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Old 02-24-2015, 07:04 PM   #21
Bus Geek
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Stony Plain Alberta Canada
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Year: 1992
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Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
My bus started first turn of the key with one battery in 10 degrees. I'd hate to see the winters where you are, nat.
Nice, I love how them Cummins start in the summer.

Nat

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Old 02-24-2015, 08:07 PM   #22
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Well, "It hardly ever snows here and when it does, it's not much". Yeah right. Try single digits. Don't ever believe anyone who says the winters are "mild" in NM. I think they are comparing it to Siberia.
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Old 02-24-2015, 08:31 PM   #23
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"Don't ever believe anyone who says the winters are "mild" in NM. I think they are comparing it to Siberia."

I can attest to that! I tell people up here in Montana that this is mild compared to our place in New Mexico, and they look at me like I'm nuts.
Our land in New Mexico sits at 7600', and when the wind rips through there, 40 below is not uncommon.

I run 1400 cca 8D's in both buses, and they've never felled me yet. In fact when I get back to the NM bus, I'll bet she'll fire right up, even though she's been sitting for over a year... we'll see pretty quick, here.
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Old 02-25-2015, 01:51 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by nat_ster View Post
Nice, I love how them Cummins start in the summer.

Nat
not quite, its a DT.
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Old 02-25-2015, 09:41 AM   #25
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Chassis: TC2000 FE
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
not quite, its a DT.
Ops, You have the P-Pump though right?

Nat
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Old 02-25-2015, 07:25 PM   #26
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I'm no battery expert, but have been around both setups and really couldn't tell you which one is better. My DT466 has 2, 31 groups and works fine. Some of our work trucks and generators have 8d's. Just be careful. Yes 8d's last a long time, but they make a big bang when they do go bad. I got lucky this past summer and didn't get hurt.

20140522_133707 by Hvbuzz, on Flickr

It was on one of our 100kw generators at work. It starts a 8.2 detroit. To the batteries defense, it was a 12 year old NAPA battery. All I did was turn the start key and bang. Starter didn't turn or anything. I couldn't hear much out of my right ear for most of the day. Acid only got my jeans.
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Old 02-26-2015, 10:51 AM   #27
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The reason why most buses come from the factory with very large capacity battery reserve is due mostly to the way in which buses are used.

Even with a 150 AMP alternator it is hard pressed to keep up with the demand when the bus is sitting at a stop loading. You need the large reserve capacity to keep from having dead batteries all the time.

Back in the day we had a fleet of Loadstar chassis buses with SV345/5-speed power. Most of them had 90 AMP alternators and one group 27 battery. Almost every time when we came back from a long weekend or break we would have to jump start most of the Loadstar buses.

What we discovered was that when the bus was stopped and loading with the crossover lights flashing, the headlights on, all of the heaters/defroster/fans blowing, interior lights on, etc. the electrical draw was in excess of 70 AMPS. At idle the 90 AMP alternators were not putting out anything close to 90 AMPS. On a daily basis there was enough reserve capacity to get things going in the morning and most Monday mornings. But over a three day or longer break the surface charge was not enough to start the buses.

We solved the problem by putting in a group 31 battery and 150 AMP alternators.

Our Gillig buses had diesel engines, 150 AMP alternators, and two 8D batteries. We never had problems with not having enough battery to start in the morning.

I know from experience that you don't need two 8D batteries to start a bus. As time went on and we had to replace batteries in the Gillig buses we started replacing the two 8D's with just one. It was still more than enough battery reserve capacity to start the buses, even after a long break. In fact, when I sent the my last Gillig to the scrap yard I got it started on a single group 24.

The one real problem with a battery bank with multiple batteries is that if one goes bad if you don't replace all of the other batteries at the same time you end up replacing batteries all the time. A weak battery will pull down the strong batteries and you are left with the lowest common denominator.

As you go shopping for batteries just know that not all batteries are created equal. I have seen 8D batteries with CCA of less than 950 AMPS. I have also seen group 31 batteries with CCA of more than 1200 AMPS. They were both for sale for about the same price.
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Old 02-26-2015, 11:19 AM   #28
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Measure your battery bays too. Especially the height of the opening. I can't put a standard deep cycle golf cart battery as it's 1" too tall. I have found that I can buy a 12v deep cycle golf cart battery but not until I head back east. They don't sell them in this state. There are lots of things that don't sell in this state. I hate NM. So I am using 12v Deep cycle marine batteries for the house battery bank. Barely clears the top of the opening for checking water level & electrolytes. But plenty of room inside the bay.
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