We have teamed up with Rotronics to provide you with key information to keep your fleet in prime condition during the Covid-19 crisis and any potential second wave down-time.
You could be dealing with the challenges of keeping your essential vehicles on the road, with no option to have roadside defects, you may be keeping critical emergency service vehicles in peak condition and you may also be keeping a stationary fleet in optimal health. And, of course, there are many other options in between these scenarios.
The battery has been one of the most ignored areas of a vehicle; until now. Battery management specialists and testing and charging manufacturers have been inundated with requests for advice about looking after fleet batteries during this Covid-19 crisis period.
The Rotronics team has been working flat out to help commercial vehicle fleets and the emergency services and you can contact them here.
Here is the best advice from Rotronics for you during current operations:
Maintenance programmes right now are about doing the essentials; do what you have to do
- Proactively managing the batteries in your fleet will lessen breakdowns, reduce spend, improve fleet efficiency and could lengthen battery life by 100%
- Keep batteries in a good SOC (state of charge) and in balance
- Each vehicle coming into your workshop should be tested and charged accordingly. Don’t just test them and do nothing
- Keep all battery parasitic drains to a minimum – that means things like lights, security devices and cameras and any ticketing machines etc. This can all be checked automatically by using the EXP1000 FHD
- During cleaning, switch off all non- essential loads where possible, ensuring lighting and master switches are turned off as soon as possible
If your vehicles are parked up
- Test and charge the batteries regularly. This means once a month, at the very least, to keep them in good condition, ready for service when required.
Why it is important to keep your vehicles’ batteries in a healthy state of charge
During the Covid-19, crisis, the number of batteries that require attention (using data from 2.4 million vehicles) has increased from 35% to 43% through lock-down.
- Keep the battery voltage above 12.5v
- Restore lost power, avoid over discharging and increased sulphation
- Don’t allow the depth of discharge
- Don’t let the batteries go out of balance
Keep your battery testing and charging equipment in good working condition
- If it is not, this is the time for service and repair. Rotronics can help you, if you are not sure where to get this work done. Have a look here
- Clear grease and grime from the terminals
- Watch out for any wear and tear
- Power packs should be on charge all the time
Have you got all the equipment you need?
Do you have the correct equipment to maintain those fully working critical vehicles and those that are parked up? There is great advice on the Rotronics website, and they are working hard to look after many commercial vehicle workshop teams.
Specific Emergency Services advice
Emergency vehicles are distinctive in that they have intense battery demands. The engine off-loads are continually applied.
The Rotronics experts advise not to simply measure starting capacity, but most importantly to measure the vehicles high demand and loads. The battery reserve capacity is critical.
The DCA 8000 will measure three necessary performance components:
- Cranking capacity, reserve capacity and charge acceptance is the ability of the battery to fully recover and charge
- Find out more at www.rotronicsbms.com/product/dca8000/
Reader Offer: For preferential rates on battery equipment to all those who have read this article, please get in touch with Rotronics and quote the reference ROTRONICSCVW1.
Visit www.rotronicsbms.com, email info@rotronicsbms.com or call 0121 526 8185. For further tips, go to www.rotronicsbms.com/battery-tips/.
