Just won Hyster E40XL-MIL on GL

[pclausen]

I'm scheduled to pick up the Hyster tomorrow morning. It's at Fort Meade, MD. Unfortunately the GL website has been down all day, and I did not make a note of the address in Fort Meade where I need to go.

I think the street number was 70, but I don't remember the street name. I called GL, and they were not able to help me as they rely on the website as well.

Fortunately I did print out my invoice and other paperwork yesterday before the site went down. I think the Fort Meade phone number is on the invoice, so I guess I'll call them in the morning on my way there as a last resort. It's about a 3 hour drive for me.

 

[pclausen]

Street is 77 Rock Ave.

Made it home with the Hyster and a few other goodies I picked up from another source close by.


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-01.JPG

Battery pack is completely dead as expected. Popping the metal cover on one side, this is what it looks like:


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-03.JPG

Looking down into one of the cells, there is no electrolyte to be seen:


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-04.JPG

Should I add distilled water to just cover the plate in all the cells before attempting to charge it?

Here's the label on the battery pack:


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-05.JPG

Moving on to other aspects, the cylinders all look to be in decent shape:


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-06.JPG

Some of the hoses are cracked, but I see no leaks anywhere:


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-07.JPG


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-08.JPG

On the SCV valves, 3 of the "feel" good but the 4th one doesn't appear to be connected to anything (red arrow). Will need to look at that once I get the battery going.


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-09.JPG

There was a stack of inspection valves on the side. I pulled off the most recent one, which was blank (right in picture below), revealing that the last one that had data filled on was from May 2011. I wonder if, after slapping on the new inspection label, they found something catastrophic and decided it was not worth proceeding?


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterhome-10.JPG

Anyway, time to start looking for a single phase 850 Amp Hour 36 Volt charger. Guy I picked up the generators from had a 3 phase 36V generator, but it was a 1250-1500 Amp Hour monster. I don't have 3 phase power at my shop and I think 1250 AH would be too much for this battery. He did have a set of keys for the lift that he gave me.

 

[pclausen]

Hmm, single phase 850 Amp Hour chargers are quite expensive and used ones a hard to come by, especially locally. Perhaps my best bet right now is to wire 3 regular car batteries in series just to see what other issues may exist before dropping any significant coin on a charger only to find out the fork got other major issues.

 

[Isaac-1]

Fork lift chargers can often be found on ebay in the $200-$300 range, I bought a 3 year old 36 volt single phase charger off ebay for about $250 a few years ago including free truck freight delivery. If you you don't mind older ones perhaps with broken timers and no computerized smart charger you can often find them for under $150.


Ike

p.s. if you can't find one locally drop me a PM I think I have a spare single phase 36 volt charger of the right size gathering dust, if I recall it has a flaky automatic timer on it (sometimes you have to plug and unplug the connection a few times to get it to start charging) and may be missing its charging cables. I just don't know if it would be practical once you consider freight to VA.

 

[pclausen]

Ok cool. I'll keep looking. I put a volt meter on the battery pack and was pleasantly surprised it was 18.32 Volts. Maybe there is some sort of safety lockout that renders it completely dead unless it is seeing at least 33 Volts or something?

 

[pclausen]

Do I need one rated for 850 Amp Hours, which translates to roughly 80 Amps @ 36V? I don't care if it takes several days to fully charge as I won't be using it all that much, so as long as it doesn't hurt the battery pack, I'm ok with a smaller unit.

