Wranglerstar's Top Battery Charger Picks: Large Charger - amzn.to/38ikJYW Small Charger - amzn.to/38dVarZ Jump Pack - amzn.to/37tYDnj Terminal Puller - amzn.to/34njXbU Volt Meter - amzn.to/3amnN9d
@cody sup man, i was wondering if you might know what could be wrong with my charging system in my 2000 ford expedition rwd with the 4.6ld v8, its just like the f150's. my battery light came on and my suv died while i was driving it, i've replaced the battery twice and the alternator twice, and tested and switched around the fuses and relays and i had it tested at o'rileys and it showed while running only low 12+ volts i haven't tested the post at the alt while running yet, but i just bought a multimeter and was going to test it tomorrow, i'm stumped i don't really know car electrical to well and don't have a lot of money or know anyone who can help me. i take care of my family and its my only car. its not draining while sitting only while running. so i'm sure its just a charging problem. i'm hoping its not a bad wire idk if i'd be able to chase it down myself. i also cleaned all the battery connections and made sure they where tight.
I was just purchasing battery and charger for a diesel heater, and cleaning corroded batteries on my truck, and testing them, and now charging them... now an hour later your video comes out :) Thanks for the extra info. You are a handy guy to have access to.
As an ASE auto mechanic, I have a few bits of information to share regarding the multimeter. 1. A perfectly charged battery will be at 12.6 volts. 12.0 - 12.2 is a pretty low, and needs a charge. 2. When the motor is running, your battery should be charging anywhere between 13.5 - 15 volts. That is the sweet spot. Any lower or higher then that is a sign of a charging issue.
>13.5 - 15 volts. That is the sweet spot. That's a pretty wide range, in reality that would indicate a working alternator but it's not sweet spot. Ideally it should be 13.5-14.5V, anything over that and your battery will start producing a lot of gas. Most manufacturers recommend charging voltage of 2.3-2.4V per cell so 13.8-14.4V for 6 cell battery which is a range of most newer alternators.
Valuable advice. I knew almost all of this stuff, but I'd wager a lot of people don't. They might not realize how important it is until they're stranded on a windy winter night, either. Hopefully, your video gets them thinking about that all important "ounce of prevention". Little videos like this do God's work for the good people who listen. God Bless you and yours, Cody.
I bought a battery post puller, and a battery cable end spreader, as the first "extra tools" after the basic set of combo wrenches and sockets. I still have the same ones, 40 years later. SOOOOOO handy.
The hilarious thing is my grandfather bought a trickle charger back in the 60s an my grandmother dang near killed him but the great thing is to this day it still runs
I have one from the 1970's and it STILL works. One tip with the maintainers, the smaller amp ones are NOT chargers. They expect a charged battery to start with. I melted one because the battery wasn't charged enough for it. They should make a fully automatic charger that adjusts the amps and is a charger and maintainer in the 10 amp to 1 amp range.
my small town of 2k people had a radioshack up until last year, it's a new smaller store now but they still sell some old radioshack branded stuff, but also get some gadgets and electronic hobby parts from different suppliers
Someone probably already said this but get a battery terminal cleaner too! They’re like $2 at Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, etc and worth having! Anti-corrosion spray isn’t really necessary but recommended
Sounds like I might have the same charger as you. Mine too belonged to my father. It must be near 30 years old. I've been meaning to for some time now to repaint and put new cables on it.
I have been a subscriber for only a couple years. I have grown to enjoy your style of video clips and Mrs. W. There some things I can not compete with you but in a scaled down way I try to incorporate you suggestions or guidance, Have a blessed day .
I installed a Yellow Top Optima in my little Subaru about 8 years ago. I live in Montana and that battery has powered through -30° winters and is still going strong!
Your comment about the stainless steel watch band turning red hot, a witnessed that happen to a friend as well. Most people look at me like I am crazy when I share that story. Thanks for reinforcing that. 😊
Cody, some alternators require some rpm's (above an idle)to excite and start charging. Don't know if that might be the case on the forklift but free to try.
I bought a CTEK MXS battery tender a few months ago as one of my cars usually sits for the winter. But I find with the new cars the battery can run down after 2-3 weeks of non use. The new cars are always drawing power to monitor all kinds of stuff.
Bought a CTEK 7002 maybe 8 years ago after my one and only Battery Tender failed after less than a year. Loved it. Now I have 7 various CTEK models on all my cars and an emergency generator. Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and other manufacturers have them branded with their name on them (if you want to buy one from a dealer and pay a third more). They picked them for a reason. But the models I have are only good for lead acid 12v. But then, that is all i have.
