dead battery

Posts: 201

i had a dead battery on my roketa gk-28. i thought maby someone left something on so i recharged it. each day i went out to check it and everything was fine. after about the third day the battery was dead again. i pulled the battery and recharged it again. any suggestions....

Posts: 3348 · *Last edited by Talonman on Mon May 28, 2007 10:47 pm; edited 1 time in total*

Yes, My 2004 150cc Talon has a constant battery draw, even when the buggy is not running. I baught a new battery when I realized the YTX12-BS rated at 180CCA, was not going to be enouigh juce for starting the higher compression 4-valve head. The ETX20L rated at 270CCA is my current battery and works well.

I installed my battery before the Winter set in, and come spring she was dead. I told the boy's at Car Quest and they told me it was common for any ORV to have a slow constant draw on the battery. They recomended I buy some type of quick dis-connect so my battery would not be in use, when the buggy was off. They sold me two 'Safe-Mate SST308' that run around $7.50 each. I now unhook my battery after each ride, and know my battery is not slowely draining. I did buy some new heavey duty stranded wire from them too, so I could make my new battery terminals.

Here is a picture of the battery with the Car Quest Safe-Mate quick disconnects installed.

Note: There are 2 smaller wires connected to the battery too for charging. It is also a quick dis-connect for ease of recharging.

Posts: 201

thanks for the reply. maby thats why my buggy came with a small battery charger. im gona get the battery disconnect also. i kind of like the disconnects that the guys use on their drag cars at the tracks. looks like a big switch that most of them have in the rear near the lisence plates......

Posts: 565

That would be a Cole-Hersee switch you'll even find them in boats with dual batteries, very duruable, but large,

Posts: 138

i just ran into a battery issue today (i hope) on my new kinroad srs 250. i was on the trails near my house and the buggy was sitting and idling, then it just shut off.

i tried to restart it and it wouldn't turn over at all, nothing, no horn, no lights, no nothing. my brother-in-law on his 4 wheeler towed me back to the house. so i hooked up my ohm meter and the battery showed no voltage at all.

i hooked up the trickle charger and the battery jumped right to about 4 volts, went to a little over 8 volts then the overload relay in the trickle charger tripped. i tried this twice and it did the same thing, so i removed the battery from the buggy and the battery was almost too hot to handle, i really don't think the battery is supposed to be that hot.

so i hooked the ohm meter up to the battery and it showed about 6 volts, and as it cooled, the voltage continued to climb (it wasn't hooked to a charger either). after it finally cooled, it showed about 7.4 volts, then i hooked up the trickle charger, it charged up to about 10 volts then the relay in the charger tripped again.

then the battery started to slowly drain voltage again (not hooked to anything but my ohm meter). so i reset the charger, tried again, got to about 11.4 volts, tripped again. unhooked the charger, and it slowly started to drain again. i could not get the battery fully charged or hold a complete charge.

so i put the battery in the buggy to hope that i don't have any mechanical issues, and the buggy barely turned or cranked, kinda fired but not really. tried a couple times and buggy wouldn't crank or just hardly turn over. you could hear the starter and relays.

so i emailed glade, and I'm hoping its under warranty, if not I'll just have to get another, but I'm really anxious just to see and make sure it's not something serious.

I've never owned a buggy or 4 wheeler, so i don't know if its safe to hook a normal 12 volt charger up, one that will crank a car, to see if the buggy turns over. I'll email glade to see what he says.

that's my first, kinda second buggy issue. first issue was a muffler problem, muffler bolt broke inside muffler, so i emailed glade and i think he's gonna take care of that under warranty. he's been awesome with everything and every question I've had, anyone considering to order a buggy should definitely consider glade first, i wish i did at first, live and learn. he's now my go to guy on anything buggy related other than you guys here, there's awesome help here too!!

Posts: 3348

I do not believe you can use a car battery charger on your battery. They are around 12 amps. The boy's at Car Quest told me my spill proof battery needed a 1 or 2 amp charger, and it would take a quite a few hours to bring er back from the dead, on the $22.00 1 amp charger I baught from them. Even after my volt meter read 11.5 volts, I still had another 6 hours of charging befor my buggy kicked over. I think the volt meters give you a false 'battery completed charging feeling' when they show 12 volts under no load. I dont think the battery is done charging yet. I really dont have a good way to tell when mine is done, other than the sound of the buggy starting.

I will say my battery never got hot during charging with my 1 amp rig... Smile

Posts: 138

I've got a 1 amp trickle charger, but after a few minutes of charging the battery, the overload relay in it trips and shuts down the charger, then after about 5 minutes, it automatically resets, charges a few minutes more, trips again, etc.

the battery never fully charges. and i have a couple of 12 volt batteries that i use in my computer power backups and they read a solid 12 volts. if i hook my ohm meter to them, they do not show a constant drain, it takes a long time for them to start dropping in voltage, but as soon as i hook up the ohm meter to my buggy battery, it shows the numbers dropping rather quickly.

i felt the battery was too hot to handle was when i first took it out of the buggy after about 10 or 15 minutes of charging while in the buggy. after i took it out, i let it cool down before i started trying to charge it again and it never got too hot.

as i mentioned, the buggy tried to barely turn over once the battery had a small charge to it, but after a few tries, the battery was done i guess. the problem is the battery will not charge without tripping the overload breaker in my trickle charger.

Posts: 3348

Yes, It sounds like the battery is bad, or the charger.

Due to the battery getting hot and not holding a charge, my money would be on the battery being bad.

Posts: 138

i appreciate the responses talonman! i went ahead and bought a new battery, I'm sure it's better than the factory one, it cost me enough Smile

glade said he could get the battery replaced under warranty but it would be the same type, and that i should probably just invest in a good quality battery. so that's what i did, I've got the trickle charger hooked to it now and so far it hasn't tripped the overload breaker and is charging just at (last check) 12.94 volts.

so i really think it's the battery also. thanks again talonman!

** Update **

i just wanted to post what type of battery i got and see if you guys know anything about it. i got it from autozone, its a MagnaPower Sport / Utility Battery. Model # GTX12-BSFP. It's marketed by EPM Products out of Baltimore, MD.

it has a 10Ah @ 10hr capacity rate, pretty much like the factory battery, i wanted a higher rate, but this was all they had in stock at the moment, but the manual shows a GTX20L-BS with a 18Ah @ 10hr capacity rate. I'm not too hip on batteries, but i would think the higher the Ah rate, the stronger (higher crank) the battery is, but as i said, I'm not up on batteries, and these buggies are new to me so I'm learning as i go, and i may get that GTX20L down the road.

Just checked the battery again and it's now at 13.20 volts and the charger still hasn't tripped, so i think i am on the right track.

Posts: 3348

Glad to hear that kneehighspy!

I think you got the problem fixed now too. Cool