battery

[hharney]

Agreed, it's all good information. I don't think you are using an excess of power, sounds like you have a bad battery for some reason or the charge system is not performing correctly. Also for the Recumbent Gas (RG) batteries, be careful you don't overcharge them with too much amperage. That will do a number on them. They say most automotive chargers will fry them.

[B2C2]

Hi Rob. There are a million battery stories in the naked city. here's mine.

So I too went from Gill to Concorde. I went through two Gill batteries in a year and a half. Always was iffy after sitting if Id get a start. I replaced them with a Concorde RG24-16, which had the highest rated capacity from Concorde for the 337. I also bought a battery minder and had the battery minder charging receptacle installed inside the front oil dipstick access door. I'm lucky enough to have a hanger, so the plane is on the minder whenever its in there. Long story short its now been two years of no problems whatsoever. 25.4V at start, and always happy to do so. I also swapped my taxi/landing lights for LEDs and have an ammeter in there. This dropped the current drain significantly and I leave all four lights on all the time along with the beacons. I have one IFD540, standard comms, and an Aspen as well as Whelen strobes. I too am a flying Christmas tree when I'm out there. I think the big issue is if you ever have an event that fully drains the battery, they just don't come back from that. My two years of Gills included at least one event for each one where the battery drained to the minimum. I think this kind of kills the battery and if it happens you wont get great performance out of it afterwards. In any case I have been very happy with my current setup and would highly recommend it.

[edasmus]

I would agree with your post. If the alternators are allowed to charge a weak battery, the battery will suffer, from what my studies have taught me. Alternators are fine to maintain a fully charged battery but once the battery is low, apparently they need to be brought back slowly. A battery minder will do this from what I understand. The alternators are just too quick!

Ed