[nobull1]

Well a few days ago 9 to be exact I joined the 2 dead batteries club.I will try and keep it short so forgive me if I leave anything out.Went out last Sunday and started my truck 3 times and only ran for 5 mins each time,last time glow plug light comes on all goes dead.Hooked up 6 amp charger for about for about 16 hrs and preceeded to test. Waiting 1 hour after taking charger off read voltage 12.3 both batteries

now this means about70% charged not good not even enough for a load test.Upon further checking of batteries found both sides of both batteries bulged which can be caused by freezing or high amp draw over a long time among other things.So now I can wait 2 days to get to dealer to have him say give you one or no warranty due to plow or whatever and get stuck with labor charge or a new delco

.So I really don't have time for this and just bought 2 batteries and if I find something else wrong than I will deal with the dealer.Now all I had to do was change the batteries sounds easy ah...snow blowing ,smoked in the head 3 times by hood by wind and build up of snow still have lumps

.Anyhow all said and done worked fine took to a buddy with a alternator shop and done some testing.


voltage: pre start glow plugs on 11.2


voltagere start when glow plugs off 12.2


voltage:after initial start 12.3-12.4


voltage:after regulator cuts in 14.8


voltage:full load all acc. except plow 14.6


I always am looking at my guage and it is off a bit as far as accurate but is in the same place all the time so it seems to be working fine.I thought the voltage a little high but upon a little research found this to be normal for GM.The next thing I checked was for parasitic drain but could find nothing other than normal draw clock ,phone etc.Now my thought is my "plow" when you hit that baby the needle jumps guessing down to 11 voltages for a second or 2 so I think maybe sucking the amps down like that is not good and over time I am having less reserve capacity and with winter time, glow plugs, couple of quick starts and thats all she wrote. I left a few details out but you get the idea.Now I wonder if a person has a plow if they should check their batteries once in awhile before they leave you stranded.I don't even know if this was the problem and would like some feedback if anyone has any ideas.Oh one thing "the only thing" that I noticed was the last couple of times I started in the morning when it was cold the charge light stayed on for maybe 6 seconds instead of the normal 3 which makes me think the voltage was outside the perameters for the charging system until the regulator cut in.Low reserve?Edited by: nobull1

 

[TheChevyHDMan]

NoBull. I have encountered problems with batteries and plows when we ran "Monarch" under hood plow pumps. The truck would charge good and everything was all cool till you hit the plow controls and that sucker would drop down(amps wise) It made it seem as if their was a bad plow pump based upon the way the plow would angle etc. It ended up being one bad cell in the battery, And under the stress of running the pump that one bad battery cell would really show.


Running my plow It will drop below 12 also. Normal I think. Your parameters above from the alt. shop seem within spec to me. I load test my batterys on our plow trucks before the season starts. If it shows the slightest bit weak, its gone.


If your like me, and you like having spare parts, pick up an alternator. The batterys being weak may have put extra load on the alternator. I bought a rebuilt 130 amp alternator from my local parts store. It was $200 US with a core that wasnt even close

. Ive put almost 4 sets of batterys in 6 years in our other plow truck. I wonder why I still buy Delcos???. Next its Optimas.


Bill PS Check all your grounds.

 

[nobull1]

Bill


Funny you say about grounds when I first got my plow installed last year had a few strange problems the first day

.After checking the connections out myself found a bad ground that was not tightened up from the factory, after tightening problem gone.Maybe this problem along with heavy loads,glow plugs,intake heater,flashing lights etc destiny was to be replace batteries

. 4 sets of batteries in your truck in 6 years makes me feel better

not really but you know what I mean.This seems to go along with what I was thinking when I made this thread.If you run electric over hydraulic plows you should keep a eye on your batteries as their time under the hood will not be as long[lot of times don't last under normal use]as you might hope.The thing I really didn't like was very little notice of the black cloud overhead.So plow guy's new pm, check batteries voltage 12.6 full charge 12.4 75% charge and trouble not far off.If Murphy's law works the same in US as Canada

it will be snowing and the hood will smoke your head many times trying to change them

Edited by: nobull1

 

[army]

Sounds to me like the dual alternator mod that hoot posted in the do it yourself area would be a good thing to have when running a plow!


Nice post hoot!

 

[flhrciblueice]

Go with deep cycle batteries(optima yellow tops) and contact dmaxallitech about the dual alternator kit he has available. I can't remember his price on the kit, but IIRC, it was around the same price as the price for dual alts option from the factory. Edited by: flhrciblueice

 

[nobull1]

Sounds like a good idea with the deep cycle batteries[so long as you can get the cca from a deep cycle battery] but as far as the dual alt's go to my surprise even with the plow the voltage only drops for a second or two than is at 14.8 the rest of the time.It does not seem to be a lack of amp output by the alt but a continual large amp draw over time by using the plow that is hurting the batteries IMHO.When you say going up to the blade I think it causes brown outs in the city

and would think even the two alt's could not put out enough power for that second or two, but I could be wrong.I wonder if anyone has a plow and dual alt's that could let us know what their guage says.Anyhow in my case that is not a option as I have a clutch pump in that spot where it would go.By the way Optima battteries in our area are like $275.00 each not a option

sucks but life goes on.