[Hilldweller]

...and I need a hint to fix it.

2016 Rancher 420, totally stock. Original battery. Only 200 miles; I only use it around the acreage.

Last time I put it up after moving snow (about four weeks ago), I left the master switch in the on position. Even better, I set the brake hold, which means the rear brake light was left on. The heated hand grips were in the "Hi" position.

Fast forward to today. Went out to do some chores; spring is coming, or so I'm told. I found the inevitable dead battery. No lights, no dash panel, no nothing. I had to pull my truck up and hook it up to jump it. It would jump and start. But it would die within seconds of unhooking the jumper cables.

I left the truck hooked up to jumper cables for 20 minutes with everything on the Rancher in "off". Same result after starting.

Is there any hope for this battery, or should I cut my losses and just get a new one?

I suppose I could also have an underlying problem in the charging system, but it wasn't acting up at all prior to my screw-up.

Any hints/thoughts appreciated.

 

[Goober]

In a discharged state most battery plates will start to sulfate pretty quickly and won’t easily take a charge. You could get a charger like I got for my SXS and boat it has modes like atv, deep cycle, car and restore. You could try the restore mode but this will take a few days with no guarantee of success.
If you quad won’t start after then you might have fried something
Also not good to run a quad with a flat battery in older ones the charging system overheats.

With your newer one not so sure

 

[daveyn]

I have done that twice on my 350 and your battery is toast, get a new one and everything should work just fine.

 

[retro]

^^^^ I agree with the guys above. ^^^^

Don't even mess with that dead battery, just replace it. You are putting too much $$$ at risk in your Rancher.

 

[JohnnySolo]

If you have an AutoZone nearby. Take battery to them. They will test it for free and tell you it's voltage and if it can hold a charge. That'll solve your guessing game. But I'm thinking they're going to say it's not holding charge, you may have killed it lol. Stuff happens

 

[alloutdoors]

..Any hints/thoughts appreciated.

If you have not purchased a new battery yet I would put it on a battery charger overnight, i.e., low 2 amp and see what happens which is a low/no cost attempt.

 

[Hilldweller]

..Any hints/thoughts appreciated.

If you have not purchased a new battery yet I would put it on a battery charger overnight, i.e., low 2 amp and see what happens which is a low/no cost attempt.

Thanks, all.

Alloutdoors: I would do that, but the needle on my charger unit didn't even budge yesterday when I hooked it up. It's about three years old and only has a couple uses on it. The lights didn't even light up on it. I can't tell if it's working or not, so that's on the dock for looking into this weekend.

I have an Autozone gift card (rebate from a prior battery purchase for the wife's SUV). I see that I can sink just as much into an ATV battery as I can into a battery for that SUV.

I'll also call the local Honda powersports dealer to see how much they want for a replacement battery.

 

[alloutdoors]

I have an Autozone gift card (rebate from a prior battery purchase for the wife's SUV). I see that I can sink just as much into an ATV battery as I can into a battery for that SUV.
I'll also call the local Honda powersports dealer to see how much they want for a replacement battery.

If you are going to Autozone, put the Rancher on trailer and have them change the battery out, LOL. Whatever battery you select, you might consider a trickle charger as well.

 

[Hilldweller]

If you are going to Autozone, put the Rancher on trailer and have them change the battery out, LOL. Whatever battery you select, you might consider a trickle charger as well.

I have to get that charger back into operation or replaced. We live in a rural area; there are certain things that are necessities, and a charger/quick start box is a piece of my backup/emergency gear. I bought it at a home improvement store; paid about $75, IIRC. I've only used it once before, but it's still out of warranty.

Not sure how I'll test the charger. I do have a multi-meter. I should be able to detect some life in it across the terminal clamps if it's plugged in. If that doesn't work, I might hook it to the battery on my mower and see if it shows any signs of life. Now I'm hoping that the ATV battery was so dead that the charger box was worthless against it. I doubt that; the quick-start feature on the charger box wouldn't work on the ATV, but jumping from my truck did.

That brings me to another question...is there such a thing as an externally-mounted set of battery terminal "extenders" that I can mount on my machine? Getting to the battery is somewhat less than convenient, especially if I have my rear deck loaded as I did yesterday. Having external terminal blocks would make jumping easier, and also allow the ATV to easily be used to jump other machines in a pinch. I'll do a search; if I don't find anything, I'll post the question in the correct forum.

I already have a 12-volt cigarette lighter-style outlet installed for the operation of my tank sprayer and a water pump I use for irrigation. However, it's not really a robust solution.

 

[wheelsquad]

Battery tenders come with the "terminal extender" that you are referring to. They are just the bullet style connector. You can just plug right in without accessing the battery. And yes you can use the same connection to power sprayers and such. Even the Harbor Freight deluxe battery maintainer comes with this extra connector.

 

[SamUK]

Here’s an interesting question to add to this thread, why do we still use lead acid batteries rather than lithium polymer? I know Li-Po batteries can be unstable and ignite/explode in some cases, is that the main reason do you think, safety?

I have no idea whatsoever, just throwing it out there..

 

[Goober]

I’ve got battery tenders on all my shop rigs; they are plugged in at the end of the week and stay plugged in otherwise. Some of those batteries are 5 years old.

