Dump Trailer Reservoir Rupture

[KY Gun Geek]

Sorry for being a bad OP, and taking too long to repost.

Replaced the tank, put the battery on a charger and it complained that the battery was bad. Replaced battery, all seems ok now - it is mucking season and the trailer is dumped almost every day, some days 2x.

I also found out that the system had overflowed a couple of days before. A little more investigation showed that the sponge in the vent cap was full of hydro fluid.

My conclusion is that the system was in the overrun situation because the battery was failing - pushing fluid into the tank faster than it was being pumped into the back side of the cylinders. Since the sponge had fluid, and the temp a little cool (thick fluid blocking other fluid and air from escaping), pressure built in the tank and it gave way. When it gave way there was no pressure holding the bed so it dropped.

Aside from parts replacement, we've made some upgrades.

-First, a volt meter with a sign above it that says "DO NOT OPERATE IF BELOW 12 VOLTS":https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078KBQBJQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Did some research and this is considered the minimum state of charge (45%) for a 12 volt battery to read and be functional. This may actually need to be more (12.5v - 80%), and I'm watching to see how this goes. I'm considering a data logger so that I can see what the battery was doing just before it fails (if it fails) again. These things are pretty cheap on amazon these days.

-Had some operator emphasis on if it fails, don't just clean up the mess and hope no one saw it (which is what happened) - report it. My hands have very clear instructions to report strange equipment behavior, but they often hope it will go away if they just ignore it. This is a constant problem with all the equipment, and this situation is now a case study here at the farm about what can happen if you don't report problems).

- Working on figuring out if I've got the right on-board charger. There are TONS of these things out there. Dunno if the original battery went bad because we had the wrong charger, if it just died (2 years old), or if this application is too tough for it. Our use of this is not good for charging from the truck - the truck doesn't really get run very much - just through the barns (about 1 mile) then a 3 mile trip and back to dump. No time to charge. If the battery is low, it pulls enough current to kick out an in-line circuit breaker when you turn on the truck. So, we must rely on a charger run off the power grid.

Key here is keep the battery in good shape, which is what the manufacturers say. Batt is a deep cycle, so if you have some experience with on-board chargers for deep cycle batts, let's hear it (boat guys? solar guys)?


Thanks for the posts they were very helpful - I was lurking trying to get things resolved. Hopefully this thread will help the next guy solving a similar problem.

 

[Ford850]

I'm glad you got it back up and running. Low batteries cause this issue most of the time so it's important to keep them fully charged. That's hard to do when running lots of loads like you do. A truck can only provide a trickle charge to the trailer battery, which would take many hours to top off a deep cycle battery, if ever. Another problem is when running the trailer pump it is common for it to pop the fuse from the ruck due to excessive draw, so you end up with NO charge from the truck and you don't even know it. Here's a cool solution to that problem:

 

[Ford850]

But even with that solution, it keeps your truck charging circuit alive but it's still a trickle charge. Better than nothing, but it can be a losing battle if running many loads with short trips between. Here's a more expensive solution by using a converter to boost your charge via the truck:

 

[KY Gun Geek]

Ford850 -

You are right on target!

This line in my post above is my recognition of the problem.
No time to charge. If the battery is low, it pulls enough current to kick out an in-line circuit breaker when you turn on the truck. So, we must rely on a charger run off the power grid.

However, my conclusion may have been off - I thought the breaker got kicked when the truck started charging the depleted battery. Per you first vid above, it may actually happen when we run the dump, and the truck is turned on (draw from pump is enough from truck to kick breaker, or blow a fuse, even the trailer battery is connected - which is why he says to disco the pigtail when operating the dump). I like his solution to the issue.

I don't think the second vid has a solution for me, but I get what they are doing and it could work well if you were running the truck quite a bit. It would greatly reduce the charge time, so if you were say 30 mins between dumps, it may recharge. My problem is that the truck is not running enough - it runs for 10 minutes then off, 5 more, then off, 15 then dump, 15 then parked until the next day. Seems that if you wired it up to charge the trailer batt all the time, you (I) would kill the truck batt the way we run it! It is $300 on amazon (Amazon.com: BOSS Dump Trailer Charging | Heavy-Duty Battery Solutions | Purkeys: Home Audio & Theater)

Our solution is just as noted at 1:15 in the first vid - put a trickle charger on it every night. We have wired in one of the below, with a plug socket on the outside of the pump box.
Amazon.com: BMK 12V 5A Smart Battery Charger Portable Battery Maintainer with Detachable Alligator Rings Clips Fast Charging Waterproof Trickle Charger for Car Boat Lawn Mower Marine Sealed Lead Acid Battery: Automotive

This is what I'm not sure is the right unit and have a data logger on the way so I can see what's happening: Lascar Electronics EL-USB-3 USB Voltage Data Logger, Process, 32, + Readings, 1 Year Battery Life: Voltage Datalogger: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Btw - when I was cleaning up the links in the post, I read some feed back on amazon about the charger (I think it is cool idea) and one person said they had problems with it running the truck battery down overnight. They probably wired in as hot all the time.

 

[Ford850]

KY, I did similar to what you have done with a charger. I used a Noco Genius Mini 4 amp, and a through hull 110v outlet so I don't have to open the box to charge. I can connect an extension cord to the box in seconds and leave it connected as long as I want, with that smart charger dropping to a trickle and then monitoring mode once the battery is fully charged. So that gives me an easy way to top off and maintain the battery, but I still have the solution from that first video on my 'to-do' list. Once a battery drops voltage it really stresses the draw from the truck while raising the trailer dump bed.
I agree about the second solution I posted... too expensive for me and doesn't fit my process well enough to justify. But for some people it's a slick option.