Please excuse this question if it seem somewhat naive. I have a 1987 vintage 48 volt Clarke e;ectric forklift that has been sitting for over a year without charging the battery. The battery only shows 7 volts (let me guess, not good). Before the forklift was put into storage, there was a problem, sometimes it ran sometimes it did not. In order to get a technician to look at it, I was told t he battery had to be fully charged. I'm not sure if the battery can still be charged. I don't want to lay out a lot of money for a replacement battery before I make sure the forklift is worth fixing. My question is this: Could I use 4-12 volt car batteries in series to temporarily power up the forklift in order for the tech to troubleshoot it? Also, can you operate the forklift with the same 4 batteries for short periods (5 minutes max.)? Thank you. Mitch
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It will definately work as long as there is no significant loading put on the machine i.e. as long as the wheels are off the floor then they will power the traction motor(s) without problem.
In this instance though the intial diagnostics can simply be done with the key on and line contactor in, without a real need to load up the machine.
Take some power pallet trucks these days and you'll find that they get there 24 volt power from two 12V gel type batteries the same as those you could fit to a car.
Interesting scenario. It sound like it might work if you have strong enough batteries. I also agree it might only work for 5 min.
Let us know if it works.
Antoine
You cannot simply use the car batteries in the truck once it is repaired.
The battery is a large part of the counter weight.
You'll also destroy the batteries pretty quick due to the huge demands of all the motors.
Mitch,
It seems you've got it figured out to me.
The traction battery you have with 7 volts is well and truely gone, so it is out of the equation for the moment. It will drop to 0 volts if you probably put a low wattage bulb across it....
Your plan is fine and although you'll not be able to put any significant load on the machine it should allow intial diagnosis of the problem by a tech, well atleast show any fault codes.
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