They call that extender a harness, a lead, a pigtail—you name it. You can run devices by plugging into it, but some have fuses too small to run a pocket compressor. Just upgrade the fuse.

 

[LedFTed]

battery

Any hints/thoughts appreciated.

i got a MOTO classic from 'Impact Direct" for $76.. dollars, 2.5 year warranty AGM.. there are better deals out there than this, and probably better batterys better warentys, also.. do some research. the folks here know of deals.. i seen a 5 year warranty just recently. {30min. done forgot, short term memory thingies:~ }.:smile

 

[JohnnySolo]

..Any hints/thoughts appreciated.

If you have not purchased a new battery yet I would put it on a battery charger overnight, i.e., low 2 amp and see what happens which is a low/no cost attempt.

Thanks, all.

Alloutdoors: I would do that, but the needle on my charger unit didn't even budge yesterday when I hooked it up. It's about three years old and only has a couple uses on it. The lights didn't even light up on it. I can't tell if it's working or not, so that's on the dock for looking into this weekend.

I have an Autozone gift card (rebate from a prior battery purchase for the wife's SUV). I see that I can sink just as much into an ATV battery as I can into a battery for that SUV.

I'll also call the local Honda powersports dealer to see how much they want for a replacement battery.

Aside from battery problem. The battery charger should be good still. I have old, old, old battery charger and I didn't think it worked. I plugged a dead battery up to it for few hours and didn't see a light light up nor did the monitor needle move. When I got a new battery I hooked it up to see the charge of it after using it alot trying to get four-wheeler running, it read the volts and lit up just as directions said. So your battery chargee could still be good and it's just another reason pointing to dead battery.

 

[retro]

Here’s an interesting question to add to this thread, why do we still use lead acid batteries rather than lithium polymer? I know Li-Po batteries can be unstable and ignite/explode in some cases, is that the main reason do you think, safety?

I have no idea whatsoever, just throwing it out there..

LiPo's are reliant on precisely controlled charging rate systems, unlike Lead-acid batteries which can survive virtually any cheap variable voltage/variable current charge rates. LiPo's could be used as starting batteries because they can discharge current at a very high rate, but it costs a lot more to reliably (and safely) recharge them, so I doubt we'll ever see them on ATVs. LA batteries provide a much longer battery lifecycle as well, due to their high number of deep-cycling discharge advantages.

LiPo's are expensive to make and expensive to recharge (with a short life cycle as well), so they are used where light weight and high discharge rates are most required and thats about it.

 

[Hilldweller]

Thanks, Retro. I was wondering about Sam's question after he asked it. I had not had a chance to research it, but guessed the question would come down to cost and perhaps lifecycle longevity. I know the Lithium batteries in our phones and cordless tools have a limited number of charge cycles.

I went to Autozone; they had an AGM battery that listed for $82. After the 10% military discount and the $20 Autozone gift card I had as a rebate from a previous battery purchase, I ended up paying just under $60 after tax and have another $10 rebate coming from this purchase. The rebate shenanigans has its ups and downs, but I'm diligent about it at my wife's insistence and use them all the time.

Time to head out get to work in the shop. First up: new battery install!

 

[JohnnySolo]

Glad you got it figured out, don't forget to cut key off!!

Oh and hook battery chargee up to bew battery after you use it few times and see if it gives you a reading

 

[Hilldweller]

The charger appears to be functioning normally. I hooked it to the Rancher after I installed the new battery. Everything lit up, it told me the new battery was fully charged, etc.

Rancher fired right up.

Then I turned to the next task, getting out the mower. Hooked up the charger, and nothing. No response and absolute silence when I cycled the key to the start position. Sure enough, the master switch was in the "on" position. At the end of the mowing season last fall I had run it out of fuel and then pushed it back into the shop, out of the way for the season. Never even thought about that master switch.

So I'll get to pay more stupid tax today. This lesson is getting expensive. Dang.

Stupid is as stupid does...

 

[Carolynskii]

Hahahahahaha ... at least you're consistent!
A battery charger won't charge a dead battery with less than about 10 volts ... it'll foul and signal something is wrong.
With both batterys disconnected to anything, you can try to rescue it by parallel connecting another healthy battery with a set of jumper cables to the dead battery then connect an unplugged charger only to the dead battery then plugging the charger in and set to charge. Make sure the charger clamps aren't touching the jumper cable clamps.
This will trick the charger into thinking the dead battery has more voltage than it actually does and hopefully charge. After about an hour or two check the voltage in the dead battery and see if it charged at all.
If nothing or if the old battery got really hot then disconnect immediately and go get ya a new battery.

 

[JohnnySolo]

The charger appears to be functioning normally. I hooked it to the Rancher after I installed the new battery. Everything lit up, it told me the new battery was fully charged, etc.

Rancher fired right up.

Then I turned to the next task, getting out the mower. Hooked up the charger, and nothing. No response and absolute silence when I cycled the key to the start position. Sure enough, the master switch was in the "on" position. At the end of the mowing season last fall I had run it out of fuel and then pushed it back into the shop, out of the way for the season. Never even thought about that master switch.

So I'll get to pay more stupid tax today. This lesson is getting expensive. Dang.

Stupid is as stupid does...

Hahaha. Well you'll learn from it now! Lol