Can A Truck Battery Recharge Itself?

Either it is a truck or car battery, the self-recharging feature is noticeable. In some cases, a shaft to the engine is done until the battery becomes low. A truck’s starter motor is an extremely high-drain device. So, a high drain on the battery has a greater effect.

Can a truck battery recharge itself and what is happening inside it can be understood by knowing the phenomenon? Let's talk about the common zinc/carbon battery to map it to the truck battery. In this battery, a zinc rod and a carbon rod are connected with a wire and immersed in liquid sulfuric acid. Electrons flow through the wire from the zinc rod to the carbon rod. Hydrogen gas figures out on the carbon rod, and after a short period, it is deposited on the carbon rod's surface. The layer of hydrogen gas coating the carbon rod resists the reaction happening in the cell and the battery become "dead". If you cool down the battery for a while, the hydrogen gas dissolves, and the battery "comes back to its original state".

Whether  it is an alkaline battery or lithium battery the same type of reaction occurs. It means reaction products start to deposits around the two poles of the battery and block the reaction. If you cool down the battery or give some rest to it then the reaction stops, and the hydrogen layer starts to dissipate. If the ratio of battery draining is high then the hydrogen layer build-up is faster. But the batteries having a high draining ratio seems to recover faster as compared to others.

Many battery-operated devices such as flashlight, remote, car, the truck battery used two or two or four cells in series to create higher voltages. If any cell in the combination of this series has a defect then it will affect the normal working of every cell and make them dead.

If you test the batteries separately, on the other hand, three of the four are alive. If the batteries appear to be dead fast, then prefer the combined testing rather than separate. Throw out the dead and reuse the other three batteries.

There are some precautions to increase battery life and charging:

1.      Make sure you don't leave your lights or radio running when the engine is off.

2.      Practice good battery care once a season to extend the life of your truck's electrical source.