Battery draining during plowing

[GotOne]

DO you guys have problems with the battery draining down and cutting power to the winch/plow when in use? It even shuts down the unit at times. I have a newer battery, but when my son does 3 or 4 city driveways, it drains it down. Have started to put the battery tender on after use and it helps for a while. Didn't charge up after use when I first bought the battery and now I think might have weakened the battery.

I have a 400 Arctic Cat and a 2500 Warn winch.

[BriGuy88]

I haven't experienced anything like that when I use my plow. Any issues with the wheeler charging the battery in general?

[GotOne]

I didn't really notice any problems until my son starting plowing half of the neighbors:) He's making the money and I end up paying the expenses! That's going to change! I going to put a meter on it and see what's going on. Any other ideas?

[BobT]

I can believe that. I assume your plow uses a winch or other electric motor to raise. Your charging system is nowhere near capable of keeping up with that high load demand. Winches take a lot of power to operate.

Anyone that uses a plow with powered raise should put a battery charger on their battery immediately after use to bring that battery back to full charge.

[Dave S]

Exactly Bob.

Be sure to use low range also to ensure you're getting a higher RPM to maximize the output of the charging system.

[toomanyjigs]

have a tommy gate on the back of the 3/4 ton and you have to run two batterys in series one on each side of the engine bay your alt. cannot support the load alone once you have it setup the second battery acts like a power cap.like a car stereo for your amp to run subs when it wants power its always there intantly in my case to lift 2000lbs one full ton.-jigs

[GotOne]

Thanks for getting back to me. Do you guys think I damaged my new battery by not charging it right after use? We probably used it for about 2 months without charging right after use. I can't remember what it's called when you let the battery sit without charging.....something happens that decreases the battery effectiveness to fully charge.

[BobT]

The biggest risk was the possibility of freezing. If the battery sits at low charge the freezing point of the fluid comes up and so it could freeze. This can definitely have ill effect on battery life.

Despite the effects of freezing, batteries are just not very happy to live a life of deep cycling too many times. In a normal vehicle application, your battery is really not used much at all once the vehicle is running. The charging system is the power supply for all your electrical needs plus it has to deliver a little more to replenish the battery from the work of starting your vehicle.

When you use your system in an application where the charging system isn't capable of keeping up to the load, your battery has to make up the difference. Since your charging system isn't keeping up, your battery too is not getting replenished and so it's capacity is consumed.

Automotive starting batteries are not designed to be deep-cycled. They don't like to be gradually drawn down to a low charge state and then recharged repeatedly. Deep-cycle batteries were developed to handle deep-cycling but they are not very happy to be used for short-burst high-current loads like the work of starting a vehicle.

What I'm trying to tell you is that your really asking more from your battery than it is designed to do and it will have a detrimental effect on its life cycle. Under the circumstances the best thing you can do is recharge that battery as soon as you can after each use. I would not recommend using a trickly charger for that purpose either. Trickle charge works well for deep-cycle batteries but starting batteries also prefer to be recharged quickly. The longer a starting battery is left in a low charge state the harder it is on the battery. Under normal use when you start your vehicle (car, ATV, boat) the charging system immediately goes to work to recharge your battery. That's the best thing you can do to keep that battery as long as possible under your conditions of use.

[Ryan_V]

I put a "maintainer" on my atv that I plow with. it's made a HUGE difference!!! it stay plugged in at all times when the machine isn't in use. it's a 1 amp or so slow charge, then when it's full, it will float it. Pick one up for around $40 at any motorsports store and then you hook it onto the battery, stick the end out from under the seat, and plug 'er in when you get done!!

[motley man]

Have 2003 Artic Cat 400 with winch plow and have no problem. Could be alternator is not putting out correct voltage. Check it with volt meter.

[BobT]

It's not likely a voltage issue so much as a current (amperage) issue. Assuming your charging system is functional, it's a matter of mathematics. The charging system is capable of delivering "x" amount of current over time (power) and your starter, winch, ignition, lights, etc. all demand power and the colder it is the more power they'll demand. Bearings, bushings, lubricants, etc. are stiffer when it gets colder. When the power demand from all the electronics exceeds your charging system, your battery is being drained instead of maintained. I'm not aware of any stock ATV's that have charging systems designed to handle that much load. Not that they don't exist but I'm guessing yours does not have it.

[backlash 1]

Sounds like something is wrong. I have an 08 cat 400 with winch plow. I usually plow at night with lights on for up to two hours at a time. Battery always stays fully charged.

