inverter connected through fused, external terminals. Also have 20' long, 2 gauge jumper cables in each vehicle. And yes I have had to use them for myself

I just pulled the unit out of the Jeep for pictures and decided to charge it since it has been sitting unused for months, since being decommissioned from the solar battery charging configuration. Using a CTEK 3.3 amp charger, the battery was topped up within 10 minutes from its long storage. It is a Sears Platinum I am testing as it has 10% higher energy density than the equivalent Optima. So far it is working out well but has yet to see the extremely deep discharge cycles my Optimas have been through.

Power pack photos in case anyone is interested in building a really high performance emergency power/jump starter unit:

View attachment 348501View attachment 348502View attachment 348503View attachment 348504

If you CTEK has a low amperage mode try switching to it. The chargers will charge a little more on the lower setting.

I put a Optima in my car about a year ago. After I got it I heard some bad things about them. I'll see how this one does. I heard the Diehard platinum was a Odyssey.