new charger

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

I've never been able to find my battery drain and despite having 3 Odyssey batteries, I still have to charge every time I have to start my rig if it's left for more than a week or so.

So, after trying over and over with my regular charger, I find out that a special charger is made for these batteries and I made the plunge.

I am picking up the 50 amp 3 bank charger system tomorrow.

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/chargers.html

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

Just picked it up and plugged it in. It's a lot smaller than I expected.

crash2 · Jan 4, 2011

Are you going to install it as a perm. fixture in the rig dale?

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

crash said:
Are you going to install it as a perm. fixture in the rig dale?

I've thought about because I've never been able to figure out why there's such a battery drain. I have power going to the things like the ECU and MSD box even with the key off. It seems to be that those should be keyed power only.

It seems to be a little bit of overkill as a permanent fixture...

CHOP SHOP · Jan 4, 2011

just put a kill switch on it.

Get those batteries charged up and UNHOOK ALL battery cables from them and let it sit for a week or two and see if it starts fine.

If it still is dead then them batteries are not happy.

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

CHOP SHOP said:
just put a kill switch on it.

Get those batteries charged up and UNHOOK ALL battery cables from them and let it sit for a week or two and see if it starts fine.

If it still is dead then them batteries are not happy.

All three batteries are fairly new, but they have been fully discharged for an extended period, which doesn't usually make them happy. This charger is supposed to be able to detect a sulfated battery and run it through a desulfating cycle then recharge, so we'll see.

I did that already. The batteries will stay charged right up when disconnected. I am putting an electronic cut off switch setup so that I can turn the batteries on and off from in the cab. I have a marine battery switch which allowed me to do that, but it's a bit of a PITA, so I took it out. I think I'll put that in the Willys someday as a battery disconnect/cutoff.

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

crash said:
Are you going to install it as a perm. fixture in the rig dale?

I do have an old set of jumper cables that I can use to make a good charge point so that I can reach all three batteries at once. I can't reach the one behind the rear seat if while connected to the two under the hood.

Not the preferrred method, but it'll work.

crash2 · Jan 4, 2011

Gibby said:
I've thought about because I've never been able to figure out why there's such a battery drain. I have power going to the things like the ECU and MSD box even with the key off. It seems to be that those should be keyed power only.

It seems to be a little bit of overkill as a permanent fixture...

ECU still has battery voltage to it with key off.

Interesting... Heck it could be something as simple as an alt or your welder setup.

CHOP SHOP · Jan 4, 2011

I dont understand? A big ol cuttof switch like a bulldoze has mounted on/under the dash is all it needs. How is that a PITA? Sounds to me like it is a PITA to mess with a charger and three batteries all the time.

Its pretty convenient to just reach up and turn. done deal.

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

crash said:
ECU still has battery voltage to it with key off.

Interesting... Heck it could be something as simple as an alt or your welder setup.

Been through both of those. In fact I sent the entire unit back and had to have both of the rebuilt. The welder mounted on a non-flat surface cause a rectifier on the bottom of it to short out. They fixed a few other things and rebuilt the alternator. That's all hooked up right now.

ain'tstuckjustresting · Jan 4, 2011

C'mon Chop, you know damn well. If it's not painfully over complicated, Dale's not interested.................

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

CHOP SHOP said:
I dont understand? A big ol cuttof switch like a bulldoze has mounted on/under the dash is all it needs. How is that a PITA? Sounds to me like it is a PITA to mess with a charger and three batteries all the time.

Its pretty convenient to just reach up and turn. done deal.

It was mounted under the hood and a PITA to reach.

I use these same batteries on other rigs as well so I need the charger. I an tough on batteries !

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

ain'tstuckjustresting said:
C'mon Chop, you know damn well. If it's not painfully over complicated, Dale's not interested.................

Well, you do have a point there!!!!!!

Technically, with 3 batteries, I would have to have 3 battery disconnects under my dash or a 3 battery marine style switch.

However, what I really need to do is find someone with more electrical troubleshooting experience than I to help track down the source of the drain. Because once we get that done we can find the battery drain on my F250 and my Mustang...

Top that off and I get in my F350 tonight, and it won't start because the batteries are low?????????????? So that's getting charged and trying to figure out how I drained two new batteries in 2 weeks. The only thing left on was my cell phone charger...

However, complicated can be fun cause it's waaaayyyy cool when it works!

Gibby1 · Jan 4, 2011

crash said:
ECU still has battery voltage to it with key off.

Interesting... Heck it could be something as simple as an alt or your welder setup.

So are you saying that the ECU should have power to it with the key off?

Binder · Jan 4, 2011

Gibby said:
So are you saying that the ECU should have power to it with the key off?

All modern ECU's require power when the key is off to keep the memory. If you bypass the ECU with a kill switch you may run into runability issues.

Gibby1 · Jan 5, 2011

Binder said:
All modern ECU's require power when the key is off to keep the memory. If you bypass the ECU with a kill switch you may run into runability issues.

In this case, I've removed the batteries a number of time without any issues, so I don't think that would affect my ECU.

I used to use the battery switch and turn everything off when it's not in use. It's when I forget that it would piss me off.

skinny_pedal · Jan 5, 2011

Have you done a draw test on your electrical system?

Binder · Jan 6, 2011

Gibby said:
In this case, I've removed the batteries a number of time without any issues, so I don't think that would affect my ECU.

It does effect the ECU the only question is to what extent. Doing this I would expect the engine to be "quirky". Start hard or run rough but only some of the time. Maybe only at some temperatures or altitudes........It will be fine MOST of the time.

Gibby1 · Jan 6, 2011

skinny_pedal said:
Have you done a draw test on your electrical system?

No, I don't really know how to do that. I understand the principle, but don't have the correct tester or procedures.

Gibby1 · Jan 6, 2011

Binder said:
It does effect the ECU the only question is to what extent. Doing this I would expect the engine to be "quirky". Start hard or run rough but only some of the time. Maybe only at some temperatures or altitudes........It will be fine MOST of the time.

Following that logic, everytime you changed a battery on a vehicle the ECU would be affected. I don't think I agree with that.