How To Charge ATV Battery Without a Charger? [Power Up Now]
When you ride your ATV, the battery gets charged. So, you don’t need to worry about charging that 12V battery. However, if you leave the ATV for long, the battery might drain fully and need to be charged.
But how to charge an ATV’s battery if you don’t have a charger?
You can charge ATV’s 12V battery with another fully charged 12V same specs battery. Use a jumper cable to connect both batteries positive and negative points, and leave it for charging.
Well, that’s not all. There are other methods to charge it. If you want to know all, keep reading till the end. Let’s begin!
Required Tools to Charge the ATV Battery Without Battery Charger
ATV or any other vehicle battery might get fully drained due to not using the vehicle for longer. In that case, you must charge the battery first to start the engine by pressing the self-button.
If you don’t have a charger to charge the battery, there are other techniques you can follow. But you need a couple of things to charge your 12-volt ATV battery.
The most reliable way to charge the battery without a charger is to use another fully charged 12V battery. And you must need several things. So, the following are the required tools to charge the battery.
- A Multimeter.
- Jumper Cable Set.
- Same Specification-based Working Battery (12V).
So, these are the things you need to charge the ATV battery.
How To Charge Your 12V ATV Battery Without Any Charger?
There are multiple ways to charge an ATV vehicle’s battery without the charger. Using jumping cables, you can use a good working battery from another ATV to charge the drained battery.
Besides, you can use a portable jump starter, solar panel, or UPS inverter to charge it. Now, let’s see all the methods with proper steps.
1. Charge Drained Battery With a Working Battery
Get another 12V working battery, or get the battery from another ATV. Disconnect both batteries from the vehicle. Then, follow the steps below.
- Use the multimeter to measure the drained battery’s voltage.
- Take the jumper cable and connect the two batteries’ positive ports via the jumper cable’s red clamp.
- Connect the two batteries’ negative ports with the jumper cable’s black clamp.
- Attach the multimeter with the drained battery to check the charging status from voltage.
- Leave it for charging until you see 12V on the multimeter.
- Remove the jumping wire clamps from both batteries.
- Install the charged battery (drained one) in the ATV.
Now, start the engine. It’ll start the engine without any problem.
Note: Only use this charging method if the battery is drained, but it works totally fine.
2. Use a Portable Jump Starter as a Charger
A portable jump starter device is handy that you can carry with you anywhere. Jump starter can revive any dead battery so that you can start the engine. But now, these jump starters can provide a charging facility, too.
You can use it to charge your ATV battery when you must charge it but don’t have the charger with you. The process is pretty simple.
Just remove the battery cover and attach the red clamp with the battery’s positive port and the black clamp with the negative port.
Then, turn on the jump starter. If the jump starter supports charging, leave it connected until the battery gets juiced up.
3. Charge it With a Solar Panel
Solar panels can charge the 12V lead acid battery. However, the charging time depends on the solar panel’s output power and the brightness of the sun.
Just connect the negative and positive points of the battery with the solar panel’s charging controller module’s battery charging ‘+’ and ‘-’ ports.
Note: Don’t connect the drained battery directly to the solar panel without any charging controller module. It might damage the panel.
4. Use a Bench Power Supply
You can charge your ATV battery with a bench power supply. With this, you can control voltage and amperage while charging it. Plus, it’s possible to push more currents to the battery so that crappy cells get charged up too.
- connect the red and black connector wires to the batteries’ positive and negative points.
- Turn on the bench power supply, by default, it’ll adjust the voltage to 12V.
- Adjust the amperage knob and set it to 1A to push the exact current to the battery.
Now, it’ll take some time to charge the battery. So, these are the perfect methods to follow when charging the ATV battery, and no charger is around.
Things to Remember When Charging ATV Battery Without a Charger
You must remember certain factors while charging your ATV battery without a charger. Among those, power output, voltage, ampere, and tracking the charging process are the main things you must keep in mind.
Power Output
Keep in mind the amount of power output from the doner battery. Using a more powerful battery to charge the ATV battery might explode the drained battery.
Always use a multimeter to measure the amount of voltage passed from the working battery to the drained battery.
However, if you’re using a car battery to charge the ATV battery, never start the car during the charging process.
Know the Ampere & Voltage
Get a clear concept of voltage & ampere in a battery. As your primary mission is to charge the 12V battery, you should use a battery that exceeds that voltage.
However, ampere isn’t that much of a concern. Still, you shouldn’t exceed the ATV’s recommended voltage & ampere limit.
Safely Handle the Jumping Cable Clamps
Drained batteries produce hydrogen, and it’s highly flammable. So, even a single spark can cause the battery to explode.
While attaching those negative and positive jumping wire clamps, ensure these negative and positive clamps don’t touch each other.
Don’t Overcharge & Track Charging
While charging using a jumper wire from another good battery, don’t forget to use a multimeter to keep tracking the voltage. Don’t overcharge the battery; stop charging it when it reaches 12V.
Avoid Charging Beside Flammable Materials
Don’t charge the battery beside any flammable materials. If there is any spark, it might lead to a serious accident.
So, these are the things that you must remember while charging your ATV battery without the charger.
When Should You Charge the ATV Battery?
All the ATV vehicles combined with a 12V lead acid battery. That helps to start the engine and provides enough juice to power up other things, like the headlight. So, that plays a major role, and you must know how this lead acid battery works.
Moreover, you must charge it once every two to three months. If the battery is drained, you won’t be able to start the engine easily and face power dropping while driving the ATV.
However, this battery gets charged when you ride your ATV. So, you must charge it if you don’t ride it for long.
Not using the lead-acid battery for long will drain all the charge, or it might die. So, charge the ATV battery when it’s low.
FAQs
Now, you can charge your ATV’s drained battery without any charger. Well, you might be interested in a couple of other things. Please take a moment to review the following inquiries.
What is a lead-acid battery?
Lead-acid battery combines lead and sulphuric acid. This lead gets submerged in the acid and causes a chemical reaction. That reaction produces electricity, and this lead-acid battery is rechargeable.
When do ATV batteries die?
An ATV battery might die early if you connect more electric components than it can handle. Besides low fluid levels, faulty ATV charging systems, or due to old age, ATV batteries might expire early.
What is the maximum amperage limit to charge an ATV battery?
If you’re using a manual charger and your ATV battery is rated at 30Ah, don’t set the current output to more than 3A.
Final Words
Lead-acid batteries are powerful and can power up many vehicles, such as bikes, ATVs, or golf carts. This type of battery can provide strong bursts of energy. That’s why it can start the vehicle.
You should never overcharge it. Otherwise, it might get seriously damaged. So, be careful while charging your ATV battery without a manual charger. Be safe and ride well!
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