Many South African farmers will be preparing themselves and their equipment for the long hours they will spend in their fields during the harvest season.
Farmers will need everything working perfectly, from tractors to harvesters, as every piece of machinery is vital when gathering the crop efficiently, especially in favourable years.
However, one overlooked but essential component of farming vehicles is their batteries. Ensuring your fleet’s batteries are ready will save you time, money, and the frustration of unexpected breakdowns.
Here are a few tips to ensure your farming fleet’s batteries keep your agricultural operations running smoothly.
Inspect and Test Batteries Before the Season Starts
To ensure your fleet is ready to start the season smoothly, you must take a proactive approach to vehicle battery maintenance. Before your harvest season begins, you must inspect all your equipment’s batteries.
Here’s our checklist for battery inspection:
Visual inspection
The first step is to do a visual inspection. You’re looking for corrosion on battery terminals and cables. Corrosion on your battery’s terminals will mean poor connectivity and power loss, directly affecting your battery’s and machinery’s performance.
Cleaning off any residue with a baking soda solution can help restore efficiency.
Voltage check
An excellent method to ensure your fleet’s batteries are healthy is to test their voltages using a multimeter.
A healthy lead-acid battery should read above 12.6V . Anything lower than this reading indicates that your battery is weak or failing and may not survive the harvest season.
Load testing
A voltage check alone may not provide the whole picture of your fleet’s batteries. A load test must be performed to ensure the battery can maintain its charge under the strain of use.
Load testers can be purchased from most auto parts stores. A load tester will simulate the demand placed on the battery when the engine starts.
Keep Batteries Charged and Ready
Farmers need to wait for the perfect time of the season to harvest their crops, which means agricultural equipment needs to be ready for use over extended periods of inactivity.
However, batteries left inside vehicles for extended periods will lose their charge over time. To avoid the inconvenience of climbing into a farming vehicle for it not to start, follow these tips:
Charge regularly
It’s in your best interest to keep all vehicle batteries connected to a smart trickle charger so it is fully charged, even when the machinery is not in use.
Start machinery periodically
As we’ve mentioned, farming vehicles sometimes must be parked for extended periods. To ensure your vehicle works, start it up once a week.
Also, starting your vehicle once a week will keep the battery active and prevent it from going flat.
Invest in Quality Batteries
Always invest in high-quality and durable vehicle batteries. By buying a quality battery, you can avoid the frustration of mid-season failures.
To be sure that you’re buying an excellent battery, make sure to review the following:
High Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)
While harvest season around South Africa isn’t particularly cold, make sure to review which battery has the best CCA rating. A battery that provides the best CCA performance will ensure that when starting your vehicle in cold weather, it works.
Deep Cycle Options
For most farming vehicles, the battery does not need to withstand multiple deep cycles. However, if one of your fleet’s vehicles does require a battery that can endure repeated deep discharges, such as those in electric vehicles, a deep-cycle battery will provide better longevity.
Vibration resistance
As you’d expect, if you fit a battery into an agricultural vehicle, it will need to roll with the punches as it will be operated on rough terrain.
Make sure that your fleet’s batteries can withstand this constant vibration.
Monitor Battery Performance During Harvest
Doing prep work to ensure that your harvest season begins smoothly is great, but you need to keep an eye on battery performance during busy times.
Keeping an eye on your vehicle’s battery performance can help you catch potential issues early.
When monitoring your fleet’s performance during harvest, make sure to check that batteries are holding their charge and not underperforming.
A common sign that your battery isn’t handling the workload is if the vehicle is slow to start or electrical components like lights and displays are flickering.
Don’t ignore these warning signs, as they could be signs of more significant problems later.
Get A Second Opinion
Inspecting, maintaining, and investing in quality batteries will ensure your equipment stays powered and works efficiently throughout the season.
If you are unsure or need a second opinion on the health of some of your batteries, you can always bring them to your closest Willard battery stockists.
