rjxj wrote:
So....I went back and read your first post and then the second post is Mr Mex's hydrometer pic. So, if you start over and get back to sq one and get the SG right in both batteries. Then do your normal use. Forget the amps, just go by the voltmeter and say it gets to 60 percent SOC 12.20. Turn your PM on and let it do it's thing until you hit float. Your SG should be up. If it's not, then the voltage was never high enough? Right?
That's where I was in this whole thing when I started. It would take 2 1/2 days or more to fully charge and raise the SG. I was hitting the boost button too. That's when the dread set in and I bought the quick charge and did a full charge on both batteries in about 8 hours. AND as one of these guys told me "remember that those are new batts and will take several cycles before they perform" and he was absolutely right. After a dozen or more cycles they hold up better and SG comes up faster.
Start over, look at that smallest wire in your battery set up. I dont want to go on about it but if it's 6 g it may matter. Then use it as is and watch your SG after each charge. I just posted about my gr 27 trolling motor battery and it was at what anyone would think was 95 % soc yet the sg was only 1.248.
dont top charge, just use the converter. If it wont do what you want then you need a real battery charger.
Maybe the top charger you were using was on too long or something and boiled out water. There are only so many pieces to this and the hydrometer picture was number one.
yeah i need to take these batts down to a low soc... something i've never done... and with my "normal use" that could take over a week, so i'll have to hit them hard for a couple days, take some sg readings and such, and start over like you say. i've yet to put the 75amper to the test either, so here goes!
and even if the pm does manage to somehow get the sg levels up, it will take about 8 1/2 hours in abs mode to do so, so either way i'm looking at another charger. as i've said, shore power is a luxury seldom available to me, so i gotta get the charge times down and the charge soc up at the same time, without cooking these bad boys.
i really need to see what kind of amps these things will accept just after the pm drops down to abs mode. i'll do what you say and get the soc down, take sg readings, do a boost with the pm, take sg readings, do an abs with the 40amp peak (at 14.6 or 14.8, i forget), take a few sg readings throughout, and then do a float with the pm.
problem is, i've yet to see the peak switch into an obvious abs mode (or float mode)... instead it just plugs along at the 14.6? or 14.8?v level, and then goes haywire at 30 amps. so it could get tricky. i'm thinking it's Vabs set point may very well be the 14.6 or 14.8v setting that it likes to hold at. either way, i'll do my best to keep track of charge times and charge levels throughout. but the whole process shouldn't take more than about 8 hours like you discovered.
