[Karl Townsend]

The battery in my electric truck has died

The dealer gets a bloody fortune. Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us" for huge
batteries?

Karl

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh[_3_]]

"Karl Townsend" fired this volley in
anews.com:

The battery in my electric truck has died

The dealer gets a bloody fortune. Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us"
for huge batteries?

Karl




What's a fortune, Karl? Our Jap forklift pack swaps out brand new
from the factory for $1200. Considering the last one held up ten
years, that's not too bad.

LLoyd

[RangersSuck]

On Aug 17, 7:09*am, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:
The battery in my electric truck has died

The dealer gets a bloody fortune. Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us" for huge
batteries?

Karl

Check on ebay. I had to replace batteries in a wheelchair and found
some still expensive but a heck of a lot cheaper than the local guys
deals there.

[Pete C.]

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote:

"Karl Townsend" fired this volley in
anews.com:

The battery in my electric truck has died

The dealer gets a bloody fortune. Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us"
for huge batteries?

Karl




What's a fortune, Karl? Our Jap forklift pack swaps out brand new
from the factory for $1200. Considering the last one held up ten
years, that's not too bad.

LLoyd

Yes, considering how much value one of those batteries has just as scrap
lead, you can't expect them to be cheap. They do also last a long time.

[Joe AutoDrill[_2_]]

Yes, considering how much value one of those batteries has just as scrap
lead, you can't expect them to be cheap. They do also last a long time.

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle could
even keep up if the voltage was compatible.
--


Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022
01.908.542.0244
Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: http://www.AutoDrill.com
Multiple Spindle Drills: http://www.Multi-Drill.com
Production Tapping: http://Production-Tapping-Equipment.com/
Flagship Site: http://www.Drill-N-Tap.com
VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoDrill

V8013-R

[Tim Shoppa]

On Aug 17, 7:09*am, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:
The battery in my electric truck has died

The dealer gets a bloody fortune. Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us" for huge
batteries?

Nationwide there "Batteries Plus" which may have some small selection
of Forklift and Electric Truck batteries, and "Interstate Batteries"
distributors that will have some forklift batteries in addition to car/
truck batteries.

But otherwise I think you might have better luck just looking in the
yellow pages for "forklift batteries" to find a local dealer.

If they have what you need, an "Interstate Batteries" dealer is likely
to be the cheapest. Otherwise there will be some forklift dealer
markup involved, and they probably charge individual buyers who don't
know how to shop around way more than they charge a warehouse with a
dozen electric forklifts which has multiple regional dealers to
bargain with.

With hundreds of pounds of lead, none of these will be cheap. Your old
batteries have considerable scrap lead value, make sure they are part
of the deal.

Tim.

[Karl Townsend]

What's a fortune, Karl? Our Jap forklift pack swaps out brand new
from the factory for $1200. Considering the last one held up ten
years, that's not too bad.

I was told 1800 plus shipping last year. Didn't get a ship quote but $400
would be expected.

Karl

[Karl Townsend]

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle
could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough
power.

Karl

[Joe AutoDrill[_2_]]

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have
enough power.

I am not an electrical guru, but I always thought that the charge was a
result of the higher voltage going in VS the actual amperage... Thus the
reason a trickle charger may take an entire day to recharge a standard bike
or car battery if it is pretty low... I figured a small trickle charger
might be able to handle a 12 volt forklift-size battery in a week or
something similar presuming the "sitting still and not being used" discharge
of the same battery was less than what was going into it.

50 amps... That's certainly not something I have sitting at home.
--


Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022
01.908.542.0244
Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: http://www.AutoDrill.com
Multiple Spindle Drills: http://www.Multi-Drill.com
Production Tapping: http://Production-Tapping-Equipment.com/
Flagship Site: http://www.Drill-N-Tap.com
VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoDrill

V8013-R

[Pete C.]

Karl Townsend wrote:

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle
could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough
power.

Karl

Mine is 24V, and the battery is 1,571# and 875AH. I charge mine with a
little 10A charger and it will take several days to top up.

[Pete C.]

Joe AutoDrill wrote:

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have
enough power.

I am not an electrical guru, but I always thought that the charge was a
result of the higher voltage going in VS the actual amperage... Thus the
reason a trickle charger may take an entire day to recharge a standard bike
or car battery if it is pretty low... I figured a small trickle charger
might be able to handle a 12 volt forklift-size battery in a week or
something similar presuming the "sitting still and not being used" discharge
of the same battery was less than what was going into it.

50 amps... That's certainly not something I have sitting at home.

The "real" chargers for electric forklifts take three phase power and
output 100A+ charge rates to recharge the battery in a shift.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh[_3_]]

"Joe AutoDrill" fired this volley in
news
I am not an electrical guru, but I always thought that the charge
was
a result of the higher voltage going in VS the actual amperage...
Thus the reason a trickle charger may take an entire day to recharge
a
standard bike or car battery if it is pretty low... I figured a
small
trickle charger might be able to handle a 12 volt forklift-size
battery in a week or something similar presuming the "sitting still
and not being used" discharge of the same battery was less than what
was going into it.