You are a blessing to those of us who don't know these things[ME!] And yes on the compact survival kit!. I'm old and alone, and do my best to maintain my old car my self, and like to gain knowledge to keep it going. Thanks!
THANK YOU!!! Thank you for spreading the word about dressing the tails on zip ties. Be the better man, do the right thing, and don't leave that sharp for the next guy to get cut on. Spread the word so the world can be a better place!
Voltage alone does NOT tell you the overall condition of the battery. Load capacity is actually of greater importance. Just because a battery reads 12+ volts, does not mean it can provide the 200 amps or more required to start a vehicle. A battery load tester is a must if you want to see if your battery is capable of starting your vehicle. I am looking at purchasing a tester in the near future (waiting for it as a Christmas present LOL). It is the Autel AL539B which is an OBD2 scanner as well as a battery condition tester. There are many other similar ones out there for less than $100. I would consider it money well spent.
When your service in a battery should always take off neg terminal first and put it on last. Also when you’re making connections to the battery turn your head away just as you’re doing it just in case A spark it blows up in your face . Usually after charging probably not gonna happen it’s a good habit . Perfect practice makes perfect. Also baking soda and water neutralizes the acid. If the terminals are all corroded. Maybe pull the cables loose and let them soak them in a cup full of it. All of these came from my dad Gene Stagner automotive instructor at Cerritos College for year Plus a military motor sergeant before that. Enjoy your channel. Oh I forgot one more if you think your battery‘s dead or failing you have a problem when you crank The engine with the coil wire disconnected so it won’t start maybe with the lights put a good load on it so it with the battery caps off if you see it boiling you have a bad cell makes the case for batteries with covers. During all these activities of course wear safety glasses. Eyeballs are not easy to replace.Ed
When he put the wrench down next to the terminals and later held that terminal remover across the terminals my heart skipped a beat, each. Ever seen a wrench falling across the terminals and then disappearing into molten metal and one will understand...
If you are going to put something away, you can disconnect the battery... Only takes a few minutes to change the plug ends to the style you prefer. You can get the battery bank/starters also, always handy.
A battery load tester is also handy. The battery may show 12 volts with a multi-meter, but when you put a load on it, the voltage plummets, which means the battery is bad. They also show whether or not the system is charging.
Nice pro tip there if you don't have flush cuts. I'll give a pro tip in exchange. When attaching ring terminals or doing any crimping on wire use No-Ox grease on all surfaces. ESPECIALLY on the top of the battery and busbars. I learned that one in Telephone central offices when doing power for equipment. When they do it they like it to last 50 plus years. They always always use no-ox on ALL exposed electrical wires and connectors. When you use No-Ox and crimp properly those connections never go bad. Even on cars. They will stay working good when solder joints fail.
Hey Cody, love the show ! Just a heads up, I noticed when watching this latest stream when you were working on the forklift battery that the nuts on the battery cable clamps are on backwards.. that little shoulder on the nuts is designed to go up against the clamp so that the nut doesn't cut into the clamp or bind so that you get a false sense of the clamp being tight, hope this helps, keep up the great work that you do! The Wranglerstar family are true patriots.
Good of you to give Project Farm a shout-out. He does indeed have a great review and i have two of the top performers on the way. Found them on sale at Walmart. And your video is excellent too, thanks for the primer.
@@consaka1 I understand. I’m not rich by any stretch... and understand more than most, budgeting and trying to make ends meet. But $90 to me is not “flabbergasting” levels. It has to be hundreds, if not thousands. But everyone has different standards. :)
@@MrTangent If you live in a poorer area and have to decide what not to eat to budget that in, well, you might be up to even your flabbergasting levels. Flabergasted is just a descriptive word that gets used instead of words like "Shocked" in some people's vocabulary. I know a few people that use the word regularly.
I love the NOCO brand chargers. I have the quick adapters on everything I own that has a battery. Now I did something pretty cool as well. I had a NOCO fail that they replaced under warranty. Their warranty is simple provide the documentation and proof (picture) that you cut off the wiring to the unit. Well I kept the male charger end and I made a set of jumper cables for my ATV with the male end and alligator clips on the other end. Great when you are on the trail and someone needs a boost. My battery end connecter is external so I don't have to remove my seat and the quick connect with the clips makes boosting easy.
I have an old portable plug in 3 amp charger that my Dad left me in 1987. I have two yard tractors a truck and a car. That charger gets used several time a year and the darn thing wont die. I did get a couple tenders for the lawn tractors though they save me having to by them small batteries every year. the tenders work great. I have one solar that works great so far for three years. God bless and keep on truck-en.
