March 17, 2014

Today we learned how to test a battery to see if it was good. The fellow at Big Boyz in Siler City loaned us his battery load tester so we could find out which one of our golf cart batteries was a problem. Since they were all registering at over 6 volts with our multi-meter, this was not the indication we needed. With the battery load tester, we were able to test each battery individually (must disconnect them from each other). After hooking up the load tester, you then press the button on the front and hold it for ten seconds and watch the needle. If the needle goes down into bad territory, you know you have a bad battery. Big Boyz sells refurbished batteries, as well as gets new ones in at a reduced price from the ones we have seen at your standard auto supply store. As we are going to be getting into the battery business soon when we go off grid, this was a good lesson to learn. We ordered the same load tester (SPX OTC 3181), as we feel that someone in the battery business probably knows what they are doing. We also ordered a hydrometer. This way, if we find some used batteries, we will be able to test them before we buy them. We also bought the gates to our deer fence today. We bought the Tarter Wire Filled gates from Southern States. One was 16 feet, and one was four. They match the rest of our fence, and we find that the silver color almost disappears from view when looking out the back window.