Steves Comet build

[Adrian Harris]

This is an illustration of what can happen when batteries go bad:

These came out of an M2 half-track I'm currently re-animating. I would imagine that they were charged with a charger designed for 22Ah batteries, hence the reason they overheated.

I have a couple of replacements on the way from Hardware Express, but I need to investigate how to charge them, as the maximum rate of the new ones is only 2.1A.

Adrian

[Mark Heaps]

I don't really want to purchase another Ctek 5 charger so i plan to get the in tank charging working with the 24v charger for normal operation, but will perform a Ctek 12v charge on each pack twice a year to keep them tip top.

The Ctek connection leads are not that expensive when compared to the rest of the expense on the model or the price of a battery so why not have a set permanently connected to each battery and charge them sequentially using just the one charger. Maybe best to also keep the 24V charging capability for re-charging the batteries at a show or event where time is at a premium but between shows where time is not of the essence stick to 12V sequentially. With 24V charging, if one battery fails, the over-charging (over-voltage) on the other battery will soon kill it as well in my experience on real tanks.

[Tim Page]

Hi Mark, I have a spare set of Ctek leads from an old 3.6amp unit that i ran over in the garage

Would i need to disconnect the link wire between the 2 batteries in order to charge them singly at 12V?

Cheers
Tim

[Dennis Jones]

i have used a mobile scooter 24 volt charger on both the Tiger, Comet and Diamond T truck for the last 5 years and still on original batteries and they are used practically every weekend throughout the summer at shows. I also use a standard non intelligent 12/24 volt charger as well. I obtain my batteries from Component Shop, cheaper than Hardware Express.

Dennis.

[Mark Heaps]

Would i need to disconnect the link wire between the 2 batteries in order to charge them singly at 12V?

With just two batteries, there is no need to disconnect the link wire. Just ensure the model is switched off whilst charging.

If you had two sets of batteries permanently connected in parallel, you would also need to break the circuit at any point. Disconnecting either of the link wires would suffice irrespective of which battery needed to be charged. Alternatively you could put a permanent extra link between the two link wires so that the battery pairs are joined at the 12V point aswell as the 0V and 24V points.

[Tim Page]

OK, The rewire is now done & the battery meter fitted.
Tank has been tested and all ok. The 24v Scooter charger also worked correctly with the light on red for a few seconds before changing to green which is what id expect as both batteries are fully charged.

Just got a bit of wire loom tidying to do and then put the turret back together again.

A good evenings work.

Cheers
Tim

[Phil Woollard]

I tend to agree with Dennis, keep it Orthodox keep it simple, lead acid gel batteries will give years of trouble free running and they are relatively inexpensive to replace, in fact so reasonable now, you could change them out every other year for a new set (if you felt you needed to) and still not spend as much as you would on one set of fancy batteries. Weight is not really an issue either

[Mark Heaps]

I agree with Dennis and Phil.Keep it as simple as possible.
But to my mind give it regular use. During my 22 years in the Army fixing tanks and other vehicles, the first 3 days of any exercise was sleepless nights going from one breakdown to the next. The first vehicles to break were those that had had little use. After this initial period we generally had very little to do for the rest of the exercise.

[Steve Stuart]

So the best thing to do is get your Tank moving, there by keeping the batteries in good health as they are being actively discharged and recharged. Equally mechanically use may cause some damage, but the passive damage that occurs through not using the Tank may be worse in the long run. If the Tank is being run things get spotted and then repaired.

Running Track Repairs

To that end, joining up with other people to take your Tanks to events and shows allows for the above to happen, plus allows meeting up with like minded people to talk with...
So there are organisations like the UK Tank Club or the Southern Armour Group provide a frame work for going places. Equally you can show Independence and go it alone and organise things off your bat, Denny Patterson shows that independence is no barrier and is a good example for other parts of the country where there is no club activity.
I know this posting is somewhat off topic, but has developed to be a place to hang a posting whose thread might be moved else where.

Tim's Comet in the foreground

The photos are from last weekends Abingdon Air and Country Show, where the Southern Armour Group banner was flown.It was really good to see Steve's, now Tim's Comet and see how he has dealt with the challenges I am tackling on my Comet.
Steve