 

[Isaac-1]

Chargers can be rated for either battery size or output amps, this is usually part of the model number which is often something like model number - number of cells - AH capacity of intended battery. Lets use the example of the common GNB SCR100 charger (this is a lower end modern SCR based charger, older ferro chargers don't charge as fast and waste more electricity) an appropriate one for you would have a model number something like SCR100-18-865S1 model SCR100, 18 cell = 36Volt 865 AH S1 revision and phase coded in (I think S for single phase, T for Three Phase) This particular model outputs 134 amps, and might be slightly larger than ideal for you, instead you may be better off with the next size down at 750AH and 116 amps, but really either one would likely be close enough for you, some of the better models allow fine tuning of exact amp output, most are either 1 or 3 phase, but a few can be converted either way.

p.s. you don't want to go too under sized on these chargers, I would look for one rated in the 750AH - 865 AH range

 

[Isaac-1]

It is a forum rule violation to post links to active aucitons, we should take this to PM

 

[rustyshakelford]

What about charging each battery independently until you can get a correct charger? Just single them out and trickle charge each one for a day or so with a regular automotive charger. Most new ones can handle 6v or 12v batteries now.

Brett

 

[Isaac-1]

It is possible to do that, but each cell is connected by a bus bar which may be insolated

 

[pclausen]

It is a forum rule violation to post links to active aucitons, we should take this to PM

Oops, sorry about that. Link removed from above post.

 

[pclausen]

Bret, that's a great idea! Isaac, those plastic covers pop off, exposing the bars. I'm going to check that out.

 

[pclausen]

Got a flashlight and went down to the shop and hooked up my charger to the first 3 cells (charger does have a 6V setting). Voltage ramped up to about 6.4 Volt and then settled in at 5.1 Volt initially for the charging.


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterbatt-01.JPG

From a percentage stand-point, the charger deems the 3 cells starting out at 36%. That's a low starting percentage for sure. Hopefully the old Schumacher will get to 100% eventually instead of flashing the dreaded "batt dead" message tomorrow morning.


http://www.cstone.net/~dk/hysterbatt-02.JPG

I'm making the assumption that the positive and negative posts are connected inside each cell. If not, I'll need to add a jumper between the 2 positive terminals on the 3rd cell.

 

[Isaac-1]

You will often get that Batt dead message on small automotive computerized chargers if they fail to fully charge the battery in X number of hours, in this case I would expect to have to reset it and let it charge multiple times before the cells are fully charged.

 

[liftman]

Industrial batteries are rated for a maximum of 80% discharge over a 6 hour period. With an 850AH battery, you will need a minimum 680AH charger to effectively charge the battery in 6 hours. If charging time is not a factor, there are small chargers made in all output voltages that will charge the battery in about 12 hours. I don't know about used prices, but new they are in the 6 to 7 hundred dollar range.

You can use the automotive charger to charge a few cells at a time as you are doing. The cells are interconnected positive and negative outside of the cells by the lead connectors.

 

[Bighurt]

Is there a "neutral" on the transmission so that I can roll it off the trailer?

Not on an electric.

 

[pclausen]

The cells are interconnected positive and negative outside of the cells by the lead connectors.

Hmm, in that case, I guess I'm only charging one 1 Volt cell within each "container" right now, so basically charging 3 Volt worth of cells @ 6 volt? Probably not good.

 

[Isaac-1]

A fully charged cell should be around 2.18 V, charging rate should be around 2.4 -2.45V per cell (gassing point)

 

[pclausen]

Thanks Isaac. I checked, and the 2 + terminals and the 2 - terminals definitely appear to be connected inside the cell. I'm getting 0.000 Ohms across the + terminals and the same on the - terminals with my Fluke.

Sure enough, that little car charger was flashing "dead batt" this morning. I checked the water levels, and they were still way below the top of the plates. So I added water (have well water with a filtration system). It took just under 2 gallons to top off the 3 cells I'm working on to just cover the plates!

Started the charger again, and this time is said the battery was at 10%. This was from adding the water I'm sure as I did a quick test just before, and the starting percentage was 50% (compared to the 36% last night).

Hopefully with some patience and working with 3 cells at a time, I might actually get this battery at least partially working again. Btw, the individual cells are reading right around 1.445 volts right now, so still have a ways to go. Figured I'll keep concentrating on these first 3 cells and move on from there. I'd love to be able to drive the Hyster off the trailer instead of dragging it off.

 

[Isaac-1]

Electric forklifts can't handle much of an incline, think in the ballpark of an ADA compliant wheelchair ramp, maybe less.