I just bought a Grisby Truck Company Nato Slave port for a NOCO G26000 genius https://www.grigsbytrucks.com/product/gtc-nato-slave-port-connector-and-smart-charger-combo-kit/ to charge my M1079a1 when not in use. It looks like the front two batteries are Lead acid and the rear two are Hawker HASP-FT (AGM?) The charger has a modes for both 24v regular and 24v AGM, which mode should I leave it one when charging and maintaining?
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M1079a1 Battery charging question
- Thread starter Union5
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You should replace the lead acid batts with matching hawkers and use the agm mode.
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- Nashville, TN
My guess is you’ll get recommendations to buy a complete matching set. If you’re like many of us, that can be cost prohibitive. I would suggest taking them all out and charging them separately for starters. The NOCO chargers do a good job of renewing each battery but they really need done separately before starting maintenance charging
Is it possible the military would have unmatched types of batteries in these trucks? The markings on the batteries show all were replaced in 2015. I was told the front set of batteries were for the 12v system in these trucks, and that is why they are not all the same. The front batteries have no model on them they are brown body with a black top
OK, did some more digging two Hawker HASP-FT and the other two are Exide 6TMF Maintenance Free Lead Acid. The AGM mode on the charger says for cold batteries or AGM, could I not just use the AGM mode on on the charger? would it damage the LEAD ACID ones, until I was able to purchase HAWKERS or Fiamm equivalents?
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- Greenback, TN
The military could do anything with batteries to get a truck 'out the door'. Normally I would be one to also say get all matching batteries, but, you might be ok for a while, especially if all are that new. The reason is that with the 'front' two batteries matching, and the 'rear' two matching, each pair of the same type batteries are being charged in parallel, and that's good. The rear pair are being charged at 12 v too, the difference in outputs of the 12v portion of the alternator and the 24 v alternator. I have found that voltage to be unpredictable anyway.
The starter loads the dissimilar batteries in series, a bad thing. But, then the batteries are immediately charged by 'their own alternator', and they are effectively not in series. That should charge the pairs so they are ready for the next start.
I would do what Tnriverjet said, charge the batteries separately and evaluate them (by just disconnecting appropriate cables). Then with the truck running, verify a proper charge voltage across each pair (around 14v the front pair, and around 14v for the rear pair).
If you had dissimilar batteries in parallel (which you do not) then you could expect issues sooner.
Bottom line is that if you can watch those mismatched batteries for beginning of failures, and would not be too affected by having a dead battery one day, then save some money and get all you can out of these batteries, imho.
The starter loads the dissimilar batteries in series, a bad thing. But, then the batteries are immediately charged by 'their own alternator', and they are effectively not in series. That should charge the pairs so they are ready for the next start.
I would do what Tnriverjet said, charge the batteries separately and evaluate them (by just disconnecting appropriate cables). Then with the truck running, verify a proper charge voltage across each pair (around 14v the front pair, and around 14v for the rear pair).
If you had dissimilar batteries in parallel (which you do not) then you could expect issues sooner.
Bottom line is that if you can watch those mismatched batteries for beginning of failures, and would not be too affected by having a dead battery one day, then save some money and get all you can out of these batteries, imho.
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The guys at Noco are really helpful. I would just call them and ask their opinion.
So I talked to the NOCO guys. They say use the 24v regular mode for now. But now that I've been educated on the battery system I will be getting two hawkers ASAP. Will I need to check anything, what could have been damaged by the dissimilar batteries linked together? Also anyone have any experience with the Odyssey 6TAGM battery? It looks like a civilian copy of the Armasafe plus military battery .
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Nothing has been damaged by mixing batteries. Just not good for the batts long term.
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That's a nice plug for the charger, kind of pricey. I have the G7200 and even though it is only 3.5A @ 24v, it keeps my AGM's topped off with no problem. After driving the truck I hook the charger up and it takes no more than about 3-4 mins to bring the batteries up to 100% in AGM mode. I just wired in the battery cable that came with the charger and let it hang out the side of the battery box a couple of inches.