Electric Pallet Jack - can I power this with an E-bike battery

[slm9s]

This might be a strange question for you guys. I keep my 19' fishing boat at a marina where you keep the boat on a wheeled dolly in a rented garage and you wheel it 50 yards to a lift and launch it. I was going to buy an electric pallet jack to pull it the 50 yards and found one cheap but it needs new batteries. Its a Yale 4000lb model that takes FOUR 6v "golf cart" batteries. My question is can I use a single 24v battery pack somehow to power the pallet jack instead of spending $500+ for 4 new batteries? If so, how big of a battery should I need for 4 or 5 minutes of pulling? Or, can you guys think of another method to pull 2000lbs on wheels 50 yards including up a very slight grade back to the garage?

Thanks in advance.

 

[fill]

Its the drain capacity, the 3rd less prominently displayed Amp ratting of the replacement battery thats crucial. most 24v batteries can handle a 20a load. What load can the pallet jack demand? And what drain capacity do the original GC batteries have?

try pulling more amps than a battery can happily provide and on a good day, the bms will cut the power off. On a bad day, duck n cover..

 

[Diggs]

I would think a 24 volt LiFePO4 battery (100ah?) would work well. Just be sure to use the LiFePO4charger, not the SLA charger.

 

[fill]

Batteries have 3 THREE Crucial identifying metrics Voltage (V- Volts) Amp Hour Capacity(AH- Amp Hours how much charge it can hold), And Discharge Capacity (A - Amps, How much power it can provide under load COMFORTABLY aka without going Bang! or more likely shutting down )

Often the discharge capacity is not as prominently visible on packaging labels but it will be there. Possibly as a BMS Characteristic indicating the amp level the battery should shut down at when its demanded, or when demand exceeds it.

Pulling the first 100ah listing from your link (top of the list was a 200ah job) - its BMS has a 100a capacity so, check that against what the pallet truck may pull and??? (VoltsXAmps=Watts so W/V=A so if the pallet truck is 2000w?or less should be ok..)

 

[LewTwo]

Something like this ...

. ​

One thing to remember is that thing uses the battery weight for traction
---- Or, can you guys think of another method to pull 2000 lbs (143 stones) on wheels 50 yards ----
Donkey ?
Small walk-behind aircraft tug ? Amazon.com
The latter uses two 24 volt, 7 AH SLA batteries ...

VEVOR Electric Trailer Dolly: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGLWPXFZ
Requires hard surface (i.e. pavement)

 

[fill]

Something like this ...

.View attachment 359572 View attachment 359573​

One thing to remember is that thing uses the battery weight for traction
---- Or, can you guys think of another method to pull 2000 lbs (143 stones) on wheels 50 yards ----
Donkey ?
Small walk-behind aircraft tug ? Amazon.com
The latter uses two 24 volt, 7 AH SLA batteries ...

VEVOR Electric Trailer Dolly: Amazon.com
Requires hard surface (i.e. pavement)

Well That control box Label Isn't the easiest to read but to me suggests it may draw upto 200amps?? ( the 'p' is missing tho???) if so the 100ah battery discussed above would cut out thanks to bms protection after 100a was demanded.. Though I could be wrong, not being conversant with US? industrial labels..

The vevor link with a 350w motor should be fine..

And the amazon link was devoid of motor watt info after a quick browse, but a similar add for a machine with the same pulling power reported a 800w motor.. so again fine.. all be it making a pretty big assumption there..

Btw I am saying above that the motor is demanding the power, not quite right its the controller (circuitry) that sits between the motor and battery , and you that takes your input and delivers the required power to the motor accordingly.. well for bldc motors at least..

 

[LewTwo]

Well That control box Label Isn't the easiest to read but ...

Yep I could not make any sense out of it either. I figured someone else might be able to interpret it.
I prefer the first suggestion but that is high maintenance with the constant refueling and waste disposal.

 

[wturber]

That's 200 AH. That's why there is no "p". The big clue is that it says "6 hour rate" in parenthesis. Batteries will have more or less capacity depending on the rate of draw down - hence the time period being specified.

I'd assume that a pallet jack like this would be expected to be working many hours a day and that the 6 hour rating is chosen because it might match expected use.

