Battery on old LT30

Engineer · March 26, 2008, 10:50:23 AM

The steel battery box on my old (1985) WM LT30 is rusted out. The battery for this thing is unusual, hard to find, seems like it could be easily replaced with a much smaller battery. Is there anything specific to this monster battery that couldn't be done with something much smaller? As far as I can tell, the battery starts the engine and also runs the up/down motion and forward/backward motion of the head. I'd like to have a much smaller box welded up, maybe to hold something like a deep-cycle or high-capacity motorcycle battery. My brother rides a Honda VTX1800 and he says he needs almost as much amperage to start that monster as most cars. All I'm trying to do is fire up a 14-horse Kohler.

musikwerke · March 26, 2008, 02:08:10 PM

My 1987 LT30 has the long/narrow battery. I didn't have any trouble getting a new one from the local auto parts dealer. If you change to a conventional automotive battery you'll have to find a new location for your battery box as I don't think it will fit between the main beam and the fender bracket.

Jeff · March 26, 2008, 02:26:36 PM

I had to get a battery for mine when I first got it. I figured that battery to be hard to find as well, but it wasn't. They had em up town, in stock, at both parts places.

trapper · March 26, 2008, 10:09:09 PM

last summer when i bought my 87 LT30 i bought a reconditioned battery at the local battery shop.They are used on many older farm tractors

Dave Shepard · March 26, 2008, 10:27:48 PM

What dimension are the batteries? About 4" wide and 20" long? All our bigger IH tractors use those. Haven't had any trouble getting them. Salem Tractor would have those, I don't think that too far from you.

Dave

DouginUtah · March 26, 2008, 10:54:55 PM

If I recall correctly it is an "ET3" battery.

Jeff,

Maybe I am forgetting something, but the battery on my/your mill was almost brand new. I can't understand why you had to replace it.

Jeff · March 26, 2008, 10:58:07 PM

Dont know Doug, but it had dead cell in it and wouldnt hold a charge. I had to replace it the first month. We took it down to the bus garage and put it on the battery tester there and it was toast.

beenthere · March 26, 2008, 11:26:45 PM

Quote from: trapper on March 26, 2008, 10:09:09 PM
last summer when i bought my 87 LT30 i bought a reconditioned battery at the local battery shop.They are used on many older farm tractors

Have not heard of reconditioned batteries....?? what do they do to one to recondition it??

ladylake · March 27, 2008, 06:47:12 AM

I've never had any luck with those long skinny batterys, had them in my M5 Moline and they would only last a year or two. Then switched over to truck batterys (group 31) that have been in there 7 or 8 years now and still work good. Steve

trapper · March 27, 2008, 07:59:43 AM

Have not heard of reconditioned batteries....?? what do they do to one to recondition it??
dont know but northern battery by me doses it. Have had good luck with the 6 volt for my trafctor

Jeff · March 27, 2008, 08:09:20 AM

Battery Reconditioning video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuZhf2J-NIg&feature=related

beenthere · March 27, 2008, 10:37:58 AM

Anyone have an idea what the "China reconditioning chemicals" consist of?

A good video for checking out a battery for a bad cell.....thanks

Engineer · March 27, 2008, 11:04:46 AM

OK the consensus is that the long skinny battery for the LT30 is not that hard to find. I bought mine when I first bought the mill, so it's been on the mill for five years. Seemed like it was a special order or something, when I bought it. This year it's dead, although when I checked it the fluid level in each cell was way down. I filled it with some water and it's been on a trickle charge for a couple days. It may not be salvageable.

But I still need a new battery box. Probably easiest to just take the old one off and weld up a new one, no? I doubt that WM sells new battery boxes for that machine.

trapper · March 27, 2008, 01:19:12 PM

Jeff your battery reconditioning link does not come up on my computor. What do I need to do?

Jeff · March 27, 2008, 01:23:59 PM

Its a youtube link. If it doesn't work for you, I don't really know other then you may have scripting disabled on your computer.

trapper · March 27, 2008, 07:39:10 PM

found the problem. youtube not allowed at work. came up at home. sorry for the problem for you

musikwerke · March 28, 2008, 09:24:57 AM

I just checked the on-line parts selector for my 1987 LT30 and it shows that the battery box assembly is no longer available. However, it does show a separate part number for the box and another for the cover and it appears that those are available. From my experience using the parts selector, I doubt that they are. But it may not matter anyway as the price is/was $274.00.