[timjones]

I have never had an issue with my Ranger when plowing. I have the Glacier II plow and a 4000 pound Warn winch. Plow a lot of snow out on the lake for moving the wheel house around and in my driveway and have never had to put it on a maintainer. There have been times when it sat in the cold for a couple of days after plowing before starting again and fires right up.

[Hafnutz]

Nothing wrong with your machine at all. You are using up the battery power faster than your small charging system can replace it. Common problem when plowing, just ask the same question at any of the major atv forums. You can use a car battery mounted on your rear rack to provide enough power. As long as it's a 12 volt battery it won't hurt a thing it will just provide more capacity. Same thing you do when you add dual batteries to a plow truck. You could recharge that as needed with a regular charger.

[GotOne]

Thanks all. Went on some atv forums and some seem to have problems and others don't, just like some of you. I'm using a battery tender on it now after each use. I'll see how that works. Seems logical that it drains faster than it can charge when using the plow/winch.

[Dave]

After plowing a straight path and then back up to plow another line, it might help to not raise the plow blade completely up, too. Raise it only a couple inches in order to use less power from the battery during each up and down cycle.

[eyehunter]

Bob T....you seem very knowlegable on this topic. I was wondering what you thought of the battery maintainers mentioned earlier in this thread. It's basically a trickle charger isn't it? Earlier you said that it's best not to use a trickle charge and to charge it up quickly instead. My neighbor just put a maintainer on his machine and has been hounding me to put one on mine (we both plow snow quite a bit). Just wondering your thoughts on it.

Thanks

[BobT]

I'm basing my information from battery manufacturer's HSOforum white papers and recommended methods. Most (not all) manufacturers seem to be changing their views. In the past they seemed to lean toward trickle charging, especially for deep cycle batteries but more resently those that I've visited seem to recommend allowing batteries to remain at low charge as little as practical even for deep cycle batteries. The recommendations seem to state that the battery should be recharged as soon as possible after every use so they are not stored in a partially charged state. They also seem to be leaning more away from the slow trickle charge method. Most of the data I've read seems to indicate that the best way to maintain a starting battery is to recharge it immediately after use as quickly as possible.

Here's what I've experienced using trickle chargers but first I'd like to point out that my experience could be the result of faulty charging equipment. I use a Schumacher automatic charger. To my knowledge these are a pretty good quality charger but I haven't really researched them either. It was given to me and has served my purpose.

I used to come home from fishing and put the charger on my deep cycle at the 2A deep cycle automatic setting. According to the manual it should be safe to just leave the charger connected because the charger will automatically stop when the battery reaches full charge. As a side note, they still have a disclaimer that they don't recommend leaving the charger connected all the time.

I began to notice that my deep cycle battery seemed to be losing water fairly regularly. Typically this is caused by evaporation and can be accelerated by overcharging as this will cause the battery to heat up. I started keeping an eye on things and discovered that when using the 2A setting, even at a full charge the battery will still draw a small amount of current from the charger and it happened that this was enough to fool the unit into thinking the battery was not at full charge. I discovered this by switching the charger to the 15A deep cycle automatic setting and it immediately showed full charge. When I switched back to the 2A setting it showed full charge for a few seconds and then the green light went out again.

Batteries will always put a small load on a charger even at full charge and maybe my charger's status circuitry is too sensitive to it. For this reason I am a little leary of trickle chargers.

[eyehunter]

Any thoughts on the battery maintainers Bob?? I guess I haven't done the research that you have on the topic, just wondering what your opinion was on the maintainers. Do you view them as you would a trickle charger??

[BobT]

I guess I'm not sure what a maintainer is or how it works. Haven't looked into them. Sorry.

[eyehunter]

It's just a small unit that you mount to your wheeler or boat that is connected to the battery and has a standard plug on it like a block heater on your truck. When not in use you just plug it in with an extension cord and it slowly charges the battery. I guess I see them as being the same as putting a trickle charger on it.

[BobT]

Don't know without doing some research.

[eyehunter]

That's ok. Thanks for your input on this subject though. I learned something from it, and will charge my battery now everytime I plow snow. Thanks.

[minneman]

EyeHunter, I bought a maintainer at L&M DL couple years ago, schumaker brand. $20 -$30

It came with the seperate flat 2 connector as well as the larger aligator clips, I permanently hooked the flat 2 to the battery on the atv so all I have to do is lift the seat and plug in. I also use it to keep my deep cycles up during the winter, and recharge my vex style batteries when needed. Great little charger.

[BobT]

Do they have circuitry to protect from discaharging your battery if you leave it connected without plugging it in to a 120vac supply? A lot of battery charges don't have this kind of protection. On-board chargers do and that's why it's safe to leave them connected to your batteries even though they aren't plugged in.