discount forklift battery

"Karl Townsend" fired this volley in news:4a893a19$0$79711$ snipped-for-privacy@auth.newsreader.octanews.com:

What's a fortune, Karl? Our Jap forklift pack swaps out brand new from the factory for $1200. Considering the last one held up ten years, that's not too bad.

LLoyd

Check on ebay. I had to replace batteries in a wheelchair and found some still expensive but a heck of a lot cheaper than the local guys deals there.

Yes, considering how much value one of those batteries has just as scrap lead, you can't expect them to be cheap. They do also last a long time.

Somehat off topic... What voltage do those buggers operate at? I always wondered if a trickle charger, the kind I use on my car or motorcycle could even keep up if the voltage was compatible.

Nationwide there "Batteries Plus" which may have some small selection of Forklift and Electric Truck batteries, and "Interstate Batteries" distributors that will have some forklift batteries in addition to car/ truck batteries.

But otherwise I think you might have better luck just looking in the yellow pages for "forklift batteries" to find a local dealer.

If they have what you need, an "Interstate Batteries" dealer is likely to be the cheapest. Otherwise there will be some forklift dealer markup involved, and they probably charge individual buyers who don't know how to shop around way more than they charge a warehouse with a dozen electric forklifts which has multiple regional dealers to bargain with.

With hundreds of pounds of lead, none of these will be cheap. Your old batteries have considerable scrap lead value, make sure they are part of the deal.

Tim.

I was told 1800 plus shipping last year. Didn't get a ship quote but $400 would be expected.

Karl

Mine's 12 volt, 36 volt is very common too. It pulls 50+ amps charging. I tried a farm heavy duty charger at first many years ago, didn't have enough power.

Karl

I am not an electrical guru, but I always thought that the charge was a result of the higher voltage going in VS the actual amperage... Thus the reason a trickle charger may take an entire day to recharge a standard bike or car battery if it is pretty low... I figured a small trickle charger might be able to handle a 12 volt forklift-size battery in a week or something similar presuming the "sitting still and not being used" discharge of the same battery was less than what was going into it.

Check on ebay. I had to replace batteries in a wheelchair and found some still expensive but a heck of a lot cheaper than the local guys deals there.

One offer at 1560 but the guy has a low rating

Karl

Mine is 24V, and the battery is 1,571# and 875AH. I charge mine with a little 10A charger and it will take several days to top up.

The "real" chargers for electric forklifts take three phase power and output 100A+ charge rates to recharge the battery in a shift.

"Joe AutoDrill" fired this volley in news:Dneim.132444$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe04.iad:

Joe, the problem with that is that a certain minimum current (I'll call it "leakage current", but that's not really an accurate description) is necessary to overcome electrolytic losses during charging.

An automotive trickle-type "maintainer" might work on, say, a 125AH battery, but the batteries in our lift are 600AH types (like big 6V diesel truck batteries). The plate areas are greater than a smaller battery's would be, and thus the "leakage current" is larger. I don't think a trickle charger of the ordinary type would work, even if you had a 36V version.

OTOH, our battery charger for the lift is "intelligent". It charges at maximum rate until it determines that the battery is fully charged, then switches to a pulsed maintenance rate which is supposed to break up sulphation on the plates, staying there unless or until it sees the voltage drop below the "charged" value.

The charger alone weighs about 300lb, and runs off 240V.

LLoyd

Last year metals prices were high, get a current quote, and look for a local supplier where you can pickup vs. have it shipped.

My Yale forkilt is 36 volt, charger is 208-240, 480 three phase. When I plug the battery in and start the charge it's just under 200 amp, goes down to around 100 amp before shut-off. My battery is 2600 pounds.

Forklift will pull 200 amps from the batt going across the driveway and it will hit 400 amp going up the slight incline to the doorway. ( with a 2000 pound load on the forks.)

Most new lifts I've seen are 36 or 48 volt, lower voltages seem to be a thing of the past. More volts = lower amps, therefore smaller wire and less copper.

I just sold my old 24 volt charger for 50 bucks, not much call for them it seems, took 3 months of ebay and craigs list to get rid of it.

I had my doubts on the battery but it did hold up to unload 24 tons of wood pellets off a truck into my lot then off the lot and into the warehouse on one charge.

Thank You, Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

Karl, What is it that this battery goes into. That looks like it would be for a walkie rider/ pallet jack. If so then you may want to look into four 12 volt deep cycle batteries. Wired up in a series- parallel circuit I have had these last a long time but that all depends on your application. You also say its dead, one cell or all? A repair may be another avenue for you.

Most are 36 volts or higher. 48 and 72 are both common

I use a golf cart charger for 36 volts. They are getting scarce as newe carts run 42 volts and up.

I've never heard of anything over 48V .. once you go past 50V you are past what the electical code considers low voltage and a whole new set of rules apply. A friend of mine works in the telecom business and he says on a nice hot sweaty day 48 volt will give you a nice shock.

Thank You, Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

Sam's Club golf cart batteries.

A few years back I bought a 48VDC electric Hyster at auction for nothing, because everyone wants propane for indoor use, and it had no charger, the charger having been sold with the 1st of 2 trucks. Now 48 volts also is what the phone company central office backup batteries used, and I found a surplus regulated 48VDC telecom power supply that could be adjusted up a bit to get a good charging voltage for the batteries. Plugged into a 120 VAC outlet this only provided about 20 amps at 48VDC, so it took days to charge that ton of lead, but since we used it only for short periods in the day, it worked fine. Sometimes you need zero emissions for indoor applications, but otherwise electric forklifts are like any electric vehicle, utterly uneconomical.

That ton of lead equaled a fuel tank for a few pints of hydrocarbon fuel, took hours to fill, wore out in a few years, and cost $1000s to replace. The only peculiar thing about the forklift application is that you like to have something that massive on the back of your chassis.