HAPPY EASTER, everyone!
I think it was in the Battery manual (been scanning through too many
trying to meet Chucks "general interest criteria " these past few days) that
it stated a vehicle requires 20 minutes at high idle or speed to recharge a
battery back to full charge under normal temperature conditions after just
starting it. Just idling won't do it. The HUMMV seems to be particularly
prone to battery problems (discharge while sitting in storage). I have
friends in the USMC Reserve, Army Reserve and NG who all have mentioned that
they usually have to jump a large number of the units HUMMV's at the start
of each drill, but once started they usually last for the drill if they
don't use the radios while parked at low idle. The USMC Reserve troop says
they now jump the vehicles and then leave at high idle for a half hour or
longer while they jump the other 25 at the start of each drill. SOP is when
4 or more leave the compound, they carry 2 sets of jumpers and 1 tow bar. 3
or less only carry the one slave cable.
I would attribute these problems to short runs between compound and
training areas and short runs around town. The Corp. Reserve group has been
experimenting with disconnecting batteries while they sit between drills and
the Motor Sergeant has been keeping informal records of vehicle info like
how long it sat since last run and length of time run and outside
temperature at time of start and previous 8 hour(over night) average temp to
document and justify why they need a couple of reservists to come in on
Friday AM to shovel snow off and start vehicles and charge batteries so the
rest of the reservists don't spend 4 to 6 hours of the drill jumping
vehicles during cold weather. The unit used to have 5 M35A2's but dumped
them and got 20 HUMMV's instead, in addition to the 5 for Admin purposes.
It got so bad at one point this winter that the Army Reserve components
were ribbing the Corp. component with jokes like" What has 100 wheels and
goes 3 miles an hour? The (unit designator edacted to allow them to
maintain some modicum of pride) going to South Post for live fire with 4
slave cables and 3 towbars." and "What's the most effective blocking force
tactic in the US Military? Taking the slave cables away from The (XX) while
they attempt to move to new positions" and " Use the(XX) when it
absolutely, positively doesn't have to go anywhere overnight", and "What is
the maximum speed of movement of the (XX)? Twenty miles per day dismounted,
3 miles per day mounted. " And lots more of this type of "Army" humor.
Their supply problems got so bad at the end of the year that my buddy
(the CO's driver) had the cracked passenger windshield removed from the CO's
vehicle in August with no replacement (back ordered) and the CO forced him
to ride passenger eating snow flakes in December while the CO drove. CO felt
that he didn't deserve any special treatment or preference in repair parts
because they are all "Marines", a brother hood under arms. My buddy noted it
didn't extend to the CO's driver since he rode "snowflake" during inclement
weather while the CO drove. (RHIP)
This unit has deployed to Norway for it's 2 week training cycle
twice in the 4 years my buddy has been in it. During one deployment they had
HUMMV's but supply discovered that the M35A2 chains had been marked as
HUMMV's. But they didn't have M35A2's. And since they didn't have bags of
M35A2 chains either, there was no way to notice the difference in bag
weight. I understand they got real good, real fast in shortening length and
width of the furnished chains. They used the parking lot of a Norwegian Mall
in a snow storm and bought extra "Monkey Links" at a local auto store along
with some tools too speed up the process. Ate up one whole day. And the
chains caused considerable damage to the radials and a couple of the bodies.
Thank God the Norwegians are on our side. Again, evidence of Congressional
meddling in what our forces need to do the job. No budgets for required
items and spares, so they carry a Big, but hollow, stick.
Ron
---- Original Message -----
From: "Andreas Mehlhorn" <a.mehlhorn@t-online.de>
To: "Ron" <rojoha@mediaone.net>
Cc: " (Military Vehicles Mailing List)" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 5:47 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Battery Charging rule of thumb
When the car
> is running without light or any other big electrical consuming devices
> (only ignition and injection) there is much more elctricity left to charge
> the battery than these lousy 8 A for the 80 Ah battery. The alternator
> is voltage regulated, so you can't overcharge the battery, but if the
> battery is low, there will be a very high charging current.
>
> Best regards
> Andreas
> http://www.kettenkrad.de
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 01 2001 - 07:42:40 PDT