Cody, Your grandfather had his watch, for me, a Medic Alert. Back in the late '80s early '90s I was apprenticing as an Air Maintenance Engineer (AME in Canada. ) Shorted my Medic Alert between the positive cable and the battery box on a Piper. Fused three links of the bracelet chain and blew a hole in my palm about 3/8" round. OUCH!
Great video Cody. One thing I would add, is to use the NOCO battery terminal protectors. Most of the time the acid seeps up thru the battery post seals, & corrodes the terminal to post connections. In this case, spraying protectant on top of the terminals will do nothing to prevent this. & don't cheap-out & use the (mostly) ineffective green & red ones from walmart. They are pathetic at best. NOCO saturates the felt ring with a long lasting & very effective sealant that will keep your terminal to post connections like new. Thanks. HTH
Great Vid Cody .... Battery basics .... keep it fully charged, it will last longer ... check your grounds, on battery and cable to frame/ground and alternators .... modern alternators go bad before they go really bad, so check for voltage flux at cold/hot .... all vehicles run much better with a good battery and good alternator and good grounds (especially newer car with complex electronics and sensors, and you'll get better gas millage and less "codes" "check engine" ) .... corrosion is a slow process on contacts and make everything have to work harder (causing alternator to wear quicker) .... tenders are also a great idea in winter, low temps rob battery power quickly .... and excessive summer heat degrades batteries as well ... hope all is going well on all the new set ups, etc
I sell parts for a living, including batteries. If you want it to last: Terminal protector spray, and put a charge on it once a month in the warmer months, and once a week in the winter. With all the electrical demands of late model vehicles, your alternator is a tender at best. If you’re not driving a significant distance, it isn’t topping it off. Put it on a tender once a week when it’s cold, when it’s really cold, (below zero) I put it on as many nights as it stays that cold. Doesn’t take more than a minute to pop the hood and clip on your charger. It’ll save you money and worry.
Sealed AGM are my preference when it comes to powersports batteries. One issue you may run into if the battery is bad/going bad is if you just took it off the maintainer is it will start just fine, but you leave the grocery store and it doesn't start.
Love watching your videos! I even named my dog Cody! You need a couple of Great Pyrenees up there in the cold. The coyotes keep their distance from our farm.
Those jump packs are awesome. I fly all the time for work and often don’t get to my home airport until 12am. Not the time I want to sit and wait for AAA to come. Have one for my wife, in the event her battery needs a jump while I am away. Finally, my dad went to Costco, got back outside to his car, dead battery. Went back into Costco, bought a jump pack and started right up.
Good advice. I was fortunate to buy an automatic 2/10/40amp boost battery charger in the 80's as a teenager from the hardware store I was working at that was on sale for $34.99. I always wanted to get one of the larger units with a 200amp start but I couldn't afford it at the time and mine does a good enough job that 20 minutes or so on the charger and with the 40 amp boost I can usually start our vehicles even in the middle of winter. It's even brought back batteries that were dead as a door nail that I would have thought would never be of use again. I hook it up and it charges at so low of a rate that it doesn't even show up on the meter. I let it go for a week and it's ready to go back into service. I've looked at newer units but they're junk in comparison to my 35 year old one. My wife has only to call me and I'm there if her vehicle breaks down...only 4 times in over 30 years, 3 alternators and one cracked remote oil filter fitting. My record is an hour and a half from the time she called me until she was on her way again with a new alternator and battery that I acquired and installed after pushing her S10 Blazer out of traffic and into a parking lot. Luckily I was only 10 minutes away at the time. Always take good care of the equipment that takes care of your wife.
TESTIMONIAL: I've used Battery Tender Jr.® brand chargers on all of my peripheral vehicles (4-wheelers, sxs, motorcycles, mowers) for as long as I can remember. I install the standard automotive SAE type plug pigtails that you referenced on each vehicle and each has its own, dedicated charger. Example: bought my 2007 Yamaha Grizzly 700 new that year. It still has the same factory battery in it, over13 years now and still cranks like it was new. Suffice it to say that I am a believer in battery tenders and don't think twice about spending $25-35 for a new charger whenever a new vehicle comes to our place. I know there are lots of brands that are equally capable, but I've always had success with Battery Tender® brand so that's what I continue to use. TIP: I noticed that, when you were disconnecting the battery on your forklift, you *correctly* disconnected the negative cable first. This is important as disconnecting the positive post could be dangerous if you inadvertently swing your wrench into the chassis of the vehicle thereby instantly creating a short (like your granddad's Timex). I know you know this, but it's worth repeating for the uninitiated. As always, thanks much for sharing. Steve
On you Hilo you have your tender hook up backwards when you hooked up your multimeter you and your red lead to the black on the tenderand your meter work properly so check your connection for your charger or you may screw up your battery
Pro Tip: Don't use white zip ties on semi-permanent installations or anything that is outside; they break down from UV and get brittle. Use black zip ties.
