Battery Issues - WTD w/batteries during off season?

For whatever it is worth, I cannot get a set (I have a dual battery set up in my Snow Trac) to last for more than 2 seasons. How do I extend the life, and reduce my replacement costs, of my batteries?During the summer months I typically put the Snow Trac on an electronic battery conditioner/trickle charger. That does not seem to help.

Any help or insight into why I end up replacing very expensive batteries every 24 months?

The batteries in my H-D's are 9 and 7 years old and still in good shape. Every off season or when they sit for more than a couple of weeks, I hook them to a "Battery Tender" which monitors their charge and when it gets below a certain level, it applies a trickle charge to it.

I have a connector wire hooked to the battery in the bikes, and just plug in the tender when I put the bike away.

Battery Tenders as Av8er has said. I have one for my boat and one for my ATV battery. You don't have to take the battery out or anything. Just hook them up to the battery. Mine even came with quick connect connectors. So on the boat the cable is always there, just plug into the charger.


murph


edit here: you can get them at most Home Depots, Menards, Fleet Farms etc

Two things come to mind...your Snow Trac is obviously an older vehicle and your scooters (if i remember correctly) are pretty cheap Chinese imports. Both of these could have poorly designed or aging/malfunctioning charging systems on them. Improper charging voltage and/or current can damage a battery and shorten it's life.

All your other equipment is newer/higher quality.

If I remember correctly you have also had starting issues over the years with it too . One time it fires right up and the next time it won't. Are you sure your batterery cables are both good ? You might also want to trailer it down to a Auto electric repair shop and have them check the output on the generator or alternator ,depending on what you have .Some parts stores do this to. I know Auto Zone does that here in town ,for free . They can also tell you if you have a battery drain when the engine is off

I still think there is a loose wire somewhere besides the driver , that is causing the problem .

If you have already installed the battery maintainer's then I would have to agree with Dave Nays theory

Do you have a battery disconnnect switch installed? I have a M35A2 2.5 ton 6X6 truck with (2) batteries connected in series. I replaced the 6TL batteries 4 years ago and they are still going strong, now that I always disconnect the batteries when the truck is not in use.

BigAl said:

If I remember correctly you have also had starting issues over the years with it too . One time it fires right up and the next time it won't. Are you sure your batterery cables are both good ? You might also want to trailer it down to a Auto electric repair shop and have them check the output on the generator or alternator ,depending on what you have .Some parts stores do this to. I know Auto Zone does that here in town ,for free . They can also tell you if you have a battery drain when the engine is off

I still think there is a loose wire somewhere besides the driver , that is causing the problem .

Click to expand...

Well I think Allen may be onto something.

Took the batteries down to AutoZone after church today. One tested out BETTER than spec and the other tested out right at spec. So its not the batteries. Since it acts like the batteries are not working the next step is to search for a loose wire (that is not in my head).

The factory installed Motorcraft batteries in my F-250 lasted 11 years cranking over a diesel up here where it's winter more than half the time. Is why I went back to the dealer when I needed new ones rather than buying imitation auto parts elsewhere.

Additionally,

It is always recommended that on dual-battery systems that you replace BOTH batteries at the same time.........Do you have a battery isolator? Many modern batteries appear to be maintenance-free but unless they are gel-cells, you can generally still "pop a cap" and check fluid level and check individual cells for specific gravity of the fluid...................

Hope that helps.

grd

I don't know if it is any help, but any vehicle of mine that I am likely to leave for a while. I either use the isolator if it is fitted, or take off one battery lead. Most of the military vehicles have an isolator fitted, and having had a lot of problems with the Norsebox batteries, I had one fitted to that, but the others, as I said, I just take a battery lead off, then if there is some unknown source draining the battery it is iliminated.

I use dual batteries on my jeep and use an isolator. I would recomend it for your case here. Yes replace both bateries at the same time as on e can drain the other.

It does sound like you may have some other issues going on with the charging system. Do you have a voltmeter installed? What does it tell you?

All connections must be clean.

One othe place that is hard to see is right at the battery terminal. If you r battery cables are older and had a molded clamp on the end. Sometimes water can get into the inside of the cable jacketing and corode your cables hindering the charging ability.

All wiring needs to be sized for the correct amperage also.

You can just remove your alternator to have it tested.

Do you run a lot of lights on the cat? Maybe your alternator is not large enought to handle the large amperage drain?

just a few thoughts

If your battery cables are old, and there has been corrosion on the terminals in the past, then you probably had defective cables. Once corrosion forms on the battery terminals, even if you clean it, it will continue down the cable under the insulation and will cause high resistance in the starting circuit. Think of this like a clogged pipe. No matter how good the pump, if it can't circulate the fluid, you will have poor performance. I suggest for your snow track machines, that you have someone make you a set of battery cables out of welding cable. The reason for this is that welding cable is a very fine stranded wire, with lots of individual strands. The more strands, the less resistance to the movement of the electrons.

I like your welding cable idea. I used some to make 2-25 foot jumper cables for heavy-duy use. I bought 2 pairs of extra-heavy-duty jaws for both ends.