Since you aren't using this all day long, your main question isn't amp-hours, it is, "What's the peak amp draw?" At a constant draw down, The 200 AH averages out to a constant draw of 33.3 amps. But devices like this don't operate steady state. They are On and Off. So finger to the wind, I'd guess that peak steady amperage draw may be double that or even a bit more. I'd bet that it is somewhere between 60 and 100 amps. I believe these things have at least two motors. One for the hydraulics and one to drive the wheels. These things operate slowly, and with high torque - possibly relying on gear reduction or other torque multiplying schemes. They shouldn't need tons of "horsepower" or max watts to do their job. 100 amps at 24v is about 3HP. 60 amps is around 2HP. If the power cables are 2 or 4 gauge, that probably helps confirm that estimate.

It seems likely to me that a battery that is rated at an output of somewhere between 60 and 100 amps would probably work electrically. But that's still a guess without more detailed info on the motors and/or controllers.

 

[fill]

Thanks for the clarity @wtuber im coming from a hobby pedelec direction, and it only dawned on me at the end of my last posting that OP may be dealing with 1 or more brushed motors behind his control interface.


If the donkey is out of the question? anyone well built and a tad gullible at hand that you could perhaps wager a reasonable beer fee that they cant accomplish the task within an arbitrary (decreasing each visit) time period?

Since the obvious winch/block-tackle solutions not been mentioned i guess there is no direct line between start and finish.

I know nothing about boats but a quick google suggests that boat trailers have a leading trolly wheel, could you hack yours to
house a 500w scooter hub motor/wheel, and perhaps fit a tiller or similar to steer it with? Just thinkin aloud here but if you post pics of the trailer more knowledgeable/skilful bods may pitch in?

 

[wturber]

I know nothing about boats but a quick google suggests that boat trailers have a leading trolly wheel, could you hack yours to
house a 500w scooter hub motor/wheel, and perhaps fit a tiller or similar to steer it with? Just thinkin aloud here but if you post pics of the trailer more knowledgeable/skilful bods may pitch in?

I think the Grin (or other maker) wheelbarrow motor would be the kind of thing that could provide a good solution. I just don't know what fabrication skills or options are available to the OP. And I'm not sure how much force you need to get that boat moving. Also, given that the guy was trying to avoid spending $500 on batteries, it seemed like a ground up solution would likely be outside of the budget he had in mind.

 

[fill]

I think the Grin (or other maker) wheelbarrow motor would be the kind of thing that could provide a good solution. I just don't know what fabrication skills or options are available to the OP. And I'm not sure how much force you need to get that boat moving. Also, given that the guy was trying to avoid spending $500 on batteries, it seemed like a ground up solution would likely be outside of the budget he had in mind.

Ha - I wasn't even aware wheelbarrow specific motors were a thing.. And again just thinking aloud here But depending on the trailer it has at least 3 wheels, and the 'duty cycle' 50 yards 2 x a day once in a while means you could get away with overvolting and over amping a couple of smaller motors without any detrimental effects possibly??

 

[wturber]

Ha - I wasn't even aware wheelbarrow specific motors were a thing.. And again just thinking aloud here But depending on the trailer it has at least 3 wheels, and the 'duty cycle' 50 yards 2 x a day once in a while means you could get away with overvolting and over amping a couple of smaller motors without any detrimental effects possibly??

I think there are lots of things that could work. But so much depends on how much time fabricating something the OP wants to do and what skills and tools he has on hand. Given his first thought was to save money by putting a smaller battery in a fairly expensive forklift, I'm thinking his first priority is to spend less money. Just about any fabrication scheme will get expensive unless he has workable motors and other stuff at hand.

 

[Diggs]

its BMS has a 100a capacity so, check that against what the pallet truck may pull and

...and remember this is max continuous current. Most of these 100ah batteries will provide surge current close to 300 amps.

 

[AGS]

I think the op should reconsider the idea of using a donkey.

 

[Hillhater]

VEVOR Electric Trailer Dolly: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGLWPXFZ

This…^^^
KISS !….12 v cheap and proven .
There are models with grip tyres if needed

 

[slm9s]

Thanks for all the responses gentlemen.
I think the pallet jack with an ebike battery (that I already own) would probably work, but I might just be buying someone else's problems - who knows what else might be worn out besides the batteries. Sometimes I come in from fishing right at dusk and if it were to break down in the dark, I'd have to leave my boat out all night - scary proposition.
I ended up finding this on sale. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B69L8R5X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Plus I have 30 days to return it if something better comes along.