Chorehorse charging question

[Jordan Baker]

The Chorehorse is all restored with all new fluids.

Yes I did make sure the air vent is open.

I do have to say that the battery was charged up. I did not have a volt meter to check the battery as it was being charged. The setup was on my Wire3 truck and running through the charging board as well.

[David Dunlop]

Hi Jordan.

The first thing I would check is if the Governor in the Chorehorse is working properly. It is one of those internal, set at the factory, do not play with items, designed to keep the Chorehorse running at a constant 2,200 rpm as the charging load varies.

Best way to test is start the Chorehorse and let it warm up with no load attached and put an rpm gauge on the end of the shaft to see what you get. Then repeat with a battery hooked up that needs charging and see if the Chorehorse is able to compensate via the governor to maintain the 2,200 rpm.

If that all checks out, you will need to monitor Ammeter readings to actual charging performance while the Chorehorse is running. To do this you will need a good quality hydrometer, ideally one properly scaled and also having red/yellow green warning sections on the scale. You cannot rely on a voltmeter to do this check. A 12-volt battery at 20% capacity will still show 12-volts output, but try and power anything with that battery and it will be dead in minutes, if not seconds.

Take a good 12-volt battery that is showing a relatively consistent hydrometer reading across all cells as close to midrange as possible. Low yellow to high red zone on the scale. The battery needs enough power to start the Chorehorse. Leave the caps loose on the cells. With the Chorehorse running, adjust the output for maximum deflection to the right on the ammeter and monitor the meter until you see the needle centre, then check the cell readings with the hydrometer. You should see a noticeable improvement and the Chorehorse rpm should have remained relatively constant in the process.

David

[rob love]

I have seen two people reference the hydrometers in this thread. There are now smart chargers, pulse chargers, the portable load bank testers (aka the toaster), inductive ammeters, and a host of other testing and charging devices. In my opinion, there is nothing that gives you an immediate condition report on a battery like the hydrometer. It will also tell you, with the first test, if a battery is worthwhile even trying to charge. Pulse chargers can remove a certain amount of sulphation in a battery, but when you have 5 cells in the green/yellow, and one way down in the red with black/brown electrolyte, it aint coming back.



When I was in Afghanistan the first time, I had a great team of civilian heavy duty mechanics. I remember having to show some of them how a hydrometer worked.