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What's your hoe doing?

Swetz

Swetz

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
1,370
Location
NJ/PA
Occupation
Electric & Gas Company
Charging a frozen battery is outright dangerous...

My boss tells me to go outside and jump start a truck. I go out with the pickup truck and a startall (well before the modern day jump packs, this thing is a engine driven high amp charging unit to charge and jump start diesel engines). I put the cables on the truck, of course after removing the drivers step. She no start! So, I leave the startall on the truck for about 10 min. I come back out, climb in the cab, and turn the key...only to be welcomed to the sound of a great explosion. I saw plastic flying out from the side of the truck...You guessed it, unbeknownst to be, the battery was frozen, and wasn't happy about being charged, and let me know! Well, after cleaning my skivvies, I was unhurt because the battery was in a location that was kinda under the truck, so no acid or plastic hit me. 2 batteries later, the truck fired up. Winter time and dead batteries = frozen!
 
Swetz

Swetz

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
1,370
Location
NJ/PA
Occupation
Electric & Gas Company
edgephoto said:
You can also get battery warming blankets. They help with getting full CCA out of them in really cold weather.
Click to expand...

Many OE car manufacturers actually put a blanket around the battery from the factory. Not electrical, most times. Problem is many "mechanics" take them off when they change the battery, and toss them.
 
NH575E

NH575E

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Messages
1,188
Location
North, FL
Occupation
Retired Machinist
Swetz said:
Charging a frozen battery is outright dangerous...

My boss tells me to go outside and jump start a truck. I go out with the pickup truck and a startall (well before the modern day jump packs, this thing is a engine driven high amp charging unit to charge and jump start diesel engines). I put the cables on the truck, of course after removing the drivers step. She no start! So, I leave the startall on the truck for about 10 min. I come back out, climb in the cab, and turn the key...only to be welcomed to the sound of a great explosion. I saw plastic flying out from the side of the truck...You guessed it, unbeknownst to be, the battery was frozen, and wasn't happy about being charged, and let me know! Well, after cleaning my skivvies, I was unhurt because the battery was in a location that was kinda under the truck, so no acid or plastic hit me. 2 batteries later, the truck fired up. Winter time and dead batteries = frozen!
Click to expand...

This can happen frozen or not when you fast charge a battery and create a spark over it. Most likely one of the cable connections arced and set off the fumes.

Had one blow in my face years ago in the middle of summer. It was caused by an old battery charger that had a volt meter in it. Meter caused a spark when I disconnected the cables. Needless to say the volt meter got disconnected after that. I have never before or since seen a battery charger with an analog volt meter. Amp meter yes. Volt meter might be okay as long as it was switched off before connecting or disconnecting. This stupid thing read voltage as soon as the cable was connected.
 
Swetz

Swetz

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
1,370
Location
NJ/PA
Occupation
Electric & Gas Company
I have also seen a battery blow up from overcharge...This one goes back to the good ole days when the regulator was not computer controlled. They were a separate part of the system, and failed often, although they were not expensive to replace. In this case the regulator failed and was overcharging the vehicle. I will never forget the odder that the battery made, like rotten eggs. This was like 40 years ago too.

In the case of the frozen battery, I was not overcharging the battery. As I was told, sometimes the battery plates touch when the battery freezes making a dead short, causing the creation of gas, when the batteries are charged.
 
T-town

T-town

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2014
Messages
354
Location
NE PA
Occupation
retired !
Sweet !! Million $$ view for sure.

Has me wondering....
..where do these folks get their water?? ... is this a residential build site?
 
K

Keith Merrell

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2020
Messages
237
Location
Cottonwood, AZ
T-town said:
Sweet !! Million $$ view for sure.

Has me wondering....
..where do these folks get their water?? ... is this a residential build site?
Click to expand...

This job was on city water and sewer. I did another job in Sedona last year near Bear Mountain which was out in the forest and they had a well. We are on a well here in cottonwood and its about 300' deep. And yes that was a custom home. Land up there is really pricey!!!:eek:
 
gasifier

gasifier

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Messages
127
Location
St. Lawrence River Valley, N.Y.
Keith Merrell said:
View attachment 252233
This was the jobsite where I had my first real job once I got my backhoe and started my LLC. That was 2 years ago I was 16 then. It ended up being a pretty fun job, I did the site work and helped the owner builder frame it. I learned a lot.
Click to expand...

