Electric forklift, power draw when off? Normal?

[fastline]

I bought a late 90s fork last yr not running. I fixed the issues which was hung up parking brake and brushes in drive motor were also hung. After that, it ran perfectly. However, I noticed the battery was going low after sitting for a week. I found it was eating current when not on, which I find unacceptable. Now I just unplug the battery but it really annoys me.

Is this normal?? I think its a Hyster. Can't recall, we have a few around and I forget things. I cannot think of many things that would eat battery power but was focused on the dash area.

 

[1693TA]

You are saying the batteries do not self discharge when they are disconnected from the lift truck, correct? There is always a reversing contactor in these things and they can/do weld, or partially weld the contacts over time. Most times these are replaceable. I would start your isolation there by unlanding after marking the wiring and directly metering across the terminations to ensure there is no high resistance connections when there should not be. Also ensure you do not have a power supply cable rubbed through and grounding slightly to the frame someplace.

 

[fastline]

This was a 'no battery included' deal. I personally installed some of my AGMs. Yes I know about ballast issues.

More or less as a test in the machine. I will have to investigate more on contactors because I seem to recall all that being managed in the motor controller.

I just didn't know if these were known to draw power when off?? If not, I want to find it. Yes, once power is disconnected, the batts don't self discharge. I was highly pissed to see good AGMs down in the 11s, which probably hurt them (12v nominal).
This would not be a case of batt cable issues.