Bad Boy Buggie All 8 batteries Bone Dry..

[waltinbatonrouge]

Hi all..new to your forum but do Electrical work for a local Powersports shop in baton Rouge.
Primarily do Vintage bike electric restoration....
But can use a Fluke and understand basic AC/DC theory.

Regular Hunting club Client dropped off an early model
Bad Boy Buggy made in Natchez, not Strut front suspension, 48VDC system nothing when you turn the key

Checked voltage at the charge port connections at the battery 3.1vdc

8 Trojan T145's date stamped July 2018 all Bone dry
My 6v deep cycle education begins here.
Sent my wife for 2 gallons of distilled H20, before i realized that EACH battery holds 1 gallon, Yeow!

Anyway filled to the split ring, charged them each with my 6v schumacher until they got to about 75% all seemed to come up ok.

Put the Lester 48v into the charge port showing 15A charged for 1 hour..
Checked battery temp with digital fluke thermometer all same temp while charging

Turned the key, heard a contactor click, switched headlights, on but dim

Customer thought charger was bad bought a new 48V charger..


will finish charging tomorrow..am I on the right track?
thanks very much, walt zweifel

[jakesnake27]

Yes you're doing the right thing. Irreversible battery damage has certainly been done, just how much is the question.

[cgtech]

Those batteries wont be coming back to life. Just too much damage if they were that low. Also, I have seen batteries that badly abused start exploding & blowing their tops off while being used. I had one blow every single battery at once while I was driving (due to all batteries being linked by a filling system) , sounded like a shotgun blast.

[waltinbatonrouge]

Thanks jake...read abit about a discharge test ..thinking load test, then replace the weakest battery? maybe?

Anyway will report back after i charge it...can you guestimate how long the charge cycle might take tomorrow? walt

[waltinbatonrouge]

thanks cgtech...yes they all took 1 full gallon of distilled water..kinda amazing i was pricing the batteries at about $200 each....a shame..

do i just see how the charge run goes tomorrow, or tell him that he needs a new set of batteries?

[cgtech]

Well, either "just see how it goes", or replace them all. Dont replace "one by one", because the new one will be damaged by the charging & discharging characteristics of the old ones, and you'll end up with damaged "new" batteries in the end.

With series strings of batteries, matched capacity & health is very important.

I really do think those are a lost cause.

[jakesnake27]

Like cgtech said, don't replace just a few, replace them all if these turn out to be toast

[waltinbatonrouge]

gotcha....charging them now..will update you when done. lets see what we have....

[Swan]

good luck with those batteries , slim chance of them being any good . This will be costly lesson learned for whoever has to buy new batteries.

[swb713]

Use a Hydrometer after charging. You might find out that your boiling water in those batteries, more than charging them.
Most likely outcome of those batteries is that they are toasted.
Your customer needs to understand that unless he is using AGM batteries, he has to do maintenance on Lead Acid Batteries.

Very EXPENSIVE le$$on to learn.

Good luck.