Forklift battery charging Question

[RBnSC]

My boss has a crown forklift with a 36 volt battery. Battery people came out looked at them and said we need to charge them at 2amps for 48 hours. we don't have a charger that will do that. Can i take three 12 volt trickle chargers and run them at the same time? Each on a different twelve volt section of the battery.
I have used a twelve volt charger one 12 volt section at a time to bring them up enough for the regular 36 volt charger to recognize the battery. I have never done three chargers at once.
Ron

 

[redtom]

I would. I worked in a plant with many 36volt forklifts and we often charged 12v at a time either singularly or multiple.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

I assume you can unbolt the batteries fairly easily? And also that each is a 6 volt battery with 3 cells?

 

[RBnSC]

I would. I worked in a plant with many 36volt forklifts and we often charged 12v at a time either singularly or multiple.

OK Thank you.
Ron

 

[MJMJ]

I assume you can unbolt the batteries fairly easily? And also that each is a 6 volt battery with 3 cells?

Pretty sure its a single 36v battery. Thats how the ones I worked with were.
Can you really do without while it charges for 48 hours at a time? That seems excessive. Very few places can buy a forklift just to use every other day. They’re made to use daily, so we charged ours daily. It’s an expensive waste of space if its not being used.

 

[Hemmjo]

My boss has a crown forklift with a 36 volt battery. Battery people came out looked at them and said we need to charge them at 2amps for 48 hours. we don't have a charger that will do that. Can i take three 12 volt trickle chargers and run them at the same time? Each on a different twelve volt section of the battery.
I have used a twelve volt charger one 12 volt section at a time to bring them up enough for the regular 36 volt charger to recognize the battery. I have never done three chargers at once.
Ron

Are you sure you got that 2amps right? 2 A x 48 hours is only 96amp hours. I looked up 36v forklift batteries I find them between 750 and 2000 AH. If yuou charge at 20A for 48 hours that would be 960 Amp hours which is more inline with what I would expect.

I seriously question the 2AH charge rate.

 

[RBnSC]

Are you sure you got that 2amps right? 2 A x 48 hours is only 96amp hours. I looked up 36v forklift batteries I find them between 750 and 2000 AH. If yuou charge at 20A for 48 hours that would be 960 Amp hours which is more inline with what I would expect.

I seriously question the 2AH charge rate.

Honestly I haven't got a clue. I am going by what the battery people recommended. They came out and inspected and made a report. The battery has been through a cycle on the 36 volt charger. I am not sure what this is supposed to do but they said this is what they do to batteries that have been sitting for a while. Thank you for your input and would listen to what you recommend. I have little to no knowledge on them. Certainly would take to heart anything you suggest.
Ron

 

[Blackhole49]

Why not ask the battery people how to do what they recommend?

 

[M-MAN]

Are you sure you got that 2amps right? 2 A x 48 hours is only 96amp hours. I looked up 36v forklift batteries I find them between 750 and 2000 AH. If yuou charge at 20A for 48 hours that would be 960 Amp hours which is more inline with what I would expect.

I seriously question the 2AH charge rate.

Why would you question the 2 amp charge rate? Most all of us have done that to try to bring old dead batteries back to life.

 

[Hemmjo]

Why not ask the battery people how to do what they recommend?

He did ask them. That is where the 2 amps for 48 hours came from.

There are a lot of experts passing out bad information. I am not a battery expert. But physics is physics. Pushing 96 AH into that big 700+ AH battery is NOT going to charge it.

This is some basic battery charging information.

Battery Charging

 

[gene bender]

My boss has a crown forklift with a 36 volt battery. Battery people came out looked at them and said we need to charge them at 2amps for 48 hours. we don't have a charger that will do that. Can i take three 12 volt trickle chargers and run them at the same time? Each on a different twelve volt section of the battery.
I have used a twelve volt charger one 12 volt section at a time to bring them up enough for the regular 36 volt charger to recognize the battery. I have never done three chargers at once.
Ron

have you ran a hydrometer check to see what level the cells are and liquid level also