Do I need to "top off" the battery if it is fully charged?

5% AH charge amperage to 15 volts for top charging. Let amperage continue to raise voltage to 16.0 for equalization. A 31 makes for a poor excuse of a cyclable battery. Poor quality batteries eat power like peanuts. If you buy a good quality battery you will be pleased when you experience the Charge Efficiency Ratio. High voltage regular charging poisons the negative plates. Save fifty dollars on a golf car battery and spend two hundred more dollars fighting it generator charging over it's off grid lifetime. Good battery management is cheapskate battery management.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Maybe it's because I have twenty-three grand worth of batteries at risk that I am so sensitive about this. What some folks consider "chump-change" means eating tortillas and salt for a month or having a normal diet.

The formula DEMANDS 5% of ampere hour amperage and it demands starting with a full as possible battery and it demands that charging cease when voltage rises to 15.0 volts. For benefit of some I can repeat TWICE PER YEAR on an otherwise floated battery, and as often as once every two weeks on an off grid battery that is cycled daily and manages to have a cell that slumps specific gravity despite trying your best to arrive at full charge daily.

I would be happy as heck if a battery came along and had fewer demands than a Hungarian Movie Actress. I would MUCH prefer to spend my time elsewhere. But the way things stand now if I ignore the few minutes a week needed to keep the monsters happy I end up having to scramble for money to cover the cost of premature battery death. It's a free-world. Do as you wish. I do not criticize people who destroy their batteries by neglect and remain silent about it.

Is 15.0V for top charge? What do you suggest for an equalize charge? 16.0V? landyacht318 and I were using 16.0V for the screwy 31 and the T-1275. Landyacht had to go 15.4V to top charge on his US battery group 31.

It's sensitive. It's cries a lot if not hugged properly (injector lines not alternately tightened. It stamps it feet (noise and vibration). And it can play the greatest cold-shoulder game (no start) on the face of the earth. But for it's size the motor is a hot tamale. It adopted me. Yotta see the Magnetti Marelli starter motor. It insists it is a Stradivarius and if you hit a sour note taking care of it, it'll screech like a Mexican fiddle.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Alternative charging sources. The Gould is a 24 volt charger. The 50DN Delco is also a 24 volt charger. Also I picked up a 200 foot spool of 300 MCM space shuttle surplus wire at Lockheed. Teflon. Silver plated. The lugs were pricey though about eight dollars each. Twelve cells is 24 volts. The twin cells have a pair of 15" X 1" X 4" paralleling buss bars that I can hacksaw to isolate a bad cell. Then I will have a single 24 volt string, and a cherry picked 12 volt string left.

56 volt regulators for alternators are pretty scarce. Push comes to shove, I can rob the Niehoff off the bus and substitute it for the Delco on the Lombordini. Air cooled and N-O-I-S-Y But she gotta the nice lines...

If she's Italian, she's got the Fix It Again Tony syndrome.

My father owned a Fiat, the day he sold it was one of the happiest days of my life. Broke 3 clutch cables in it's lifetime, the distributor had the ability to throw itself out of timing, drive gear would somehow disengage from the gear on the crank driving it, permanent camber alignment problem that no amount of custom work could fix, and a never ending nightmare getting spare parts for it.

I doubt I will ever again own something Italian for transportation needs.

Alternative charging sources. The Gould is a 24 volt charger. The 50DN Delco is also a 24 volt charger. Also I picked up a 200 foot spool of 300 MCM space shuttle surplus wire at Lockheed. Teflon. Silver plated. The lugs were pricey though about eight dollars each. Twelve cells is 24 volts. The twin cells have a pair of 15" X 1" X 4" paralleling buss bars that I can hacksaw to isolate a bad cell. Then I will have a single 24 volt string, and a cherry picked 12 volt string left.

56 volt regulators for alternators are pretty scarce. Push comes to shove, I can rob the Niehoff off the bus and substitute it for the Delco on the Lombordini. Air cooled and N-O-I-S-Y But she gotta the nice lines...

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Or 3300 amp hours @ 24 volts. ..

Thanks. So you're running @ 24v? Why not higher?

Jim, your AGM's will lavish you with love if you float them at 13.4 volts. Like an Amazon parrot they hate being ignored and will pull all their feathers out.

double post

JiminDenver wrote:
So rework the portable to do what you want it to do. Take the controller off of the panels and replace it with a inexpensive but proven controller that can be set to do it. Place that near the batteries with as thick as the terminals can take wire to the battery. To the panels run heavier than the kit had. I've heard of some using heavy duty extension cord or somewhere on here there is a link to a little spool of 10 gauge. It's not UV resistant, then again portables don't see the kind of sunlight a mounted system does.

What I'm trying to say is solar panels are solar panels, it's the controller that allows you to tell it what to do and get whatever maintenance charge you what. At that level the controllers are very inexpensive, I'm sure someone can suggest one.

I am the first person to admit I have a LOT to learn about the care and feeding of my new bank. That said, I have never been fan of leaving a unused battery on a charger for storage. I have always charged my FLA grp 27 3 days before a trip, solar or generator on the trip and three days back on the charger after the trip. Between trips it is disconnected and put on the charger once a month. It's 4 years old and I wish the new ones were so easy.

For a travel trailer, all of the above mentioned is spot on and good protocol for your batteries.

So rework the portable to do what you want it to do. Take the controller off of the panels and replace it with a inexpensive but proven controller that can be set to do it. Place that near the batteries with as thick as the terminals can take wire to the battery. To the panels run heavier than the kit had. I've heard of some using heavy duty extension cord or somewhere on here there is a link to a little spool of 10 gauge. It's not UV resistant, then again portables don't see the kind of sunlight a mounted system does.

What I'm trying to say is solar panels are solar panels, it's the controller that allows you to tell it what to do and get whatever maintenance charge you what. At that level the controllers are very inexpensive, I'm sure someone can suggest one.

I am the first person to admit I have a LOT to learn about the care and feeding of my new bank. That said, I have never been fan of leaving a unused battery on a charger for storage. I have always charged my FLA grp 27 3 days before a trip, solar or generator on the trip and three days back on the charger after the trip. Between trips it is disconnected and put on the charger once a month. It's 4 years old and I wish the new ones were so easy.