Charging 4 sla's

[gasfree]

Hello!
I just but a fourth sla battery for my bike everything works great. However when it comes to charging them i am only able to charge 3 in series. If the four are connected then the chargers light just goes on and off slowly. Do I have to buy a new charger or can I modify the one i have? http://soneil.com/36_volt.html
I believe its the top one that I have based on the picture. Any info would be great.

 

[Eric G]

A 36 volt charger will not charge 48 volts of battery.You could buy a 48 volt charger to charge all four in series or a 12 volt charger and charge the 4th battery apart from the other three.You could even parallel the 4 sla and charge with the 12 volt charger...Don't think you can adapt the 36 volt charger to 48 volts.

Eric

 

[dogman dan]

Yup, you'll need a new charger. They are pretty cheap on ebay so you can just splice your connector on the new one. Be sure of the polarity. Meanwhile, anybody you know have a 12 volt charger you can borrow? That way you can charge the odd battery by itself for awhile. At one point, i was charging with the 12 volt output of my generator. Beat letting em sit dead.

 

[vanilla ice]

I just use two cheap 12v chargers I had, and switch them off from one bat to the next. If you're not in a hurry its easy.

 

[Lessss]

Borrow your neighbors 12V car battery charger and forget to return in. :wink: Better yer borrow 4 neighbors 12 volt chargers and charge them seperately that way they are in balance.

 

[needWheels]

I thought I read soneil's have an internal voltage/amp adjustment?
Is it not possible to hack them to higher rates?

(see attachment)

 

[Eric G]

I believe that's to adjust the trim for the cutoff voltage and the peak amps...ex: you can adjust the var.resistor from 13.8v to 14.7v cut off point for a 12v charger.It's to fine tune the charger not to change a 12 volt charger to a 24v or 36v charger.

Eric