Page 41 - Newcom

Electrical Systems
Battery shut-off switches help reduce parasitic battery
loads from fridges and always-on components by
switching off the flow of current right at the battery.
(Photo: Jim Park)
that’s just the first steps.
“I strongly recommend coating the battery terminals
with some kind of a corrosion inhibitor,” Puff says. “The
locations that tend to get overlooked most often are the
ground cables and connection points going from the
engine to the frame. Also, the cabling and connections at
the starter.”
And while it’s painful to think about, corroded or even
chaffed cables should be replaced. It’s dirty work and the
cables are expensive, especially the big “00” cables carry-
ing all the current. If they continue to degrade, they will
eventually take down the batteries, too.
Your initial repair bill will easily double or quadruple
if you require new batteries along with the cables. Pay
me now or pay me later…
When you’re finished your battery inspection and
clean-up, make sure you tighten the battery hold-downs.
Vibration is as big a killer of batteries as corrosion or
undercharging. You don’t want four expensive batteries
rattling around in the battery box.
And finally, consider that if you have one bad battery
in a group of four, the three remaining batteries will do
what they can to pick up the slack. This places additional
stress on the good batteries. You probably won’t notice
it at first, but over time, one dead battery will irreparably
damage the others due to the deeper discharge cycles.
If you discover a dead battery, check the condition of
the others before bolting in the new one. Three weak
batteries will quickly take down the new one. Before you
scrap the bad battery, try to find out what caused the
failure. You don’t want the same thing to happen to the
replacement battery. TT
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