I was reading Ali's own hijack thread on battery chargers, i'll share my experience...
Several weeks ago went to drive the 74 to work, went to start it and nothing. This thing is 24V so a little more involved then a simple jump start. When I bought it the batteries were in bad shape, mismatched, different size, and the low side was overcharged and puking all over the inner fender! From what our cruiser buddies in Canada report AGM's and 24V really don't work that good together - so stayed wet cell. Went with a group 27 commercial workaholic. Apparently the lead plates in these are glued top and bottom to the case as opposed to just the bottom - makes for a more vibration resistant durable battery. Plus being commercial they have a bit more reserve capacity. Along with replacing the batteries had some new cables made, and installed new terminals. Used 2G welding cable (nice and flexible) with lugs on both ends attached to the military style connectors - there NICE!
To the real reason of this post: Battery Charger - I wanted a way to plug in a charger to maintain the batteries . I found a 2-bank charger made by Battery Tender It comes with some eye terminal pig tails that can be permanently installed to the battery and quickly removed, or changed out to alligator style clamp. This charger is great for anyone running dual batteries - basically two chargers in one. There was another maintenance charger i was looking at that had a pulse mode to bring dead batteries back to life, it only did a single battery. With the quick connectors you can charge batteries on multiple vehicles.
Several weeks ago went to drive the 74 to work, went to start it and nothing. This thing is 24V so a little more involved then a simple jump start. When I bought it the batteries were in bad shape, mismatched, different size, and the low side was overcharged and puking all over the inner fender! From what our cruiser buddies in Canada report AGM's and 24V really don't work that good together - so stayed wet cell. Went with a group 27 commercial workaholic. Apparently the lead plates in these are glued top and bottom to the case as opposed to just the bottom - makes for a more vibration resistant durable battery. Plus being commercial they have a bit more reserve capacity. Along with replacing the batteries had some new cables made, and installed new terminals. Used 2G welding cable (nice and flexible) with lugs on both ends attached to the military style connectors - there NICE!
To the real reason of this post: Battery Charger - I wanted a way to plug in a charger to maintain the batteries . I found a 2-bank charger made by Battery Tender It comes with some eye terminal pig tails that can be permanently installed to the battery and quickly removed, or changed out to alligator style clamp. This charger is great for anyone running dual batteries - basically two chargers in one. There was another maintenance charger i was looking at that had a pulse mode to bring dead batteries back to life, it only did a single battery. With the quick connectors you can charge batteries on multiple vehicles.
