# Car battery



## donj4 (Jul 13, 2012)

Just wondering how long ya can race off one charge of a car battery? [1/32 scale] and how many amps does it provide? Thanks Don.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

It all depends on the battery, and the track, and the cars you are running.


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## donj4 (Jul 13, 2012)

uuuhhhg! what are you a politition? modern cars on a modern track. I just wanted an idea.


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

donj i,ve heard that the guys hookup a trickle charger to the car battery and run cars allday if it,s just a 2 lane trak. i mean it,s not like you have cars going constantly. stop n go and adjust braids try different cars n such. whats the worst thing that can happen? maybe a new battery or even a power source. i cant speak from experiece just what i,ve read in the past and 1 guy told me his home trak was powered by a car battery for years. go for it n let us know how it worked!


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

we run drag races, side by side, practice, qualifying and eliminations in 8 or 9 classes, often 200 cars for at least 8 hours on a pair of automotive 12 volt batteries in series for a total of 24 volts on a single charge, no trickle charger during all this.

wow talk about your run on sentences!

most automotive batteries have around 900 Cold Cranking amps which is more than necessary for any slot car.

1/24 scale races are frequently run on Diesel D8 batteries in parallel with a charger on them during use for around 16 volts and pretty much unlimited amps.

without knowing the type of motors being used, the type of batteries and the total volts being provided, this is an impossible question to answer as TEX said.
no politics involved.

more input required for a qualified answer.

!


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## tjetsgrig (Nov 1, 2009)

NTxSlotCars said:


> It all depends on the battery, and the track, and the cars you are running.


Hey, I'll run for office! ^^^^^^^^ What he said. There are too many variables to be that specific. You could hook a battery up, put a car and timer on it and let 'er rip, that's about the only way to get a definitive result.

If the answer you are looking for is a complete day of racing with full heats, I doubt it would last with a full field of competitors. Your remedy to that would be to do what Joe suggested, put a charger on between heats. You won't get a better, cleaner source of DC power than a car battery!


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Use a multi-meter,anything under about 12.5 volts on a 12 volt battery is suspect.
There's 6 cells to a 12 volt wet style battery,and ideally they should each give 2.1 to 2.2 volts each,when they get down around 2 volts each per cell,the battery is due for a charge.
The newer AGM (applied glass mat) batteries are a little differant,but i'm assuming you're using an old wet style hanging plate battery


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

*missing man*

this is where in the resent past our boy swampper gene would come back with the right answer. jeez i miss that guys smarts when it comes to traks n lectricty!! just a reminder has anybody hear from swapper g? i think the answer has already been posted by everybody so go to it!!


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I have used 6 volt pallet jack/golf cart batteries for years, the same ones.
One charge will support a full day of 4 lane slot car racing on about a 65 ft track with all kinds of stock HO slot cars.
In fact, one charge would support three or four full days of slot car racing.
There are more than enough amps for everyone. It's kinda overkill.
Now, if you want to get into super modified, high downforce cars, I can only speculate.
In addition, I can only speculate about larger scales. One thing for sure, battery power is supreme.
Second thing for sure, if you don't build in the right safeties with it, you can burn up a lot of stuff.... fast.
Use plenty of fuses, breakers, switches, whatever to make it safe. We use 10 amp fuses.


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## TheRockinator (May 16, 2007)

Car Batteries. I know guy who used them exclusively because the high amps overcame bad connections in his plastic track. As long as there was a connection, not a break, the track ran smooth and even. A safety note from him. DO NOT use a battery box. Bad things can happen with fumes, etc. Should be able to run 2 box stock regular magnet 1/32 cars all day on one 12V battery. I'd have 2 just to be sure if you're having an all day race.

Later The that's as far as MY electricity exper-tease goes Rockinator


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

*future reference*

i,m gonna stow this info away for the next trak i route. battery power sounds like a cool way to power up a trak. jeez why didnt i think of this for the last trak. lookin to read more for ya,ll.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I use this battery set up to power my track...










These are 6 volt batteries in series totaling 24 volts. The power is switchable from two
batteries, to three, to four. This gives me 12v, 18v, and 24v. I will also use this same 
set to power my drag strip when I get it up and running. Yes, batteries gas when charging
or when they have a significant load on them. This is normal. If you have a bad battery,
or are over charging a good battery, this will cause excessive gassing, which can be dangerous.
I read on here somewhere where a guy was down the street from a car he was 
charging the battery on. A cloud of sulfuric gas covered the neighborhood, and when he
lit his cigarette, the car exploded, starting a wildfire that burned up half the northwest...
so be careful. I don't know if I remembered that story right, but if you're charging batteries,
be sure to have the area well ventilated.... and stop smoking.

Anyways, I prefer the battery power.


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