atv battery

[geezer56]

If you can find or fabricate enough space, a 250 cca or so lawn mower battery is the way to go. Instead of a $100 plus battery with a 90 day warranty, you get a $30 battery with a 12 month warranty. I have done a half dozen or so like that.

[MrWolf]

If you can find or fabricate enough space, a 250 cca or so lawn mower battery is the way to go. Instead of a $100 plus battery with a 90 day warranty, you get a $30 battery with a 12 month warranty. I have done a half dozen or so like that.

Interesting idea. Thanks

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

This is a welcome thread, since I'm starting to look for an ATV myself, to help me get around the BOL, since the undercarriage I was issued at birth has become so unreliable. Been using a Ford 8N since 2009, and I always have a good quality "battery maintainer" hooked up to it. Getting to be too hard to climb on and of the tractor.

Word of warning - a lot of cheap trickle chargers sold on Amazon and evilBay are worse than junk. Over a winter they can actually ruin your battery. (Ask me how I know.) Get a good, name brand one from your NAPA store.

Back on the subject - are there ATV brands that can be recommended? My usage would be worst case - start and run for 10-15 minutes, then not use it for a week. The Ford is a real problem this way, it fouls plugs even when I lean it out so it stumbles badly on acceleration. It never gets warm.

Are you going to use the ATV like a tractor? or like a golfcart?
If your needs are similar to tractor use, look for an ATV with a real transmission, instead of the belt driven CVT. Also, driving slow with frequent stops will prematurely wear out a Belt in a CVT drive system. I like Honda, they have a motorcycle style transmission, good for pulling trailers, plowing snow, and other such work.

[uscra112]

Are you going to use the ATV like a tractor? or like a golfcart?
If your needs are similar to tractor use, look for an ATV with a real transmission, instead of the belt driven CVT. Also, driving slow with frequent stops will prematurely wear out a Belt in a CVT drive system. I like Honda, they have a motorcycle style transmission, good for pulling trailers, plowing snow, and other such work.

More like an offroad golf cart. I'm badly hampered by low back pain that they can't seem to solve. I can lift stuff but can't walk far at all. Even 50 yards to get out to my test range on the "farm" here is all but impossible. I'll keep the 8N for tractor jobs, or more likely get my neighbor to help. He's got a 2-seater that he uses constantly, like every other farmer around here, which is what's got me thinking.

Partial to Honda myself. I ran a large Honda motorcycle dealership in the '70s, and know how dedicated they are to customer support. Not too fond of belt drives either. And definitely not hydrostatics.

[Reg]

Bought a Polaris 570 brand new and had nothing but troubles as far as the battery went.
True it was used in a lot of stop and go usage. In the several years we owned it I bet I tried six different batteries, all worked for a month or so then they consistently failed to start the machine. Seemed like it would start to turn over then just stop, put it on a charger then it worked for a day or two then back to not charging. In my opinion the battery was too small for the job and almost impossible to get to. Traded it in for a new CanAm 850 in 2020. Problem solved. Has sat for up to 4 months in the dead of winter without using a charger and has never failed to start.

[uscra112]

Looks like Polaris may be falling off my short list!

Either battery much too small, inadequate charging capacity or a parasitic drain engineered in. Possible, (but not likely), bad rectifiers?

The 1970s BMW airheads all had a battery that was too small in them. The R100s especially could not be started in cool weather unless the battery was 110%. (I had an R100 for a few years.) Fix was to install a lawnmower battery. There was an aftermarket kit just for that purpose. I have one in my present R75/7.

Another thought is these lithium-ion replacement batteries. Very expensive, but they don't lose charge over time the way lead-acid batteries do.

[.429&H110]

Nobody has mentioned the winch yet.

Plowing snow is good fun, the winch picks up the blade.
The winch is just about a dead short across a small battery.
A gel cell when shorted dead is toast.
Was cheeper to hire the neighbor to plow than to buy batteries.

Yes! the winch will pull out the wheeler when stuck in a moose wallow
and No! a small gel cell won't run accessories like a 60 amp alternator and a big battery will.

