Hi,
Perhaps the logic of Dan's claim is true, but if you charge a battery long
enough, much of the water will boil away and after that, the battery is
toast. I've done this far too many times... it's possible that the big-rig
batteries are more like the so-called "marine" batteries which are also
"deep cycle". Perhaps these batteries have thicker plates with more lead
on them hence they are less prone to issues related to over charging.
Part of the problem is that the modern batteries seem to have just a
coating of lead on the plates (as opposed to thick lead plates in the old
days). Thus, once the plates get sulfided, you can't get them to "shed"
the lead sulphate (or is it sulphite?) so you can't bring 'em back...
If you "trickle charge" at a very light current (say 50 ma or less), it'll
take a long time to fry the battery. But at 1000 ma, you can def. fry the
battery (I'm talking about a 6-cell, lead-acid battery here - sched. 24
"stock" TR6 battery). I've fried them this way by charging at around 1 amp
for a coupe of days. I'm talking fried and DEAD.
rml
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