Battery

Down "heah" where it's nice and cozy, it was 15F this am and had to move some hay. My 2007 65 hp diesel had the glow plugs doing their thing and when the light went out I hit the starter and it just grunted and all that. I had moved hay just a couple of days before and it ran for over half an hour so battery should have had a good charge.

After recharging the battery, from the cranking with no results, and putting a propane 30k BTU heater pointed at the little sucker with a 10 A battery charger (biggest I have) down to about 9A, after about half an hour it lit right off.

So, since the battery is an Atlas BX 110BL made in Korea and installed in '07 where and when the tractor was made, I looked up their specs and seems this is a pretty well engineered battery for long life and heavy duty service.

Ok fine. I finished my work and with the battery fully charged, I hooked up my trusty HF load checker. Initial voltage on the meter was 12.75 which is a good number for full charge where I Iive at STP. I cranked up the amps and since my starter is a reduction gear type like Chrysler used for many years, I stopped at 300 amperes. Terminal voltage was 10v under that load.

"Whadda ya think?" Think the battery is ok? I do. If it would have held 10 at 200 I would have been satisfied.

Thanks,
Mark

I think your battery is kaput.

Sounds like your battery. Did you hold that load for 15 seconds? Thats how my tester says to do it. jstpa

what was batt voltage after load test?

Here in western NY (dropped to -12 here last nite) I replace batteries in my diesel equipment every 3 - 4 years. Otherwise cold starting becomes problematic - especially when you need it the most.

Incidentally I transplant the 4 year old batteries into easier starting stuff like gas tractors, the boat, etc. The used batteries are usually good for several more years in this lighter duty service.

Check the specific gravity of each cell using a hydrometer. Post the readings. If one cell is very low you probably need a new battery. Hal

If you can hold 10 volts at 300 amps draw for 15 seconds your battery should be physically good internally. But, it takes several hours of normal run time to fully charge a battery. Figure 100 ampere hour battery takes 10 hours at 10 amp charge rate to fully charge, or 1 amp charge for 100 hours. I suggest you put your 10 amp charger on until voltage reaches 14.5 volts, look in all cells if you can and they should all be gassing slightly. I personally would then finish it off with a slower charger like 4 or 6 amps again looking for that 14.5 volts or very close to that. If it does not pass that test battery is not reliable.

The batteries that came in 2 of our Toyotas were made in Japan and they lasted longer than any U.S. made battery that I've ever had. Unfortunately, I can't buy those Japanese batteries in the U.S., so I'm stuck with using the inferior ones made in the U.S.

Just went through the very same thing. Charged batt all night on 10 amp setting, and until noon. Started tractor but just barely. Batt just one year old! Took batt to town. They put on load tester and said it was ok. had 970 cold cranking amps. I said lets check the new one, it has 1350. rated for 1200 I think. Bottom line started tractor next morning. Need to be perfect when this cold! Vic

If you look around I think you can find a battery as good as a jap battery, I have a JD strongbox that's going on 11 years. We had an original in a honda only last 6 months.

The glow plugs do draw a LOT of current. Perhaps your battery hasn't enough capacity for both the glow plugs and the starter. Once the glow plugs take the battery capacity down, the cold engine and thicker oil (taking more power to crank) are more than the battery can handle. As it is, most diesels are a bit hard starting in the cold.

I live in Western NY and that has been my game plan also.

8 years out of a Korea tractor and battery is pretty good I'd count my blessings .

Right at 12v, down from 12.75 before. I ran the test for at least
15 sec and the voltage held at 10. I checked my boat batteries
at 200A and 10v, but since this was a diesel I thought I'd kick it
up to 300. I use Rotella T full syn 5W-40 and had the clutch
pushed in while cranking. Agree on glow plugs sucking on the
battery but you can't help that.

I can't do any cell testing as it is a sealed battery and has some
special kind of internals to prevent vibration damage and all that.

The www has a site telling what all is in the battery. It's not a
piece of junk by any means.

