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Old 11-14-2009, 11:54 AM   #11
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Re: How can I tell if my van batteries need replacing?

[quote="bgoetting"]Thanks for the help!

I charged all batteries on shore power for 24 hrs. My new AGM 4D is reading 12.6V ........

To FULLY charge your house battery is determined by the SIZE (amps out per time) of your charger and the number of amps you house battery requires to be fully charged. Your AGM 4D at 12.6v is nearly fully charged but is NOT fully charged. Recommend that that you put your charger on for at least 12 hours more. Battery should be 12.8v or a little higher ... maybe 13.0v .... when FULLY charged. The last 2-3 tenths of volt is a surface charge and does not contain very many amps but it should be there when the battery is FIRST FULLY charged.

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Old 11-16-2009, 08:28 PM   #12
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Re: How can I tell if my van batteries need replacing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bgoetting
If my house battery is low, can it really draw power from my starter batteries when I turn on the ignition, causing my vehicle to not start?
It would probably take a while for that to happen unless it was almost a dead short. You must remember that when the separator see a charge voltage above 13.2, it will close and join the batteries. Same with solar. Once one of the batteries drops below 12.8 the separator should open and separate. But a bad battery can pull down everything while you drive because the separator is connected with the ignition on and it's possible that the alternator can't put out enough to supply the standard charge to everything the vehicle requires plus the draw a shorted battery pulls. This would all depend on what a bad battery pulls and that varies. Still, the separator should open and protect the system and 12.8 is not a low state of charge. I've talked about this before. My old stock alternator supplied about 5-10 amps extra charge when I was using headlights, radio, air conditioner... etc but the bad starting battery was pulling 30 amps or more. That was like -20 amps that had to come from somewhere and that was ALL the batteries. As the battery got worse so did the draw. It was an easy find for me, all I had to do was crawl under the van and touch the battery boxes. One was so hot I could barely touch it and by the time I got it to the shop I could smell it. When I had similar problems (a couple years later) I caught it much earlier. This time the bad battery was only slightly warmer. I pulled em and tested one bad. Pulling the batteries is fairly difficult on a 06 diesel. Like I said I have had problems with the separator but it was not the cause of the battery failing but it can bring the others down to a point. I think all make of separators would do the same unless your separator is sticking closed, which could be a problem.

Why don't you just pull the ground off the separator and try to start the vehicle? You might just have a bad connection at the start battery.
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