To cut a long story short, I have 4 vehicles with flat (stuffed) batteries but l only need to run two of them and occasionally move the other two.
?ÿThey are:
- A 6 cylinder petrol car.
- A 4 cylinder petrol car.
- A 18hp diesel tractor.
- A 4 stroke petrol ride-on mower.
Just like surveying gear, batteries are the weak link. I don't want to buy 4 new batteries so I am thinking I can just buy one and swap it around all 4, as and when I need to run them.
Physically, the 4 cylinder car has the smallest battery while the tractor has the largest. The terminals are different sizes but I can easily get around that.
I am thinking of getting the small 4 cylinder car one - will it be ok to use it to occasionally start and run the other vehicles, I'm most likely to be running the tractor or mower for hours at a time but only short use in the cars to shift them around?
Whatever one will come closest to physically fitting all 4 the best. As long as it's 12v and close enough to the required cranking amps it will be fine.?ÿ
Go to your local hardware store. Or auto parts. They get returned batteries quite often. Pick through them, and buy the biggest, newest ones. Or, trade your old bad ones, foe some new "bad" ones.?ÿ
You can often get a couple more yrs out of a big battery on a small tractor. When it goes bad, swap for a new bad one.
I buy nice big batteries, for my work chariot. So, they tolerate this.?ÿ
N
Well hello, old friend.
I think that my approach would be to buy a battery for the tractor and use it to jump off the other vehicles as needed. Regularly moving batteries between vehicles is going to get old, fast.
Yes, hello my friend. I had a tumble and for 3 months was either horizontal or on walking aids. I did think about you while I was "away" (don't take that the wrong way).
I'm thinking I'll leave the stuffed batteries in each vehicle and just buy one of those LiPo power packs and jump start each one, as and when needed:
I'd check first that they take on enough temporary recharge so you can restart if you stall or switch off away from the LiPo
Glad you're back, sorry your tumble interrupted your life so greatly.?ÿ must have been a hell of a tumble indeed.
Either way, glad you're doing better and able get back to important international survey relations here and such.
I second the tractor first idea, because it's such high compression, will require the highest cranking amps to turn over, that battery box may or may not have enough punch in it capacitor to roll that deisel engine.
you could double up the smaller car battery by leaving the one in the tractor and have a parallel series connection to effectively double cranking amps and staying at 12volts. when not using just disconnect the negative terminal(blade switch) and then use the other battery in the other petrol cars as needed.
welcome back you old tumble bum.
????
Years ago, a friend of mine had two cars but only one battery. (1969 Chevelle and a 19?? Pinto) On occasion he and his wife would have a need to use both at the same time. No problem, whichever one had the battery in it was started first. When it was warm and running smooth, he would remove the battery and place it in the other car, start it and both would head out. Of course, this only worked well when both cars were going to the same place. Then they would reverse the process when time to go home.
I think moving batteries around, something will go wrong. You could put the one new battery in the vehicle you use most and use jumper cables to start the others. Leave the bad batteries where they are.?ÿ
@richard-imrie I have one of those for my 32' motorhome and it works well when I need it.?ÿ
