Maintaining battery life

[jhenderson]

No, I estimated and kept to the low side.

 

[TJJEEPER]

After 5 years of intermittent use my batteries are showing signs of impending doom. My truck will sit for months at a time (in a climate controlled shop). It starts OK but the voltage drops to a point that the radio resets. I lose my Sirius XM connection and presets. I have to call in to get the subscription signal resent. I've started putting it on a Battery Tender Jr to prevent the problem. It's working so far. Hopefully I can get another year out of the batteries.
My truck has ~25,000 miles and probably 90% of those are towing a 16000 lb 5er.

 

[6V92TA]

you all could do like the local National guard Armory does, they have a solar charger on each of the units trucks. trucks sit for months at a time.. seems to have worked.

 

[pvanwig]

I agree. I'm a retired Los Angles County Ocean Lifeguard. On the Baywatch's we always change all the batteries at the same time. So I do the same on my trucks.

 

[LHirshman]

Flooded Lead-Acid Batteries

I am seeing some misinformation in this thread and felt I should chime in. My credentials are, I have an '05 with 150K miles with the original batteries. Also I'm an Electronics Engineer and have designed battery chargers for different types of batteries. I also have a 2001 Miata with 130K miles with the original battery in it.

When it comes to our trucks batteries, a trickle charger is its best friend. I have a home brewed charger that I connect to all my vehicles. A 12 Volt flooded Lead Acid battery likes to be charged with 14.3 Volts. As the battery approaches that voltage the charging current goes down to about 25mA per battery. Any voltage higher than 14.3 Volts and you will boil out the batteries. Our trucks have two in parallel, a trickle charger will keep both charged fully. It does not matter which battery the charger is connected to. In the case where one battery is weaker than the other, the weaker battery's internal resistance increases thus not drawing as much current as the stronger battery. The increase in resistance is a result of a cell(s) sulfating. When sulfation occurs, the battery voltage drops significantly under load and the motor cranks slowly or not at all. The best way to prevent sulfation and extend the life of the batteries is a trickle charger. In off grid solar applications for homes, the life of a properly maintained, flooded lead-acid battery bank is often greater than 20 years.

When a battery gets old and you put a high current charger on the battery, the chargers voltage could be 16 Volts or so. In this case electrolysis occurs (boiling out) creating Hydrogen and Oxygen. There is also Hydrogen present when a battery is discharged. A spark could ignite the Hydrogen in these cases usually resulting in blowing the top of the battery and spraying acid everywhere, not good.

A good trickle charger will not put out a lot of current, maybe 1 Amp maximum. Its output voltage will also be regulated so as not to go above 14.3 Volts. A good trickle charger will never boil out a battery and could charge a discharged but good battery.

I hope this helps.

 

[mopars1]

I am not an engineer or claim to know why it happened but on my 2001 I had a maintainer hooked up while my truck slept in the garage. This is a yearly thing for me, the truck will usually be down for three to four months in the winter. I walked into the garage one evening and noticed some water on the floor under the truck. I opened the hood and found the passenger side battery had blown up! The maintainer was hooked up to the driver side battery. Nothing was turned on in the truck and had not been since it was put away for the winter. Since then I always unhook the negative cables and maintain the batteries with two maintainers. No battery problem since doing this procedure.

 

[Gumby79]

How do sub 0F temps effect use of tenders? -20F can be common in Montana . 24/7 block heater. Iwas considering putting a tender in lime with my block heater (I figure any time the oil is to cold the battery cant be happy).

 

[LHirshman]

I'll answer both threads.

The blown up battery:

The driver side battery probably was low on electrolyte and the level got low enough to uncover the plates in one or more cells. The cell(s) shorted causing lots of heat, Hydrogen and boom.
If possible (not easy on sealed batteries) check the fluid level in each cell and add some steam distilled water if necessary. On these no maintenance batteries, the level only needs checking every few years unless the charging system, in the truck, is overcharging (boiling out) the battery. To check the charging system, start the truck, put on everything that draws current, i.e., high beams, AC with blower on max, window/mirror heaters, etc., and measure the voltage at the battery terminals with a volt meter, the reading should be approximately 13.8 to 14.3, depending on temperature. Now turn off all the current consuming devices except the engine and measure again. The reading should be within that range. Too low or too high, have the charging system looked at by someone competent in electrical repairs.

Cold Winters:

The capacity of lead-acid batteries is temperature dependent. Cold reduces their capacity, for example, a battery at 72ºF fully charged has 100% of its current capacity to start your truck. At 0ºF it only has 50% of its capacity, hence why we have two batteries. The battery's internal resistance goes up as the temperature goes down. When it comes to charging voltage, colder temperatures mean higher charging voltage. I have measured my truck, in the warm weather the voltage is about 13.8, in the cold weather it is closer to 14.3. The engine computer is connected to a temperature sensor under one of the two batteries and sets the charging voltage (alternator output) accordingly. A trickle charger whose output is about 13 to 14 volts would not overcharge the batteries no matter what the temperature.

Happy starting!

 

[Gumby79]

.

This is how battery tender says to do a parallel battery set up

 

[LHirshman]

As it states that is correct for high current chargers, for low current (trickle chargers) it does not matter.

 

[dfb]

04 Cummins had original batteries until I sold it in 15.. no battery tender. No friends either..I'm mr lonely, I have nobody, ....not by choice, everybody hates me...

 

[LHirshman]

Your old batteries apparently liked you.