50A Aircraft Battery Charger through NATO plug. M1008A1

[Tinstar]

I was recently given a 24V aircraft battery charger.
It’s an older one but in excellent condition.
A switch can change it from just powering the aircraft to 50A battery charging mode.
It is an automatic charging system and not just a straight charger.

Is 50A too much for a stock NATO system and Hawker battery’s?
I know the plug itself is rated much higher.

The plan is to remove the aircraft power plug and install a nato plug.
That way, if I ever need to charge the battery’s, I can simply plug the nato plug in and charge them.

Overkill?
If it’s too much charger then I won’t use it.

I don’t want to damage my Hawker battery’s.

 

[Keith_J]

50 amperes is a good rate for 100+ amp hour batteries. It will heat batteries so be careful that it is a flooded cell type charger.
Monitor voltage over a charge cycle, anything over 28.8 could cause damage.

 

[Tinstar]

The Hawkers are AGM.

 

[Matt5]

You "need" a special charger to charge AGM batteries...
https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/2016/12/do-i-need-special-charger-agm-battery

Ya they say you "Don't need one" but then go on about how it makes the battery last longer...

TLDW, 10 amps per battery, 15 volts max...

Same ****... all AGM junk.

 

[Tinstar]

I use NOCO smart chargers on my optima red and blue tops.
They do very well.

I need to do some more research before using the aircraft charger.

Will give the Hawker Battery folks a call and talk to them and see what they say.

 

[Keith_J]

What have you done to the 1008 alternators? The stock voltage regulators are set for flooded cell batteries. Delco 27 SI rated at 100 amperes into 12.8 volts with 14.4 volts normally (voltage drops with increasing temperature).

 

[Tinstar]

Alternators are factory GM stock Delco units.
Both have been professionally rebuilt
Voltmeter and DMM showing they are working perfectly.

I’m not having battery or charging issues.

The alrcraft battery charger is for future use if/when a problem does arise.
If I can even use it.......

Trying to stay ahead of the curve.

 

[sandcobra164]

I don't have experience using the 50A battery charger through the NATO slave port. I did use my CUCV to charge the dead batteries on my M923 after I left the battery switch on which completely killed the batteries. It had an open circuit voltage of 6.5 volts measured at the slave port when I connected. An hour of charging later and the truck started fine disconnected from the CUCV. The M923 has Hawkers as well, I checked them every 10 minutes and they got warm but never got hot to the touch. I'm sure quite a few amps were being sent through the slave port though, the CUCV idle would drop what sounded like 100 rpm when first connected. It was idling normal once the batteries were charged.

 

[Tinstar]

I will be calling the Folks at Hawker after the Holidays.

Last thing I want to do is trash $1500 worth of battery’s.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

I don't know if that charger is safe for your batteries. I think you are wise to call Hawker to get that question answered.

What I CAN tell you is that, assuming the charger is okay, using the slave port will be just fine. It's just a way to connect to the batteries. Electrically, it's exactly the same as using clamps to attach to the battery posts. You could clamp or permanently attach to the 24v and ground bus bars, too. Same thing, electrically.

The only difference is permanence and convenience, which is purely a matter of your personal choice.

 

[skysix]

I use a NOCO 26000 charger (13A at 24V, 26A at 12v) via the slave plug on a system with dual group 31's in place of each 6TL (4 in total) and I WISH it was 50A/24V as it takes 20 hours or so from 10.5 volts.