Joe, the problem with that is that a certain minimum current (I'll
call it "leakage current", but that's not really an accurate
description) is necessary to overcome electrolytic losses during
charging.

An automotive trickle-type "maintainer" might work on, say, a 125AH
battery, but the batteries in our lift are 600AH types (like big 6V
diesel truck batteries). The plate areas are greater than a smaller
battery's would be, and thus the "leakage current" is larger. I don't
think a trickle charger of the ordinary type would work, even if you
had a 36V version.

OTOH, our battery charger for the lift is "intelligent". It charges
at maximum rate until it determines that the battery is fully charged,
then switches to a pulsed maintenance rate which is supposed to break
up sulphation on the plates, staying there unless or until it sees the
voltage drop below the "charged" value.

The charger alone weighs about 300lb, and runs off 240V.

LLoyd

[Pete C.]

Karl Townsend wrote:

What's a fortune, Karl? Our Jap forklift pack swaps out brand new
from the factory for $1200. Considering the last one held up ten
years, that's not too bad.

I was told 1800 plus shipping last year. Didn't get a ship quote but $400
would be expected.

Karl

Last year metals prices were high, get a current quote, and look for a
local supplier where you can pickup vs. have it shipped.

[Randy]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:03:00 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle
could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough
power.

Karl


My Yale forkilt is 36 volt, charger is 208-240, 480 three phase. When
I plug the battery in and start the charge it's just under 200 amp,
goes down to around 100 amp before shut-off. My battery is 2600
pounds.

Forklift will pull 200 amps from the batt going across the driveway
and it will hit 400 amp going up the slight incline to the doorway. (
with a 2000 pound load on the forks.)

Most new lifts I've seen are 36 or 48 volt, lower voltages seem to be
a thing of the past. More volts = lower amps, therefore smaller wire
and less copper.

I just sold my old 24 volt charger for 50 bucks, not much call for
them it seems, took 3 months of ebay and craigs list to get rid of it.

I had my doubts on the battery but it did hold up to unload 24 tons of
wood pellets off a truck into my lot then off the lot and into the
warehouse on one charge.

Thank You,
Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

[[email protected]]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:03:00 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle
could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough
power.

Karl

Most are 36 volts or higher. 48 and 72 are both common

[[email protected]]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:16:59 -0500, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

"Joe AutoDrill" fired this volley in
news
I am not an electrical guru, but I always thought that the charge
was
a result of the higher voltage going in VS the actual amperage...
Thus the reason a trickle charger may take an entire day to recharge
a
standard bike or car battery if it is pretty low... I figured a
small
trickle charger might be able to handle a 12 volt forklift-size
battery in a week or something similar presuming the "sitting still
and not being used" discharge of the same battery was less than what
was going into it.



Joe, the problem with that is that a certain minimum current (I'll
call it "leakage current", but that's not really an accurate
description) is necessary to overcome electrolytic losses during
charging.

An automotive trickle-type "maintainer" might work on, say, a 125AH
battery, but the batteries in our lift are 600AH types (like big 6V
diesel truck batteries). The plate areas are greater than a smaller
battery's would be, and thus the "leakage current" is larger. I don't
think a trickle charger of the ordinary type would work, even if you
had a 36V version.

OTOH, our battery charger for the lift is "intelligent". It charges
at maximum rate until it determines that the battery is fully charged,
then switches to a pulsed maintenance rate which is supposed to break
up sulphation on the plates, staying there unless or until it sees the
voltage drop below the "charged" value.

The charger alone weighs about 300lb, and runs off 240V.

LLoyd

I use a golf cart charger for 36 volts. They are getting scarce as
newe carts run 42 volts and up.

[Randy]

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:03:04 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:03:00 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always
wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle
could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I
tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough
power.

Karl

Most are 36 volts or higher. 48 and 72 are both common

I've never heard of anything over 48V .. once you go past 50V you are
past what the electical code considers low voltage and a whole new set
of rules apply. A friend of mine works in the telecom business and
he says on a nice hot sweaty day 48 volt will give you a nice shock.

Thank You,
Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

[Richard J Kinch]

Karl Townsend writes:

Anyone know of a "Batteries R Us" for huge batteries?

Sam's Club golf cart batteries.

A few years back I bought a 48VDC electric Hyster at auction for nothing,
because everyone wants propane for indoor use, and it had no charger, the
charger having been sold with the 1st of 2 trucks. Now 48 volts also is
what the phone company central office backup batteries used, and I found a
surplus regulated 48VDC telecom power supply that could be adjusted up a
bit to get a good charging voltage for the batteries. Plugged into a 120
VAC outlet this only provided about 20 amps at 48VDC, so it took days to
charge that ton of lead, but since we used it only for short periods in the
day, it worked fine. Sometimes you need zero emissions for indoor
applications, but otherwise electric forklifts are like any electric
vehicle, utterly uneconomical.

That ton of lead equaled a fuel tank for a few pints of hydrocarbon fuel,
took hours to fill, wore out in a few years, and cost $1000s to replace.
The only peculiar thing about the forklift application is that you like to
have something that massive on the back of your chassis.