thank you all for your informative replies. I have learned a lot in
the last few days!

I am now reading about thermal fuse and the such. Currently the
battery positive side has a 40a fuse. the battery supplies juice to
two 12v 230 watts motors. I am trying to find out if I should add a
thermal fuse , and where in the circuitry I should add them. Close to
the motors as possible or replace the 40a fuse with a thermal fuse

My battery now reads at a goodOn Sat, 30 Apr 2005 01:54:47 -0400,
"JANA" wrote:

A lead acid, or gel cell type battery, when rapidly discharged, it can
sometimes have a temporary recovery effect. I cannot remember the theory of
why this happens. I can only remember something about the internal heat
making the acid more active. There is a complex theory behind this.

If you know the amp hour rating of the battery, and the average amount of
current being pulled from the battery, you can then make an approximate
prediction of how long the battery will last between charges.

If your motor is rated 350 Watts at 12 Volts under load, this means that the
motor will draw about 30 amps. If your battery is rated at 60 amps, then it
should last about 2 hours, considering all conditions being perfect.

When a motor starts under mechanical load, it will draw a very large surge
of current compared to its normal operation. When it has very little
mechanical load on it, will draw less current. Without doing a very in debt
real time analysis of the motor's current consumption, it would be difficult
to accurately predict how long the battery should last.

Testing a battery when not under load, will not give a true indication to
what its real loaded voltage would be. In many cases, a battery will read
nearly the full charged voltage, but when loaded, it will not supply.

When I test gel, or lead acid batteries, I use a dummy load for heavy duty
type batteries. I have a dummy load that will pull 10 amps at 12 volts. To
test the battery, I connect the 10 dummy load across the battery, and then I
monitor the battery on a DVM for at least 5 to 10 minutes. The voltage will
drop a little, and then remain fairly stable if the battery is properly
holding its charge.

As for safety, it is very good that you bought a sealed gel cell. If you use
a liquid lead acid battery in a toy car, and there is a spillage due to
abrupt use, or a roll-over, the acid can be a very serious danger. Acid
spills on skin is a very serious thing! Using a lead acid battery in a
device that is going to have abrupt operation, such as an electric toy car
is not a very good practice.

Never use a liquid lead acid battery in your home, unless there is proper
ventilation. The acid fumes, and the hydrogen gas that can be given off is
very dangerous. The battery will give off most of its fumes during the time
of charging, or discharging.