Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 08:07:00 -0600
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Camping in cold & battery
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
All of those cheap battery testers with the floating balls or three
colored float are neat to play with but you need a genuine hydrometer to
test your battery. One that will give you a true reading, 1260 specific
gravity is what you want to see.
In addition batteries are just mass produced and the lead plates can be
defective as well as the connector bar inside. (Visit a battery plant
sometime and you'll see many of these plates that are in recycling bins.)
The only way to properly test a battery is to first bring it to a full
charge then run a discharge load test on it.
My batteries in my Westy tend to last six years or more as they are in a
very protected environment.
If you're having battery troubles suspect a defective battery.
I've got four to five vehicles at any given time and many battery
manufacturers give you a NC exchange on batteries less than 24 months
old, I use this feature to rotate batteries. Most of the employees at
Sams Club don't know Zip about discharge tests or batteries in general so
If I say its bad they hem and haw for a minute or two and then just give
me a new battery at the NC warranty.
The only battery problem I've had with my Westy battery was a glazed fan
belt that slipped and one other occasion when I added a ram scoop to the
vent and flooded my alternator into failure in a heavy rain storm.
Stan Wilder
On Tue, 3 Dec 2002 00:54:47 -0500 Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@MAC.COM>
writes:
> On Monday, December 2, 2002, at 10:47 PM, Steve Firebaugh wrote:
>
> > An hour later, when we were ready to go, the battery was dead. A
> push
> > start was needed. Clearly the alternator at idle rate was not
> charging
> > the battery while running the heaters (front and rear).
>
> Three issues. First, your alternator is probably marginal and may
> need
> replacing soon. Second, you were running it in near worse case
> scenario
> (low rpms and high electrical usage, those fans use power.) Third,
> the
> battery STILL shouldn't have been drained, unless it is getting
> close
> to the end of its life cycle.
>
> So is it normal for your battery to be dead at that point? No.
> Surprising? Not really. You probably could have gotten in and run
> the
> engine at higher rpms (aka 2000 rpms) for a couple of minutes at
> the
> end of the "warming cycle" and gotten away with it (as I have in
> the
> past).
>
>
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