Great video! No watches or rings for me working on electrical equipment capable of producing arcs or molten metal. All I need to clean up corrosion is a wet/dry vac, stainless steel brush, wd40, and wet paper towels. Putting baking soda or coke onto corroded terminals sounds like making a mess into a bigger mess. Prevent it in the first place with a quality silicon dielectric grease. Block the moist air, block the corrosion. A tight clamp terminal has no problem making a good connection through the grease. A reading of 12V or more is not a guarantee of a good battery. When my truck batteries fail, they usually show well over 12V with no load. It’s when you try to draw 500-800A that you see the voltage drop down. A tester that can draw close to the starter motor’s current is necessary to determine whether the battery is good. The multimeter will identify a battery that’s completely done, but may trick the uninitiated into believing a worn out battery is good, if you rely solely on no load voltage.
I personally have a Black and Decker battery charger. It is a good thing to look for since it has a Jumpstart feature and can analyze your battery to see if it has a bad cell in it. I use to work at a Pep Boys, and I can't tell you how many times I was asked to come out to use the Jumper box to help somone.
An A&P was servicing a Cessna battery. He accidentally bridged the terminals with his combination wrench and it welded to the terminals and his wedding ring. He couldn’t free his hand until his gold ring melted.
I love that forklift, cool how the battery swings out. I'd love to see a video on your road kit. Harbor Freight sells an affordable simple battery tender for like $7
One quick tip for DC power. This is because if you drop the loose lead it is more likely to hit a grounded spot, and you do not want a positive lead grounded out. Same goes for jumper cables.
I think i have 8 battery tenders and a charging station for all batteries. Boat, camper, classic car, tractor, 4 wheelers. You name it. The go on sale in the fall and they are priceless to keeping a battery last.
@@jonnytsumni nope, because positive and negative doesn't exist on alternating current, positive and negative are constantly switching between each prong. So in the end, it absolutely doesn't matter because there's no such thing as polarity on ac
@@raffi2287 so if per say you have a circuit that, like a coffee pot ,you switch off the neutral, not the hot and have a ground, can't current still flow through it?
In highschool when the sidewalks roll up at 10... That coke machine is really helpful at 12. Also, I am an Auto Tech and as my teacher who was pushing 70 and maintained a town shop when he retired from the teaching; Mr. Halford was a dude that drove lead sled's. Back in the 40's. Heat the rear shocks and point the headlights to the sky.😂. If you have wetness across the top of your battery, that is a draw, you can put the multimeter in the wet and get a voltage.
Tip: Some of those NOCO alligator clamps come pre-wired with the ring terminals already there. You just remove the bolt that holds the clamp in place. I'm not sure if they all come that way from NOCO but I do know some of their larger battery chargers do.
DieHard makes a great 2 amp battery charger that's about $25. All it does is a 2 amps and then maintain, so the battery doesn't try to seep from a fast, high amperage charge. It only does one job but it does it extremely well.
I was attaching plastic mesh on a gate (puppy proofing) using a lot of ties the other day. The grip, turn and release several needed to twist them off was a hassle, so I thought to try vice grips. Pinch them on the tie and they are so much easier to twist off than with regular pliers.
After filling that AGM battery that was put in the dirt bike you should let that battery set anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes so that the acid absorbs and settles in the plates. AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) I always enjoy your videos btw. 👍😀
Watching another Wranglerstar and not really expecting anything amazing, and then boom he does the zip-tie twist trick!! WTF I've always carried my wire cutters with me to get those trimmed close and never had any idea that a twist would be better, that's fricken amazing. What I did know from watching Project Farm test zip-ties, that they get stronger when exposed to UV outside. That's crazy. I do actually have one of the Noco Genius units hard wired into my second car, I don't drive it as often and having the tender on it is totally worth it.
Loved this one , also watched a guy absolutely fry his arm on a battery and his watch , once he finally ripped his arm off his watch links were welded together and still burning hot .
There are also charger adaptors for the power port inside the car which display the system voltage. I keep one in my car to monitor battery charge and to ensure my charging system is working.
That was one of the mistakes he made (among others). I hope that his errors are caused by the fact that he's distracted by doing the video and not because he is incompetent. The viewers must be very unfamiliar with this stuff since hardly anybody else noticed.