Nice machine there Keith! Happy for you. I use to own a 2009 Deere 310J with a cab with heat and a/c. I got a bunch of work done with it in about 400 hours or so and sold it for almost what I had into it. Lost a few hundred bucks I guess. But they are very nice machines.
 
gasifier

gasifier

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Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Messages
127
Location
St. Lawrence River Valley, N.Y.
I spent 3 hours in the CAT 426 this morning. 3-1/2 yesterday. We must have received 14-15” of snow with that storm. Cleaned everything up, pushing banks back, scraping driveways down best I could. Good shape now. We are expecting 2-4” more tomorrow. So I figured I might as well get things ready for the next big one. Hopefully it won’t come along at all!:cool:

I wish my backhoe was working with dirt instead of this.
 
K

Keith Merrell

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2020
Messages
237
Location
Cottonwood, AZ
gasifier said:
Nice machine there Keith! Happy for you. I use to own a 2009 Deere 310J with a cab with heat and a/c. I got a bunch of work done with it in about 400 hours or so and sold it for almost what I had into it. Lost a few hundred bucks I guess. But they are very nice machines.
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty nice. If mine had the cab and an extendahoe I would have kept it. I was doing a lot of footings, trenching, septics, concrete prep, and brush clearing for new residential construction out here so I opted for the Mini and CTL in the end. That was a 2007 310J 6600 hrs when I bought it in Feb 2020 for $17,600. I then sold it with 6980 hrs this most recent summer for $30,000!! But I had taken it to the dealer to get aux hydraulics plumbed for $5800. How are you liking the 426?
 
gasifier

gasifier

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Messages
127
Location
St. Lawrence River Valley, N.Y.
Keith Merrell said:
That sounds pretty nice. If mine had the cab and an extendahoe I would have kept it. I was doing a lot of footings, trenching, septics, concrete prep, and brush clearing for new residential construction out here so I opted for the Mini and CTL in the end. That was a 2007 310J 6600 hrs when I bought it in Feb 2020 for $17,600. I then sold it with 6980 hrs this most recent summer for $30,000!! But I had taken it to the dealer to get aux hydraulics plumbed for $5800. How are you liking the 426?
Click to expand...

So far, so good. Cab with heat. Extend-a-hoe.

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/caterpillar-426-series-ii.92631/

Nice for winter work up here. Blew one hydraulic line on it. Replaced it. Good to go. Many of the hydraulic lines have been replaced. But, I’ve only owned it for a few weeks, so we will see.
 
Last edited:
S

Spud_Monkey

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2018
Messages
6,530
Location
Your six
Occupation
Decommissioned
Swetz said:
Charging a frozen battery is outright dangerous...

My boss tells me to go outside and jump start a truck. I go out with the pickup truck and a startall (well before the modern day jump packs, this thing is a engine driven high amp charging unit to charge and jump start diesel engines). I put the cables on the truck, of course after removing the drivers step. She no start! So, I leave the startall on the truck for about 10 min. I come back out, climb in the cab, and turn the key...only to be welcomed to the sound of a great explosion. I saw plastic flying out from the side of the truck...You guessed it, unbeknownst to be, the battery was frozen, and wasn't happy about being charged, and let me know! Well, after cleaning my skivvies, I was unhurt because the battery was in a location that was kinda under the truck, so no acid or plastic hit me. 2 batteries later, the truck fired up. Winter time and dead batteries = frozen!
Click to expand...
Frozen batteries come from batteries that aren't charge enough, as voltage drops in a battery the temperature it freezes at increases. A battery fully discharged can freeze at 32 degrees, a battery at 20% depth of discharge can handle down to 40 below zero C/F before freezing.
 
Willie B

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,061
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
Spud_Monkey said:
Frozen batteries come from batteries that aren't charge enough, as voltage drops in a battery the temperature it freezes at increases. A battery fully discharged can freeze at 32 degrees, a battery at 20% depth of discharge can handle down to 40 below zero C/F before freezing.
Click to expand...
The dozer batteries were manufactured just over 6 years ago Placed in service almost 6 years ago. They live in hot or cold as the weather brings. It hadn't been started in two months. It turned over a bit, but didn't start. I charged them on two different chargers, then tested. Neither was delivering its rated CCA. One is 100 under, the other is 150 under. Neither was frozen, both took charge.

I don't know if I've ever actually charged a frozen battery. Lots of times I've attempted to charge a dead battery, without success. I can't say I've heard of one exploding because it was frozen, though, I've never tried over a 10 amp rate.
 
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