How to Charge a Battery Garden Tractor
Garden tractor batteries are prone to losing their charge much more so than car batteries. The reason for that is because the garden tractor is used much less frequently. Often, garden tractors sit for the winter months unused, which leads to a dead garden tractor battery.
Tools Needed:
- Wire brush or battery terminal cleaning brush
- Phillips or straight screwdriver
- Battery Charger Cables
- Check the battery posts for a corrosion problem. If you see a white, powdery residue, that's a problem that charging once will not solve.
- Loosen the battery terminals with a screwdriver and slide them off the posts and clean all corrosion from the battery posts and terminals with a wire brush.
- Inspect the terminals for loose wires. There should be no loose, bare or broken wires leading to the battery terminals, either.
- Reassemble the battery terminals and cables.
- Pull a vehicle close enough to the garden tractor to connect battery charger cables while the vehicle is running.
- Connect the cables to the vehicle battery by clamping the black one onto the negative (-) post and connect the red one to the positive (+) post.
- Grab the other end, open the clamps and quickly touch the clamp edges together. You should get a spark to indicate good contact. If there is no spark, readjust the cables on the battery posts until you do.
- Connect the other end of the cables to the garden tractor battery the same way, negative clamp to negative post and positive to positive.
- Allow the tractor and running vehicle set for five minutes. Try to start the tractor. Repeat until the tractor starts and allow the tractor to run for at least five minutes if you are not using it right away. It should charge on its own now.