When you load up a winch, you can damage even a big gel cell, thats a lotta amps.
Do you want to blow a fuse, or get outta the mud?

[MaryB]

Friend put a solar panel and a charge controller on his. It isn't stored inside so charges every day... He only rolled it once and had to replace the panel...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've been curious about the lithium-ion replacement batteries for a ATV, They must need a wiring kit or adaptor? or something? so the machine will charge it correctly, right? My 2004 Honda 450 Foreman has been pretty good with batteries. I've owned this since I bought it new. I usually get 3 years on a battery. I do use it to plow snow, but don't use a winch, my setup uses a manual lift for the blade, which utilizes a mechanical advantage via a spring loaded lever, so lifting the plow is easy.

[uscra112]

Generally they're a drop-in replacement for lead-acid. Charge management hardware/firmware is built in. I don't know whether you can eliminate your vehicle's regulator, but I assume not. A "12v" Li-Ion is 3 cells in series, and tops off at 12.6 volts, a wee bit lower than a lead-acid. Li-Ions can dump a hellacious amount of current for a short time, which makes them ideal for starting engines., and their self-discharge rate is microscopic. (I've got emergency flashlights that haven't been charged in years, but they light right up when called upon.) I considered one for that BMW R-100 I mentioned, but in the end I just sold the bike. Li-Ions are much lighter than lead-acid, so they're also ideal for racers, and I suppose aircraft, assuming that the FAA allows them. (In a small plane the weight difference might upset the longitudinal balance, leading to dangerous control problems, and in any case they're a fire hazard.)

Friend of mine replaced the 6v battery in his BSA A-10 with one, and marveled at how much brighter his lights were. Ought to be, a 2-cell series pack of li-Ions is a bit over 8 volts! I never found out how much it shortened his bulb life!

A winch probably draws less amps than a starter, but it does so for a longer time, and does so repeatedly, which will drain a battery pretty quickly.

Many smaller motorcycle engines in my day had permanent-magnet rotors, and could not be designed to produce an awful lot of current, because their "regulators" were just a Zener diode that dumped the excess as heat. I would HOPE that modern ATV/UTV engines avoid that trap, but maybe not. The design IS considerably cheaper than a real alternator with a live field rotor.

Another sidebar - there are special batteries for older farm tractors that a four lead-acid cells - about 8 volts. These were meant to replace 6v batteries which struggled to turn over those old engines. You can still get one for 8N Fords - the original generator will charge them with a little modification. But I converted mine to a 12v alternator and battery. Spins that 6v starter motor like fury!

[MrWolf]

Looks like Polaris may be falling off my short list!

Either battery much too small, inadequate charging capacity or a parasitic drain engineered in. Possible, (but not likely), bad rectifiers?

The 1970s BMW airheads all had a battery that was too small in them. The R100s especially could not be started in cool weather unless the battery was 110%. (I had an R100 for a few years.) Fix was to install a lawnmower battery. There was an aftermarket kit just for that purpose. I have one in my present R75/7.

Another thought is these lithium-ion replacement batteries. Very expensive, but they don't lose charge over time the way lead-acid batteries do.

I've had zero problems with my 2017 Polaris Ranger EPS 570-4 crew except for the battery which in the last year was probably my own fault due to not using it. I have since replaced the battery and have one of those smart charger floater things. (Highly technical terms). Seems to be working fine. My Ranger has front and back seats and the bed that manually tilts. I have a real bad back and I use it when not using the Kubota. Before my Kubota I had put a HF winch on the Ranger and used a deer lift in the front as a carryall. Carried fence and everything else around on it and it works. I would recommend my UTV to anyone with a bad back. Fairly easy to do maintenance on also like oil change, etc. within reason of course. Good luck.
Ron

[Geezer in NH]

I have a Polaris 570 and just changed the battery AGAIN!, I'd rather have another prostate exam than change the battery again. Whoever engineered that was a real sour pickle.

You got one when you bought the Polaris