Hello,
I purchased a used forklift from United Rentals a couple of months ago and I only use it once or twice a month. However, many time I come to the warehouse to use the forklift, I find that the battery has died. Initially, I thought it was my fault because I noticed a few times that I had accidentally left the lights on, so I assumed the battery had gone bad and replaced it with a new one.
After installing the new battery, I didn't use the forklift for about a month, and today when I came to use it, I found that the new battery had also died. This time, I made sure the lights were off, so I'm confident something is draining the battery when the forklift is not in use.
Since calling a technician would be costly, I'm considering installing a battery kill switch to stop the power drain when the forklift is not in use. Could you share your thoughts on this solution and provide any advice on how to install a battery kill switch? I couldn't find a relevant tutorial on YouTube.
Thank you for your help.
Best regards,
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you're welcome. Don't know what suppliers are common in your neighborhood. Just search for a kill switch 12volt and 200Amps most carpart suppliers at our region have them.
Thank you again for the reply. By the way, can you recommend a good kill with for Toyota forklift?
It could be possible that they left the device in the machine. In most cases it is quite obvious which cables are not the original ones and put in afterwards.
If you follow them you should be able to find the possible tracking device.
If you want to be sure to cut of all power, you should disconnect the negative lines, connect them to one of the terminals on your kill switch and then connect a new cable from the other terminal of the kill switch to your battery negative.
If you want to measure which line is draining your battery just put an Ampère meter (something like a Fluke 325) around them seperately. The one draining the battery should give quite a high current without contact key on.
edit: If you have any radio or other devices on the forklift with memory, you can chose to not cut those with the kill switch.
Thank you for your response. I suspect that United Rentals might have installed a tracking device and didn't remove it before selling the forklift to me. Do you think this could be possible? As far as I know, there are no other aftermarket devices installed.
Additionally, the power cables are not just single cables; there are multiple lines for each. I'm unsure how to install a kill switch that typically only has one line for the positive (+) and one for the negative (-). Could you provide some guidance on how to approach this?
Thank you again for your help.
Normally it should not drain, it depends what and how things are installed on the machine. Sometimes GPS trackers, lights or other aftermarket stuff like that are installed before the contact switch, which can drain the battery. If you have an Ampère meter you should be able to see what current is flowing without contact on.
Thank you for your reply. By the way, is it normal for the battery to drain completely if I don't use the forklift for a month?
Hi Kevin,
Best to do is place a kill swith in the negative cable of your machine. This goes from the negative of your battery to the chassis if i'm correct. Just cut it, place the kill switch in between and that should do the job.
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