Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/588093
32 commercial carrier journal | october 2015 W inter looms large, and with it comes the threat of failed battery systems, stranded drivers, ruined schedules and lost reve- nue. While battery behavior never can be predicted with 100 percent accu- racy, taking proactive steps now can minimize their risk of failure. Gale Kimbrough, engineering and technical services manager for Inter- state Batteries, says carriers should ensure their technicians know how to conduct proper battery testing prior to starting a fleetwide testing program. The key, he stresses, is to under- stand that such a program is only a starting point and that technicians must understand and determine each battery's value of state of charge and capacity prior to the onset of cold weather. Do the battery math Kimbrough cites a standard heavy-du- ty four-battery system rated at 800 cold-cranking amps each. If a conduc- tance tester placed across the entire battery group yields a good result of 2,720 total CCA – or 85 percent of 3,200 CCA – at 12.85 volts, the initial assessment may be that the batteries are in good shape. But this may not be the case; one weak battery could be reducing the total conductance value, or all could have an equal conductance value of 85 percent. Voltage readings also are important: 12.6 volts on a flooded lead-acid bat- tery is considered about 75 percent of the state-of-charge level, and even less on an absorbed glass mat battery. Battery training day Also critical is training technicians to understand voltage differences between different types of lead-acid batteries, since AGM batteries at a full state of charge normally have higher voltage readings than flooded batteries. "That's why when AGM batter- ies are simply selected as a flooded lead-acid battery using a conduc- tance tester, they may illustrate a good result when they are actually bad, due to that reduced internal resistance value," Kimbrough says. Also, technicians using testers must select or differentiate between an AGM pure-lead battery and an AGM alloyed-lead battery, he says. That's because pure-lead batteries normally produce a higher conductance value. Easier to replace them? Many fleet managers prefer simply to replace older batteries before cold weather hits, and Kimbrough says this can be a good strategy. "Considering that it costs hundreds in focus: batteries Get ahead of the cold-weather maintenance curve By jack RoBeRts It's nearly winter – are your batteries ready? Carrier's PowerRush Platinum AGM battery is engineered to retain more power in low temperatures to provide high starting power and deep cycling ability. Deka's Intimidator AGM battery line is built with a tightly compressed structure and a reinforced internal design that helps protect against intense vibration. Exide's Extreme Cycler 200 battery is a bridge between the company's pre-existing Group 31 product lines and its valve-regulated Road- Force AGM-200 battery. Interstate's 31-AGM7 battery features the company's Pure Matrix Power, a 99.99 percent pure nonalloy lead in ultra-thin plates.