Last time I used the bus I forgot to turn off the main disconnect when I was finished. So when I went to start it again the batteries were dead. They had a reading of 8.5V. So I charged them up for 3 days and although the bus seems to start fine the sg reading is very low(in the discharge red area on the gauge). With running will the batteries come back to full charge or am I looking at new batteries? I use 3 group 31 12v batteries hooked in parallel.
Thanks
Fred Mc.
i would charge them with a good three stage charger for another week before I gave up on them. I deep-discharged my 8D's, down to 0.8v and 1.2v (yes, really) and they came back, passed a load test, and started my new engine 15 - 20 times without recharging last weekend. I charged them for a month or more each, with a good three stage charger.
Brian
I can't answer your question, but will find out soon. I just went out to the bus to turn on the house charger ( do not every once in a while). Well, a light was left on for the past 3-4 weeks, and my 3 AGM's were totally dead. I have them on a charger now. I wish us both luck!
i could not get my bus started this afternoon. sort of a combination of cold and i left the batteries off the trickle charger for the last month or so. Anyway, my 3 31's wouldn't turn it. so i started the genset, hooked the start batteries up to the house batteries, and charged them up for a half hour.
just a touch of ether helped fire everything up so we could move a quarter mi to our new site for 3 weeks.
i'd think your batteries were still good.. as has been said, just charge them up.
Quote from: white-eagle on September 08, 2011, 08:29:54 PM
i could not get my bus started this afternoon. sort of a combination of cold and i left the batteries off the trickle charger for the last month or so. Anyway, my 3 31's wouldn't turn it. so i started the genset, hooked the start batteries up to the house batteries, and charged them up for a half hour.
just a touch of ether helped fire everything up so we could move a quarter mi to our new site for 3 weeks.
i'd think your batteries were still good.. as has been said, just charge them up.
Tom what you mean COLD? It's 67* outside right now!
Fred & Lin I think you'll both be OK! I let the ol' Setra we have taken out of service sit a couple months without starting it or turn the power off and it was so dead from the DDEC & ATEC draining it I didn't get nothing. And when I hooked up the 24 charger it was so dead it wouldn't trigger the charger to come on.
SO I backed another bus up to it and jumped it for about 20 minutes and it fired right off. Let it run about an hr on fast idle and shut it down. Today I went out and it fired right off again so I backed closer to the shop an then threw the 24 V charger back on it and it was drawing 12-13 amps to start with. 8 hrs later it was showing full charge.
;D BK ;D
Deep discharge a battery and you get sulfation on the plates that will shorten the life of the battery and it's capacity. They will never be the same, but they may still work fine for what you need. There are new technologies out now that claim to remove some sulfation. Battery Minder is one that uses various pulses and frequencies to attempt to desulfate the plates. BTW, sulfation over time is what causes most batteries to eventually die after 4+ years or so. Deep discharging greatly speeds up the process. Batteries start to sulfate and die from the day they are manufactured, how we maintain them determines how soon the inevitable happens.
why do you have to disconnect?? if something is pulling them down you need to find out what it is and fix it. mine sat for 6 months and started right up no disconnect
Frank allen
I found a bunch of low current draws even with the big cut-off switch on off. So we added two manual battery switches to the other cables that feed these parasitic draws. Now the batts are completely isolated.
Where is it cold in the US right now ???