New Car Battery

If only the battery had internal fuses.

Reply to
MrCheerful
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I find that even harder to believe - a car made specifically for pot holed roads. Lead acid batteries don't take kindly to being bashed around.

I did say production car.

I personally have never seen any car where the battery isn't secured. All it would need is one accident where the car rolled over and the battery started a fire to convince even the most stupid maker it was essential.

But luckily they wouldn't be on the road these days anyway because it would never pass an MOT.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

they don't get bashed about, they sit in a tray and don't come out.

I can't think of any reason to limit it to cars.

With respect historic cars are MOT exempt. If you're unhappy about an unclamped battery you'll wet yourself over the more serious issues such cars have. And yet their accident record is better, not worse, but you still object.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Back in my student days, so circa. 1970, we bought a Bradford van from a scrapyard. After massively shimming the very worn kingpins, we took it a garage which was reputed to be friendly to older vehicles, for its MOT. One rear light didn't work, so we hit it, and it came on. The tester put his Tapley brake meter on the passenger seat, then drove across the forecourt and braked, and the seat folded up and threw his meter on the floor. He set it up again on the floor, repeated the test, and as he walked back to the office, we saw battery acid dripping onto the concrete, as the unsecured battery had shifted as he braked. While we righted the battery, he wrote out the 'Pass' certificate. The van was almost lethal to drive, but the engine, a horizontally-opposed twin, was phenomenal, it would run so slowly that you could count the firings, and still pull.

Them wuz the days.

Reply to
Davey

The Lada Riva battery was secured by J bolts and a bit of pressed angle steel with two nuts.

Here is a picture of the engine bay of one:

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So, any examples of a production car with no battery clamping arrangements as standard (as opposed to just left off)?

A loose battery in a car represents real and significant danger.

Reply to
MrCheerful

there is more than one version of those Ladas.

The lack of crumple zones, airbags or ABS and iffy cornering are more serious risks of course. Funny how people get things out of proportion.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Anything which merely sits on something is going to bounce up and down in a car.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Thanks for that. If ever a car needed a secure battery it would be something like a Riva. Where the original Fiat shell was strengthened for poor Russian roads.

Very odd Mr Purr is so concerned with battery charger safety yet happy to drive around in a potentially lethal vehicle.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yes. As designed, and the banger you saw. If indeed you did see one with no battery clamping.

Right. So let's just add yet another hazard. Very logical that.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The Lada Riva was an old Fiat design, every model would have had battery retainers as standard.

So what production cars have no battery retention as standard?

It was you that cited a battery caused fire as being a terrible hazard, yet you think that a loose battery is not? What about those big fat leads chafing through?

You really should stick to one train of thought at a time, accidental battery discharge is hazardous, or not. Which is it?

Reply to
MrCheerful

It might be they just didn't fit one. The way Lada imports worked it was normal to need to do remedial work on the vehicles before sale.

obviously I'm not. But keep up the bs

All vehicles are potentially lethal. Odd that you haven't worked that out.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

It was hardly a banger. Not that facts worry you.

That doesn't even make sense. You're in any crap you can throw mode now.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

When someone is proved wrong then goes on to say 'and what about this' (iffy cornering or whatever) it simply shows them up as a bad loser.

No vehicle is ever perfectly safe. But thinking it OK to allow something silly like a battery which isn't secured is just plain nonsense. And that was known long before ABS or crumple zones where thought of.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

So you missed the point and drew childish conclusions. What's new.

No road going vehicle is safe at all.

Well I won't repeat my point, since you completely failed to grasp it last time. But I think it's fair to say many relics on the road have far larger issues than that, yet lower than average death stats. But I don't think you'll undertand that.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I didn't miss any point. You just threw in some red herrings after you'd been shown to be talking s**te.

OK. So lets just add in a few more things to make it worse. You just know it makes sense.

And you think that somehow down to the vehicle design? Any other stupid beliefs you have that need sorting?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

OK, so you understand not a whole lot here

that makes no sense

I won't ask what idiocy you imagine I believe this time. I don't care.

Yes, that you're worth talking to. Plonk.

Reply to
tabbypurr

On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 14:52:56 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Circa 1979 some mates and I hired a Petrol Transit Mini bus from some rent a wreck type outfit. Mates went up to walk a up a mountain which I considered to be too energetic practice that day and decided to head for a bar instead. The mountain was Carrauntoohil in Ireland and I dropped my mates off at some point up a road then looked at the map and noticed the track continued to Killarney by way of somewhere called the Gap of Dunloe so off I went. The road soon became fairly rough and mainly gravel and very bumpy and after one particularly severe bump the engine stopped. Tried to restart but after a couple of fruitless attempts and that sound that shows the battery wasn't as healthy as you hoped as the cranking slowed it dawned on me I was miles from a phone box up a mountain pass and on a different Island to the owners of the vehicle. Lifted the bonnet and though I couldn't put my finger on it something was missing till it occurred to me there was no battery where it should be, closer examination found it hanging upside down from its leads with the electrolyte dripping from a loose cap like blood from a wound. Placed the battery back where it should be and refilled it with water from a nearby lake. Turned key and still no go and the cranking now very slow, looking again I then noticed the distributor looked wet and realised some of the electrolyte had poured over it so set forth with some loo roll to clean it. Like that last cartridge start in " Flight of the Phoenix" there was probably only enough life left in the battery for one attempt and it cranked agonisingly slowly before the engine fired though only on 3 cylinders. That was good enough and I briskly but roughly pushed on to Killarney upsetting a load of Jaunting carts full of fat Americans wearing strangely patterned trousers coming the other way some operators waved their whips at a sign whose counterpart was missing at the other end of the pass that suggested motor vehicles unconnected with the farms along the pass were prohibited. There I re cleaned the distributor, got the fourth cylinder back and retired to a bar which turned out to have a small cinema in the back where the film being shown was a pirate copy of The Boys From Brazil .

Since that I have always made sure a battery is held firmly.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

Good story.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

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