where to start is right!
Thank you for all of that VERY helpful information!
•very interesting about the grime! (You are making me want to go out and start looking at all my batteries now!
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•ohhh my!!! How does one know if it’s been ‘overcharged’? (If the digital indicator goes above 12.6 (?)? So, you SHOULDN’T leave batteries charging overnight?
Overcharged?: No easy way to tell. The battery hygrometers will give you a rough idea that it's fully charged. Search the web for info on fully charged, but the rest voltage should be about 12.6 if fully charged after you let it sit a couple of hours. Don't obsess if it's 12.4 instead of 12.6.
What about trickle chargers? (I have a NOCO booster and my friend has a NOCO charger…but to be honest, I’ve never looked to see if there is a digital read out on the charger. Trickle chargers have lower volts/amps/whatever they are called, correct? It will say on the charger somewhere what the power is?
Is it possible to overcharge a battery using a trickle charger? (Like if you leave it on the charger for days at a time?
Battery Maintainers: They're SUPPOSED to be hooked up all the time. The relatively modern ones won't 'overcharge' the batteries. See some of the other posts about comments about older trickle chargers. I'm surprised there aren't 20 posts opining on the relative merits of various methods for keeping batteries charged.
Old-style trickle chargers are OK, but I wouldn't leave one hooked up indefinitely; overnight would be OK. (Old style ones are really stoopid, just send some current to the battery and will, eventually, fully charge the battery and, eventually overcharge it. Probably haven't been sold in 10-20 years.)
•your trickle charger is solar-powered? THAT would be a lot handier than running extension cords out of the barn!! But what happens if there’s lots of clouds & snow? How does it affect the functioning? That’s important - because I live in the snow belt, in a county that was apparently named so because of the weather- Grey County. That’s why I’ve been hesitant about getting a solar electric fence charger- I was concerned that in the winter there wouldn’t be enough sun to power it.) Where did you get the Solar charger? Any particular brand(s) you recommend? Are they more expensive than regular trickle chargers? I wonder if they make dual ones with solar and the option to plug in. Do you happen to know?
A solar trickle charger/battery minder (& a solar electric fence module) don't need sun every day, all day. They've got batteries. I'd go swipe the snow off after you've done your plowing but otherwise they work just fine when sunny or cloudy. If you're compulsive, you'll set the angle of the solar panel to "optimum" based on your latitude but in practice it probably doesn't make any difference.
I picked up my solar battery minder from Northern Tool a decade ago. Still sold by them, but the price has gone up and you have to buy the solar panel separately (which they also sell). The battery minder module is about 2x $ the wall-plug version; I have both, use the wall-plug in the garage for the lawn tractor in the non-winter and in the basement for both the real-tractor and lawn-tractor batteries in the basement in the winter. The solar charger is for the real-tractor when it's warm out.
I learned the hard way that my tractor won't start with a cold battery but starts just fine when the battery is 55+ (basement temp) degrees.
•okay! So it sounds like that is the problem- the alternator (or generator) is too small. So how does one fix that? Can you just put a bigger alternator on? (My dad the mechanic is likely rolling his eyes right now!
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If you can’t put a bigger alternator on, what do you do? Is there a way to have enough power… or is it easier just to take the lights off?
Yes, you could put a bigger alternator on, but will require jiggering or a lot of shopping to mount and maybe a change in belt length depending on the pully situation.
BUT first get it tested. A Steiner is a decent small tractor, it ought to have an alternator capable of driving all the electrics. You don't need to take the lights off, just not turn them on!
