battery application and life

[valleyrebel18]

i work on a fleet of vehicles where they are started and ran for approximately 10 to 20 minutes at the most then sit for an hour or two. If the vehicles are driven sometimes twenty feet then shut off, company policy states anytime you step away from a vehicle it has to be shut down. so a vehicle can be started and stopped more that thirty to fifty times a day. My question is what battery would be best in these applications, my company is trying to go with AGM, and we are constantly having to jump start them and pull the batteries out and bench charge them......

 

[IRstuff]

A big one, coupled with a big charger. Obviously, you need to have sufficient capacity to handle the all the starts. But, if they can't get recharged by the vehicle, they must get recharged by something. It's not possible to just keep draining the battery without recharging; that would be perpetual motion.

TTFN
faq731-376

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529

 

[MikeHalloran]

When I was young, bread was delivered door to door, from a rubber- tired truck, pulled by a horse.

The cool thing was, the deliveryman would leave the truck and walk up the sidewalk, carrying bread for several houses. The horse would shuffle along the street in phase with the deliveryman, minimizing the number of trips to and from the truck.

Cheap fuel and 'modernism' made the horses obsolete. ... but I wonder...



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Compositepro]

Irstuff is absolutely correct. UPS seems to have the same policy, so you may check with them about their approach. You will need enough battery capacity to last the day and then recharge every night. Installing a charging connector on each vehicle will make charging much easier. Also, be aware that not keeping the battery fully charged will significantly reduce the lifespan of the battery, which compounds your problem.

 

[Tmoose]

Will a physically larger battery fit? Even a second battery? Just to survive the day.

I think I might measure the voltage provided during the 10 minute drive.
If rpm are low and electrical loads are high so 14.X volts are not maintained, then revving up the alternator with a smaller pulley might help.
If the alternator has enough capacity and is revving high enough then a voltage regulator tweaked upward a bit for a bit more charging might improve things.