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AC1 
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Location: Fulton, MO
Points: 95
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 Topic: Battery Maintainers
Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 9:34pm |
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Has anyone used one of the battery maintainers to keep a tractor battery charged?? If so, what brand and do you worry about battery leaking or causing problems if used while still connected to the tractor??? Any expertise would be appreciated.
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TomMN
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Location: Elbow Lake, MN
Points: 858
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 9:45pm |
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
Points: 23550
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 10:05pm |
Providing the battery is fully charged before taken 'out of service', any 'trickle' charger should do fine to keep the battery 'topped up'. Hard to believe, but Harbour Freight has them for about $10, got mine on sale for $5 ! I can't make them out of my 'junk pile' for that ! All ot the 'battery tender' type units will NOT recharge a bad/low battery, they are limited to just 'topping them up'.
Big thing is to keep the battery warm..and insulated from the cold.
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor)
Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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Gerald J.
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Hamilton Co, IA
Points: 5636
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 10:46pm |
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My "trickle" charger will wipe out a battery from overcharging it.
The battery maintainer has voltage regulation so it doesn't overcharge. That is IMPORTANT to the battery and to its long life.
Gerald J.
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LouSWPA
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Clinton, Pa
Points: 24458
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 10:53pm |
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the maintainers I get from B and B will actually charge a low battery and is regulated, does not over charge them. They DO cost a tad more than the Wallyworld units, though
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I am still confident of this;
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Ps 27
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Unit3
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Joined: 17 Oct 2009
Location: NC Iowa
Points: 5559
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 11:02pm |
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For what it is worth, we have got to disconnecting the ground wire on All batteries in the sheds except for the pickup. After doing this, dead battteries are a thing of the past. You will find that you are buying alot less batteries as well. It also save you alot of worry about old wiring shorting out and starting a fire. After all, the Allis Chalmers aren't getting any newer and we don't ever plan on replacing them. Long live Oldsmobile, Allis Chalmers, Gleaner combines, American Flyer electric trains, and Hot Wheels cars.
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LouSWPA
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Clinton, Pa
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 11:51pm |
 Unit3 wrote:
For what it is worth, we have got to disconnecting the ground wire on All batteries in the sheds except for the pickup. After doing this, dead battteries are a thing of the past. You will find that you are buying alot less batteries as well. It also save you alot of worry about old wiring shorting out and starting a fire. After all, the Allis Chalmers aren't getting any newer and we don't ever plan on replacing them. Long live Oldsmobile, Allis Chalmers, Gleaner combines, American Flyer electric trains, and Hot Wheels cars. |
Yep, I disconnect all ground cables on mine, too! It does help
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I am still confident of this;
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Ps 27
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Coke-in-MN
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Afton MN
Points: 41770
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Posted: 04 Dec 2010 at 11:58pm |
Dang you got all my favorites Olds, American Flyers, AC, but you forgot the Norton motorcycles.
Need to get a couple of those mantainers for self also
Friend is using on on his aircraft battery and swears by it for prolonged life, will have to check his brand .
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Faith isn't a jump in the dark. It is a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing something.
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
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Gerald J.
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Hamilton Co, IA
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 1:38am |
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The maintainer I picked up at wallyworld charges and maintains for about $18 and automatically works on 6 or 12 volt batteries. It only charges 1.5 amps.
Gerald J.
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Steve in NJ
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Andover, NJ
Points: 11908
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 1:31pm |
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We sell quite a few of the Battery Maintainers to Hotrodders, antique car buffs, as well as Tractor folks. We sell the Deltran "SuperSmart" series which once the Battery is fully charged, the charger goes to a "float mode" as to not overcharge the Battery, but is always ready to charge when reserve starts to drop. The 12V version is rated at a 1.25 amp Tender. As Lou mentioned, (being he bought a few from us) they will bring up a low Battery also. We have units for 6V, 8V, 12V, & 18V. I have em' on my hotrods and on a couple of my tractors. They work great, and I've never had any of our customers complain about em' in all the years I've sold them....
Steve@B&B
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Don Smith
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Location: Indiana
Points: 132
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 2:27pm |
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I also use the 1.5 amp maint. I use them on all my toys cheaper than a ruined battery. I reccomend them to all!
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ChuckLuedtkeSEWI
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Jackson, WI
Points: 1826
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 6:14pm |
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I have two of the bigger battery maintainers, I think the 1.5 amps. One for my 6 volt batteries and one for my 12 volt batteries. I was wondering if it was ok to daisychain all of the batteries together and run the maintainers on all the 6 volt on one maintainer and all of the 12 volt on the other. I took all of them and put them in the basement tonite and I have 11 batteries, 3 6 volt and the rest 12 volt. I get sick of going down in the basement and constantly switch the maintainer from one battery to the next.
Edited by ChuckLuedtkeSEWI - 05 Dec 2010 at 6:15pm
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1955 WD45 diesel 203322 was my dad's tractor, 1966 D15 23530, 1961 HD3 Crawler 1918, 1966 D17 IV 83495, 1937 WC 41255, 1962 D19 6221
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 6:59pm |
Chuck
You should NOT parallel the batteries to charge off one charger.Everyone is a bit different and the worst one will drag done the rest.Now you could add a diode in series to every battery and that will work to isolate them, providing the charger will supply say 15 volts instead of 14( The diodes drop about 1 volt ).
That being said, truckers have had 4 batteries in parallel for years BUT, and it's an expensive but, they have 4 MATCHED batteries( all same make,model and hopefully 'batch' number).That way they all charge the same..
I've got 12 , 12 volt batteries.Yeesh, they take up some room! I tried the octopus method(one charger--many batteries,with diodes) and it worked but a LOT of wires and clips to keep track of. Now I just swap the one set of leads once a day,while I'm having morning coffee in the garage.Do that while I'm planning what to break this time!
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor)
Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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Stan IL&TN
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Location: Elvis Land
Points: 6730
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Posted: 05 Dec 2010 at 7:03pm |
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I've got about a dozen of these maintainers and have been using them for 10 years now. I have them on the tractors, mowers, ATV's, bikes and the farm truck. Better than sliced bread. My ATV batteries are lasting 8 years now where they were going maybe 4-5. They will charge a low battery but at only 1.5 amps it will take a couple of days. They shut off when the battery is fully charged and will not boil out the electrolyte as the cheap trickle charger will. Most will come with a quick disconnect that stays attached to the battery so connecting the maintainer takes all of 5 seconds. It's like the easy button as the battery stays in the tractor year round and is always charged. I use the Battery Minder brand.
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1957 WD45 dad's first AC
1968 one-seventy
1956 F40 Ferguson
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