Battery issue

grandpa Love

Well-known Member
Bought a cub a few weeks ago, it's been running fine. It came with a deep cycle battery (it has cca listed on it) I charged the battery when I first got tractor home and all was good. Yesterday the tractor turned over really slow so I put battery on charger for a couple hours. I unplugged charger, removed the clamps, then hooked up ground cable to battery. Sat down on the seat, flipped switch, pulled started rod and BOOM !!!! Battery blew up!! Luckily no one got hurt. Now I'm half afraid to use my older winch battery........
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They do make a racket when they do that! Would believe it was a bad battery. Have had that happen a few times thru the years with different vehicles. New battery and all was good.
 
Deep cycle batteries are not designed to operate like regular automotive batteries. They are designed to deliver their power slower over a long time like a trolling motor for a fishing boat or maybe a golf cart and not in a quick burst like a starter. They are designed to deliver their power slower over a long time and then be recharged at a slow steady rate like a golf cart charger at about 15 amp maximum.

If there was an internal connector that was slightly loose or starting to seperate it may have caused a spark to ignite the highly flammable hydrogen gas created from charging the battery.

Now you need to give that Cub a bath with soda water now to neutralize the acid bath it just got from the battery.
 
I have seen that happen a couple of times! Another good reason to wear safety glasses! I wonder if having a cover on a battery box is a good idea or not, I don't have one on our C. Keeping the liquids level high reduces the chance of explosion, but many new batteries are sealed. I doubt that it was a deep cycle had anything to do with it, the starter on a cub doesn't draw much more than a trolling motor!
 
I see there is no bolt in one of the cable terminals. Are you one of these guys that just slips the terminals on the battery and does not tighten the terminal bolts? If so it caught up with you. Charging the battery causes it to let off gases from the acid. If there was a bad connection between a cable terminal and the post if it arcs it can light off the gases if they are at the proper concentration. The flash finds its way past the battery caps and into the vapor space above the acid level leading to the destruction you see. If the acid levels where not checked prior to charging the vapor space is quite a bit larger in those sells which adds to the likelihood of an explosion. Hopefully you hosed off the tractor with water soon after this took place.
 
That can be caused by a number of problems. Right after being charged there can be hydrogen gas inn and around the battery an a spark due to a poor connection can light it up and you get a boom. Or an internal battery problem and hydrogen gas can make it explode
 
Battery acid is very corrosive. Rinse down the surrounding area very well at least 3 times.

Glad you did not get hurt. Have you looked at the clothes you were wearing yet? They might have a lot of new holes eaten through them.
 
That's why you always attach the negative clamp away from the battery (on a good ground connection on the tractor over vehicle) just in case the spark came from the charger clamp. Also agree the battery clamps used are only emergency clamps. They are suppose to be used only when you have no way to fix a bad cable end. Then they should be removed and a good end soldered onto the cable or the cable replaced.
 
I saw a battery go BOOM.
Charger was on the dead battery.
Turned the key on and boom.

Scary. Good lesson to be learned.
Don't be near a dead battery if you have jumpers on the battery and you try to start the car.
 

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