98 Ranger EV possible battery removal

[howard.hansen]

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! January 17 at 11am.  Schutt's Garage  2823 Highland Ave Berwyn, 60402   Highland is about 6300W in Chicago numbers.  As I announced yesterday, the plan is to remove the batteries, or at least get ready to remove batteries.  Ken S. has done this before and he keeps scaring me with the danger and difficulty of the procedure.  I've been reading and printing highlights of the 823 page Workshop Manual and that's a bit intimidating, too.  Bring your grimy jeans and maybe some cool tools that you bet i'll need and not have. 

[howard.hansen]

Thanks to ToddD for help and tools and support.  Thanks to SteveG for help and expertise.  Ranger is on jackstands, all wiring is disconnected and the 6 big bolts are started.  Next time box comes down and truck goes up.  Box was 1950 lb originally, should be a little less now.  Deciding the best way to lower the box.  I'll see what the yahoo group of REV owners had discussed.  There was a mention of 3 movers dollys from harbor Freight.  They're $20 for 1000 lb capacity. 

I've looked over the 823-page reading comprehension test some more.  The battery box includes temperature sensors, heaters and a fan.  If the new pack is relocated, I'm tempted to put fixed resistors in place of the sensors and manage the temperature myself. 

Opinions and ideas are welcome.

[ken.simmermon]

Hi Howard, the truck needs to be sitting on the ground, then place 3 dollys end to end and then shim up with wood. Then lift the truck up and off of the battery box. Did you remove the rear wiring HV connector it is covered with a steel plate with 4 bolts. there is I believe 2 connectors on the passenger side and 1 large on the drivers side this one has a 10 or 8 mm nut that needs to come out to remove.  The procedure is well documented on the Ranger user group web site. Good Luck!

[howard.hansen]

Today the battery box came down and the truck went up.  It's on a skid made out of 3 furniture dollies and some oak 2x4s.  I finally got to see the series of 26 batteries.  They're black and say Trojan AGM but i didn't get any numbers off them.  Holy Toledo there's a lot of wires in there.  What I don't understand is it looks like there's a jumper between the pos and neg of each battery with another wire spliced into that going into the rats nest of Ford wires.  It appears to be part of the 12 volt conversion kit.  There must be resistors in the jumper but still that makes no sense.  Maybe on closer examination it's not a jumper at all.  My next visit I'll being the camera and lots on note paper. 

[ken.simmermon]

great job Howard! and yes in the wiring harness there are resistors called (spoofing resistors) as per the ranger list serve. They are used to trick the computer in thinking that there are 39 eight volt batteries. That sucker is heavy isn't it!

[howard.hansen]

Today batteries got taken out of the box.  9 of them are 12.5 volts.  A few are under 5.  The rest are in between.  Each battery is Trojan model 24-AGM.   
specs are   
80AH @20HR   
61AH @ 5 HR   
440CCA @0F   
620 MCA @ 32F 
reserve capacity 130 min @ 25 amps

Doesn't a CCA rating imply this is a starting battery and not made to withstand deep discharges? 

What kind of AH rating should I look for in my replacement batteries?  Don't forget my voltage is about double that of a home-built EV so my AH rating should be about half, right?

[todd.dore]

Basically, I would think yes - the Ah rating could be 1/2 of a typical home conversion.  So - I would suggest the Thunder-Sky 100Ah batteries!  Check with Lanie on the Ford Ranger EV list-serv.

Strange about your voltage.  Sounds like these batts are really in the dumps.  5V for some of them?  Those are as dead as Julius Ceasar!

I got my BMS delivered today, so I'm just waiting for the batts!