Re: Starting Battery Reply #25 – October 12, 2022, 10:58:03 am Quote from: HiLola - October 12, 2022, 10:44:06 amThat’s what I thought, Ron and Kent. Just curious why the house batteries were losing voltage (down to 11.7 volts before I disconnected them). Could the Trik-L-Start unit have something to do with that?Should not, unless hooked up incorrectly. Had an instance of that recently on a friend's SOB, which in that case discharged the chassis battery when the house Lithiums went dead.Steve
Re: Starting Battery Reply #26 – October 12, 2022, 11:25:09 am Hi Greg; No the Trik-L-Start shuts off if the source voltage (house batteries) goes below about 13.2. So 10.7 volts is a shorted cell. Lead material cracks and breaks off, falling into the bottom of the battery and sometimes is big enough to form a short between cells. just a big acid bath down there. A 10.7 volt battery even with all the remaining cells fully charged will look like dead battery to the Trik-L-Start; it won't try to charge it, but if the voltage on the house batteries goes up, say plugged in, or solar charging, 3 Amps of that will go to the failed chassis battery. If it is the converter doing the charging, there is more than enough power to run the house incidental loads, (radio memory, LPGas detector, etc.). Solar maybe not enough to actually charge the house batteries very well. 11.7 volts is definitely a bit low. How old are they, and how cold are they? Are there any other devices running? And with a new chassis battery is their voltages going back up? RonB And so Steve, was the Triklstart defective or just hooked up incorrectly? I presently have the old triklstart connected, but the new Trik-L-Start needs a relay to disable it while running the engine alternator DC/DC charger because of some instability with the LiF's.
Re: Starting Battery Reply #27 – October 12, 2022, 12:14:10 pm Quote from: HiLola - October 11, 2022, 01:24:19 pmbattery was down to 10.7V so definitely dead. Now I’m just monitoring everything to make sure all is well. Just a note for those who haven’t done this before. The wrench size for the battery clamps, as well as the battery retainer, is 5/16”. Be sure to clean off the old terminal clamps and put some dielectric grease on them before installing the new battery.Notice in the photo where the mice were nibbling on the battery cozy. I elected to leave it off the new battery. The battery's 'cozy' insulating jacket is there for heat protection, not to keep it warm. It should be replaced to protect the battery from high temperatures during long summertime drives.Your 2017 E450 has a metric chassis, all the Ford hardware is metric. The battery terminal uses a 10MM nut.Many SAE (American) and metric fasteners can sometimes be used with SAE or metric tools, but beware, the hardware can be damaged in many situations. Surprisingly, almost all the under-the-hood maintenance and minor repairs can be done with a 1/4" metric socket kit.Larry
Re: Starting Battery Reply #28 – October 12, 2022, 02:08:04 pm Quote from: Larry W - October 12, 2022, 12:14:10 pmThe battery's 'cozy' insulating jacket is there for heat protection, not to keep it warm. It should be replaced to protect the battery from high temperatures during long summertime drives.Your 2017 E450 has a metric chassis, all the Ford hardware is metric. The battery terminal uses a 10MM nut.Many SAE (American) and metric fasteners can sometimes be used with SAE or metric tools, but beware, the hardware can be damaged in many situations. Surprisingly, almost all the under-the-hood maintenance and minor repairs can be done with a 1/4" metric socket kit.Thanks for educating me regarding the “cozy”, Larry. Is that the proper term for it or is it called something else? I went ahead and taped up the areas where the mouse had nibbled on it with black duct tape and reinstalled it, based on your suggestion.I was surprised that battery terminal uses a 5/16 inch wrench instead of a 10 mm wrench as well but it does!
Re: Starting Battery Reply #29 – October 12, 2022, 02:17:51 pm Metric conversion tables are handy helpers! 5/16” is 0.3937008”. Converted to mm, that’s 10.000000.32 mm. My head hurts now. 2 Likes
Re: Starting Battery Reply #30 – October 12, 2022, 02:41:45 pm That’s perplexing, Joan, since my 10 mm wrench is obviously larger than the 5/16 inch wrench. Then again, math was never my best subject.
Re: Starting Battery Reply #31 – October 12, 2022, 03:07:04 pm Math isn’t a big part of my skill set, either, so check it out and, hey, “show your work!” 1 Likes
Re: Starting Battery Reply #32 – October 12, 2022, 03:07:29 pm Quote from: HiLola - October 12, 2022, 02:41:45 pmThat’s perplexing, Joan, since my 10 mm wrench is obviously larger than the 5/16 inch wrench. Then again, math was never my best subject.GregI was wrong in saying the battery terminal has a 10MM bolt, it is an 8MM bolt (just checked).5/16" = .3125" = 7.9375MM. 5/16" is very close to 8MM and works fine for this application.Inches to Millimeters - in to mm conversionLarry 4 Likes
Re: Starting Battery Reply #33 – October 12, 2022, 03:35:01 pm Math isn’t a big part of my skill set, either, so check it out and, hey, “show your work!”
Re: Starting Battery Reply #34 – October 12, 2022, 06:02:05 pm Quote from: RonB - October 12, 2022, 11:25:09 amSolar maybe not enough to actually charge the house batteries very well. 11.7 volts is definitely a bit low. How old are they, and how cold are they? Are there any other devices running? And with a new chassis battery is their voltages going back up? RonB Hi Ron, sorry for the delayed response. Since I'm not able to plug in right now (see the Dead Short thread), I'm depending on solar to do the job (although I did run the generator earlier to see if I could get AC power to the coach that way- I did). The house batteries are original as far as I know (2017). Nothing else was running except the propane detector and a couple hard-wired USB chargers that have a LED indicator so no load to speak of. The new chassis battery seems to be fully charged now at 12.7V, and the house batteries are charging through solar. I'll test them later after the sun goes down but I think they are ok now.
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