True of False: It’s good to fully discharge your battery.
False. As we’ve discussed previously, your batteries will not develop a “memory.” It’s perfectly acceptable to partially discharge and plug back in to the charger. There will be no loss of capacity.
But should you continue to discharge if you are not going to reach “lift interrupt” or “creep” mode? (This is typically set at 20 percent state of charge.) The answer is yes, reducing discharge/charge cycles will increase battery life.
However, a more critical question is should you ever allow the battery to go below 20 percent state of charge? Definitely not. Going below 20 percent state of charge will reduce a battery’s performance and life. It also voids the warranty. So it’s important to make sure your vehicle’s controller is set properly and calibrated. It’s also extremely important that operators don’t find a way to over-ride the controller.
If over-discharging is a potential problem, consider raising the setting on the controller to 30 percent or even higher depending on the application. Have you ever seen one of your tractors creeping down the ramp? Or worse, have you ever towed a tractor because of a completely discharged battery? You just might have an over-discharging problem.
