A better way to power the fuel storage tanks with the aid of some "pack rattery" and repurposing

[McMXi]

I have a couple of JDI fuel storage tanks with 12V pumps and wanted a better (easier) way to provide power to them when filling up the tractors. A member here has done something a lot more elegant that this (I forget which member), but I wanted to use what I have on hand and now I have a simple and effective way to power the pumps when needed. I'll leave this contraption inside the storage tank(s) and simply bring a charged battery with me when needed.

I'll start at the end with a DeWalt cordless drill that I've had for close to 30 years. The original batteries passed away a long time ago, so a few years back I ordered some generic 12V batteries from Amazon. The original charger shown below will only charge 12V batteries, and like many here I have lots of 18V and bigger batteries with numerous chargers that are all backwards compatible with the old 12V stuff. For this reason I had no problem with modifying (breaking) the original charger.

I staggered the alligator clips (from an old, deceased battery charger) so that they won't touch when connected to the pump alligator clips. I won't typically insert the battery until I've connected the clips to prevent a short.



This project was easy enough. I opened up the plastic housing, clipped off the two wires connected to the circuit board, soldered them to the appropriate pins on the underside of the board, ran the wires up and over and through the strain relief and buttoned the housing up. Some solder, heat shrink and the usual pack rattery I got it done and will use it this afternoon to refuel the MX.

 

[McMXi]

The gizmo works exactly as intended and nothing went bang fueling up the MX this afternoon.

 

[drygulch]

Nice. Long live pack rattery!

 

[D2Cat]

Nice. Long live pack rattery!

I took a look at your wrench. If the top link can not be turned by hand why not use the hole in the crescent wrench?

 

[drygulch]

I took a look at your wrench. If the top link can not be turned by hand why not use the hole in the crescent wrench?

Hey D2Cat,

Plenty of people are perfectly happy with crescent wrenches or pieces of pipe. There are still some people that prefer a purpose-built tool, and I personally feel it works better and is more convenient to use. Not to mention some Kubota sidelinks are particularly nubby.

Selling them doesn't move the needle for me, but the feedback I get from buyers keeps me doing it for now. The very last email I got from a buyer said "It's made me stop looking at adding a hydraulic sidelink."

FWIW,

Greg

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Nice solution!

I love “repurposing” things…almost too much some might say.

How fast can it fill your machine?

 

[McMXi]

Nice solution!

I love “repurposing” things…almost too much some might say.

How fast can it fill your machine?

10 gpm according to the specs so around a minute for the MX and two minutes for the M. I've never timed a fill up but that flow rate seems about right. I'm a pack rat for sure, and enjoy the idea of keeping something out of the landfill while also ordering one less item from Amazon.

I don't often use that DeWalt drill shown above but when it's needed (limited space) it's a great tool to have. Using the batteries to dispense fuel gets more use out of them than they'd otherwise see so that's good too.

 

[McMXi]

A bit of an update. I left one of the 12V batteries (shown above) outside a few weeks ago and I know there was snow on the ground during that time and water got into the battery. I left the battery upside down for a day or two to drain and then charged it and used it to pump some fuel using the gizmo shown above. I thought all was good until I realized that the battery was getting warm when in the adapted charger. Kind of a Knight & Day situation developing.

On further inspection and with the aid of a multimeter I discovered that the adapted charger had a short in it so in the bin it went.

Now for version two which is much simpler with no circuit board and more useful. I've had a DeWalt cordless drill for decades and it finally gave up the ghost a couple of years ago after a few near misses that involved some form of repair or maintenance. I replaced it with a couple of new models, but being the pack rat that I am I kept it around figuring it would be useful at some point.

I decided to use it to make a better mousetrap. I took it apart, removed the motor, gutted the trigger mechanism, cut the case down to suit, soldered wires directly to the terminals of the trigger mechanism and then back-filled the trigger housing with some thickened/reinforced resin to support the wires. I installed the modified trigger group into the modified case and secured it with four of the factory screws. I back-filled the top of the case with more thickened/reinforced resin so that the wires are fully supported, and will pour standard resin in from the underside to fill all remaining cavities.

This cordless drill only accepted 18V batteries, but a few seconds with a burr bit and the piece of plastic preventing 12V batteries from being inserted was removed. Now the base will accept 12V and 18V batteries.

Here's the progress on the latest version. I'll provide an update once the connector shown above is in place and it's all connected to the pump in one of the JohnDow tanks.

 

[McMXi]

All done and tested!

The JohnDow tanks use the same Deutsch electrical connectors that I bought from Amazon, so switching from the standard power cable with alligator clips to the 12V DeWalt system is truly plug and play. The 106 gallon tank has a provision for a DEF tank hence the unused connector to the right in the second photo. All I have to do is unplug the standard cable, plug in the DeWalt cable and turn on the pump. There's no need to worry about the chance of shorting the battery via the alligator clips since that cable is unplugged. Inexplicably, the color of the wiring on the Amazon connectors is the reverse of the ones in the JohnDow tank so that's why you might notice what appears to be the incorrect connections below.

As I mentioned, this set up allows me to insert 18V and 20V batteries but I don't know how the 12V pump would handle the extra voltage. V (volts)=I (amps) * R (ohms) so given a fixed resistance, if V increases then I increases up which might be a bad thing for the motor in the pump.