One thing I didn't think of was a couple of days ago I was
running the fan with the heater on the whole time. That could
have made a difference in just how much the battery was able to
charge. Don't remember the alternator output and to boot the
tractor had been sitting for several weeks in the cold and I wasn't
running PTO rpms, about half that or less.

Today I charged it till my Schumacher 10 amp charger registered
2 amps, when it turned on the green charged light, and then put
it on a trickle charger. Will give it a go a couple of days from
now and see what happens.

Thanks for all the replies.

Oh and for the Korean knocks another mentioned, don't knock
it. The brand is Branson and I bought it after I shopped all the
popular colors and would do it again. The model is 6530C with
a Cummins naturally aspired 4 cyl 3.3(Liter) NA engine......0.046
gal per hp per hour, built by Komatsu heavy equipment in Japan.
In case you never heard of them, next time you are on a large
construction site, look around and you will usually see them and
Caterpillar side by side. The tractor is built by Kukje heavy
equipment in S. Korea. The thing is built like a tank.

Mark

Mark, if you still showed 12v after load test, I would give it a couple more strikes before I called it out. Might have just been circumstances this time. But, do let us know how it turns out.

Dick ND

Yeah, that is why I posted about it. Never had this brand before
and it's said to be designed for long life in rugged use situations.

This is the first time it let me down and that's why I thought
maybe it's time to replace it.

However, the 300 amps dropping only 2.75 volts in the process
says to me that the battery isn't sulphated up and as you said
ought to be good for another couple of rounds. With a gear
reduction starter and only 200 cu in, with 5w oil, I doubt the
thing would draw anywhere near 300 a.

Thanks for your (and others) replies.

Mark

We just bought a new Korean car. Least I think it is. Hyundai?

Never owned a "little car" before. When I get out of the Pickup and into the little car I feel like I am setting on the ground.

But it got 41.9 MPG the other day on a 2 hour drive.

Or I could have driven the pickup at 16 MPG?

I dont knock the foreign stuff.

American needs to see it as a challenge to build stuff that performs.

Gene

(quoted from post at 17:01:33 01/08/15) Down "heah" where it's nice and cozy, it was 15F this am and had to move some hay. My 2007 65 hp diesel had the glow plugs doing their thing and when the light went out I hit the starter and it just grunted and all that. I had moved hay just a couple of days before and it ran for over half an hour so battery should have had a good charge.

After recharging the battery, from the cranking with no results, and putting a propane 30k BTU heater pointed at the little sucker with a 10 A battery charger (biggest I have) down to about 9A, after about half an hour it lit right off.

So, since the battery is an Atlas BX 110BL made in Korea and installed in '07 where and when the tractor was made, I looked up their specs and seems this is a pretty well engineered battery for long life and heavy duty service.

Ok fine. I finished my work and with the battery fully charged, I hooked up my trusty HF load checker. Initial voltage on the meter was 12.75 which is a good number for full charge where I Iive at STP. I cranked up the amps and since my starter is a reduction gear type like Chrysler used for many years, I stopped at 300 amperes. Terminal voltage was 10v under that load.

"Whadda ya think?" Think the battery is ok? I do. If it would have held 10 at 200 I would have been satisfied.

Thanks,
Mark

Click to expand...

A battery less than one year old and failing from a manufacturing defect is possible.
A cold battery produces less power and is slower to charge.
Putting around at low rpms with the fan and light on for less than an hour doesn't provide the battery with a chance to fully charge. In particular with a deep discharge from winter starting.
A battery tender and battery blanket is the solution for cold weather puttering around.
A 65HP 2007 Massey doesn't tell us the model or the alternator capacity.
A replacement battery should have the highest CCA and the highest amp hours that will cram into the battery box.
Cables and connections are always suspect. randomly polishing connections and replacing parts may solve that problem. In 10+ years and hundreds of starting problems here. There has only EVER been one person here that used a volt meter to find the faults. The rest just kept guessing as they were terrified of the voltmeter.
Glow plugs or not, the engine block heater needs to be plugged in. There is some pervasive concept out there plug in a block heater only if the engine will not start without it.

So does Korea make a full size pickup that gets 40
plus mpg?

check that your fan/alt belt is tight.