Fork lift battery

[Tikvah]

Someplace I saw a MCI with a huge fork lift battery; the guy loved it.
I think it was 48v....not sure.

What's your thoughts?  Might be able to get my hands on one.


TIKVAH
(Dave Rush)
MCI 102A3   6V92
Full Time On The Road - I couldn't fix my brakes, so I made my horn louder

[luvrbus]

I used 2-12 volt Trojan DC 500 ML for years in the Eagle till they gave up after 10 years the draw back was they weighed 332 lbs each plus the price they were 900 buck ea 10 years ago

[Jeremy]

I've looked at them from time to time myself; they are true deep-cycle batteries for sure, unlike most things you see with 'deep cycle' printed on the label. From what I've seen it looks like fork lift battery specialist will basically make a pack up to suit your needs out of 2-volt cells, and the cells come in all sorts of different heights etc. You could have a pack custom-built to fit your bus, and maybe even go the 48v route at the same time as there's a lot of 48v inverters and equipment available now for solar power / off-grid set-ups. If I lived in my bus or did serious boon-docking I'd definitely be looking at that option I think

Jeremy

[TomC]

Lifeline makes the L16 battery in either 6V (400amps) or 2V (1200amps). Much easier than trying to coble a fork lift battery together. Good Luck,TomC

[MightyThor]

The battery on our Yale weighs 4,000 lbs.  probably not what you are looking at.

[bevans6]

The thing about a fork lift battery is it's also the counter-weight, or part of it.  And fork lifts weigh a lot...

Brian

[Jeremy]

But it's not like they are full of concrete - they are heavy because they are high-spec, super heavy-duty batteries with really thick plates. Saying they are too heavy is kinda like complaining that a gold bar is too heavy...

Jeremy

[HB of CJ]

Sometimes if a person has an $inside edge$ in obtaining/procuring large heavy Bus Conversion house batteries, then the $economic factor$ alone may create some latitude in engineering such an installation ... using very large and heavy batteries.

But ... would not a situation be quickly reached where the physical engineering concerns become the limiting factor?  Brackets, mounts, sliding trays, (if possible) plus chassis weights and measures come to mind.  Many smaller batts are better?  Dunno.

Also changing out smaller and handier individual cells might be a whole lot easier than having to swap / purchase giant individual batts?  The old Trojan 6VDC T-105 golf cart battery comes to mind.  Still heavy, but swapping out bad individual cells doable.

Long ago and far away ...  About 50 years ago, Grandfather cobbled up three, (3) or four, (4) strings of high discharge rate Nickel Cadmium railroad locomotive starting batteries to a surplus electric torpedo motor in his golf cart.  50 mph for 3 minutes.  Wow!  Fun!

HB of CJ (old coot)

[oltrunt]

Sounds like something I would do--free (or nearly so is good) but I'd design the installation to minimize the down side of having to replace the huge battery should it fail.  I'd say if you've got the GVW, the Moment arm and the CG figured out--why not?  Jack AKA "What Box?"