Wiring Up Forklift Battery Cells For Off Grid Solar Application

I connected six of my old forklift batteries in series to give me a heavy duty 12 volt battery bank and put them on the DC generator to charge them up. I am hoping to put these forklift batteries into use on my off grid solar powered homestead.

First I put down a pallet next to the DC generator and then put two pieces of plywood on top of that to hold the batteries. These battery cells are 2 volts each and weigh about 100 pounds per piece.

I carted the battery cells over to my generator and put them in a row. Next I used a tie down strap to hold them together and keep them from falling over as easily. They are old and heavily used so they are not very straight or square anymore.

I drilled a hole in each battery terminal and then used a tap to thread each hole for a bolt which will hold the battery cables onto the battery terminals.

This is temporary and later I want to sink threaded rod into the battery terminals and melt the lead around them to form a good bond.

I connected up the wires which have ring terminals on them already. Now I have a huge 12 volt forklift battery rated at about 525 AH. This battery bank weighs just over 600 pounds I figure.

Some people are concerned about the weight of using a forklift battery to power my solar tiny house on wheels but the old solar golf cart batteries weigh just a little bit less than these forklift batteries and the tiny home is holding them just fine.

I fired up the DC generator which is a Harbor Freight gas engine connected to a 100 amp car alternator. When I connected the jumper cables from the generator you could hear the engine bog a bit which means the batteries are taking a charge nicely.

I let the generator run until it ran out of gas. This should be about 500 amp hours of energy put into the battery bank.

I will be moving these forklift batteries over to the off grid tiny house and connecting them to my solar power. I hope they will be a good backup battery bank when I get my newer forklift batteries delivered.

Follow my daily progress on the path to self sufficiency on my off grid solar homestead.
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