forktruck batteries

[newlister]

Went to see the local fork truck man. Asked if he'd any old batteries, and he'd just let some go to the scrap man.  but gave him my number and asked him to let me know when he had some more. he was talking Four hundred GB pounds. My question is. How can i test these batteries to see if they will be usable/suitable for my lister and a 95amp alternator. and an inverter. ? if you understand.  If anyone would care to answer,  to a none electrical person please. so in words that I would be able to understand. Thank you Newlister.

[38ac]

I am not an electric wizzbang either but I have worked where they used those things and they typically use the batteries until totally junk before they are replaced. Not weak, but junk. They would put them on charge forever, had special chargers for "bad" batteries, had chemicals they poured into them but I never saw much positive result of all the effort .Some people and places claim to be able to rejuvenate batteries, others claim it not possible, I don't know? Anyway I wouldn't put much stock into battery that a forklift place considered ready to be pitched, just my experience.  To test the batteries we would put the unit on the charger before the service people came for a specified amount of time. Then they  would come and check the cells with a hydrometer, then load test them. The bad ones either would not pull full amps at all or would die off very quickly. To check yourself you would need to get the load test data from the manufacturer of the battery and know how to charge it plus have some way of loading it and check the amps.

[ronmar]

Exactly!

Batteries are expensive, they probably run them till they are toast before outlaying that money.  Lead acid batteries only have so many cycles and that is the way it is.

Now if they are nickle iron, that may be a different story, and according to all I hear, may only require new electrolyte and a breakin charge/discharge regime to put them back into service.

[injin man]

Went to see the local fork truck man. Asked if he'd any old batteries, and he'd just let some go to the scrap man.  but gave him my number and asked him to let me know when he had some more. he was talking Four hundred GB pounds. My question is. How can i test these batteries to see if they will be usable/suitable for my lister and a 95amp alternator. and an inverter. ? if you understand.  If anyone would care to answer,  to a none electrical person please. so in words that I would be able to understand. Thank you Newlister.

You'd probably be better off getting some Trojan 105's, they are 6 volt Golf Cart Batt's and use them in series/parallel
to achieve the amp hour/voltage you are seeking. I did a lot of looking at used forklift batt's they are a mixed
bag, many places here locally will use them till they only have between 50 to 60% left in them, they generally
need to run 8 hours thru an entire shift so as they wear out they cause problems. Pallet Jack Batteries are
probably better than 'fork lift' types they also tend to be 24 volt rather than 36/48v and are excessesively heavy.

Just got 2 24v Nickel Iron Batts off the truck yesterday and my 5000lb forlift knew they were on there. These
guys were built in the seventies by exide who bought out the Edison Battery co. According to my supplier these
are still holding 90% capacity.

[newlister]

Thank you . Guys. will have to read a lot more. looks like I need to be spending lots of GBP's.  just to save a few ---!----?

[Fudgie]

Hello
      On the topic of fork lift batteries.
      Some months back I got blessed with a big 28" x 36" thirty volt, fork lift battery.  The off grid system that I am running is using a Trace DR series 12 volt inverter.  So in order to use the big battery which consisted of 15 two volt batteried that were all connected together with lead terminals accross the tops. I took the time to cut enough bars loose to make two separate banks consisting of seven batteries each and holding 14 volts in each bank. I drilled and taped the needed studs 5/16" to attach the cables. I built a small connection block and put two cut off switches, one for each bank and also hooked up two seperate digital dc meters to allow monitering the battery voltage. And yes there is one two volt battery left over that is not being used, its a spare if ever needed. Now some may be thinkiing you can't possibly be using 14 volt batteries it will burn everything up, well think again, a normal car alternator puts out between 14.2 - 14.6 volts when charging properly. My Trace inverter with the `12 volt battery bank was topping the batteries off at 14.3 - 14.5 volts before going into the float mode.  This battery has been working properly for months and I will say its the perfect way to go if you can find one. 

Fudgie

[Cowboy Billy]

    We have been running a 24v 1100lb forklift battery for three years. Its a old used battery and while it has saved the money we spent on it if fuel costs of not having to run a generator full time. It can be frustrating dealing with damaged cells. All lead acid battery's loose a % of charge a day but a damaged cell will loose a bigger % than the better cells next to it. And your batterys output depends on the lowest cell. Our battery probably only has 50% of its original power rating. We have been loosing one cell which is very bad now. When we first got it I could run three days on fully powering our trailer. Usually the only way to bring up low cells is by overcharging them which causes damage to the good cells. But our bad cell is now requiring me to charge every other day. We tried to find a 1 cell battery charger but the cheapest we could find was $500. We just found we could put a light dimmer on a battery charger and drop it down enough to charge one cell. But even now I am charging 60 amps on the one cell and 20 on the rest of the battery every time and still the one cell is loosing power internally three times faster than the rest of the cells.

   Fully charging a battery is complicated and I don't fully understand it. But it involves charging the battery and checking the acid level. As you charge the battery water turns into acid. So a uncharged battery will look like it short of acid but its not its short of charge. So you have to charge it until its fully charged (I think that is when it starts gassing hard but I am not sure) Then check the acid level. It you put too much acid in it it will cause the plates to sulfate. Also if a cell it uncharged it can sulfate as well as freeze and break. Which is where I think a lot of damage to the one bad cell came from.

   Hi Fudgie

   If possible I would like to see a picture of how your battery looks after you drilled and tapped the posts. As I am going to need to do something like that once I get a newer cell for my battery.

Billy

[Fudgie]

To: Cowboy Billy


 Hi Billy
     Just read your message, request for the picture.  Don't know exactly how to go about sending the picture but I will get some
 outside help within the next few days to solve that.
     Back to your post, the bad cell that you spoke of may yet have potential so don't give up on it yet. I did not speak of it in my
 original post, but I also went through a little bout with some of the cells in one half of the battery. The solution came through
 doing some research on and obtaining a Battery Desulfator. As mentioned in the previous post, both halves of the battery have
 digital volt meters showing the level of charge. After hooking up and using the desulfator for a few hours a day over the period of
 a week the weak side started to show noticeable improvement. It is my intention to run this unit for a few all day sessions on both
 of the banks, but so far my time hasn't allowed for it. These Desulfators will not work on a shorted out cell - battery. There are a few companies selling them, look on Ebay first and then Northern Tool etc.

[Fudgie]

Hi Again Billy
    Just went on Ebay and searched for the Battery Desulfators, there are quite a few but the one that looks most desireable is
# 110774452977  for 129.95 , check it out.
    Hope this information will help you.

Fudgie