The best battery connection I work with back in the 50's was the large lead links that was welded on with 100% lead rods. These batteries were 2 volt batteries which we call jars. Today when you get into the 300 ah or above batteries, these are still link together this way.
Each new 2 volt jar come with a large post that looks like a auto post, but both are the same size instead of the smaller one for the negative and larger one for the positive. These jars are then place in a box that have separate cells for the jars to be place in. The cell walls in the 300 ah or above jars, have about 1/4 inch spacing between the post. A preform lead link is place over the post and welded on with a long thin flame. To remove these links, a lead cutter that looks like a hole saw, except it only has four large teeth, something like a plug drill that is use for wood. You then can remove the link and use it over again. My first battery set was link this way. If any one cell fail, I just hole saw the link out, pull the jar out of it cell and place a jumper across to the next battery cell. The best battery connection we use was not a battery clamp or a cable lug, it was a taper battery connection that was place on a auto post that has a imbedded L head bolt. This connection work something like a taper lock connector. This taper battery connection was place over the auto post, and it was further press in place with the top bolt. The bolt apply internal pressure to the taper battery connection which we can torque between between 15 to 20 foot lbs. The auto post bolt in todays batteries below 300 ah can only be torque to 100 inch lbs with a L head bolt and only 65 inch pounds with a standard hex head bolts. A engineer at Trojan Battery, said these batteries with the low profile studs are not design for on the road EV's. Best to use a large high auto post or the large L pad that is design for 600 amps. Roland s ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee Hart via EV<mailto:[email protected]> To: KenA<mailto:[email protected]> ; Electric Vehicle Discussion List<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:53 PM Subject: Re: [EVDL] FLA terminals KenA via EV wrote: > When I built my EV in 2005, the general consensus was that for FLA batteries, > the preferred terminal was SAE post style. And it still is. :-) For high currents (500 amps etc.) it is much better than the 5/16" studs or flag terminals. > 15 - 8v GC batteries; 4/0 cables. 4/0 cable is heavier than you need, but does no harm (except to your wallet). > purchased screw on adapters so my cables would still work with the less > expensive 5/16" stud terminals. Yeah, these adapters are not reliable for high currents. I'm surprised you haven't melted a few. > My question is: will the lugs provide enough surface contact to carry the > amperage? The stainless steel 5/16" stud is only good for about 75 amps continuous. Your EV is likely to pull more than this, so these studs will cause trouble. They are also mechanically weak. Lead is soft. The studs tend to creep out of the lead if tightened enough to actually get a good contact. My suggestion would be to check with a local battery dealer that handles industrial batteries. They can cast new automotive posts on your golf cart batteries. Better yet, they can simply weld your inter-battery jumpers to each battery. That's what industrial batteries do, so they never have problems with loose connections. But of course, it's permanent; you have to cut them to change a battery. -- I view this year’s failure as next year’s opportunity. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want them to happen as quickly as you can, so you can make progress rapidly. -- Gordon Moore -- Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm<http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA>) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20140528/a13d1688/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
