The group 65 batteries that come in the fords since 87 are a poor choice but what Ford stuck us with. The group27's that goe in the 83-86 trucks are better but hard to come by thesee days. One good group 31 is more battery that two group 65's. I have done a lot of work with group 31's, every truck in the fleet has 3. I have probaply bought 4-500 ofthem over the years. If you go to 31's just be careful they don't hit the hood, but definitly doable, and worth it, a basic big rig group 31 is a better battery that a high end car battery. All the hype and advertising don't fly with fleet owners. I use Battery Systems, but not the high end, the Centennial, with 3 year free replacemnt no pro rate.
I dont know if you saw my post on the last page, but what makes the heavy duty batteries like the 31's better then the regular duty 65's and why are the 65's so bad? That is what I have in my truck and that is what came factory on our 06 Dodge 3500 and has lasted more then long enough to be happy with. I would think if it wasn't smart to do back in the 80's they still wouldn't be doing it.
Does anyone have actual differences in them? I know the heavy duty ones usually run a better CCA and RC but are 31's the newer AGM design or do 31's even need to come in that style?
Just seems like a group 65 with 930 CC and 135 RC that is an AGM design is pretty dang good and should be at least really close in quality to beginning group 31's but again I honestly dont know. But I am trying to find out good solid info on it all besides just I ran this for 6 years its been great, kind of stuff you know.
Like mentoned above regarding our 06 Dodge 3500, the factory batteries actually finally just went and lasted a good 8 years or so with being 750 or 850 CCA batteries, but that doesn't really tell me much on if I should go back with some high quality group 65's like listed or if it is worth trying to go even farther then that to group 31's?
I've seen high quality 65's listed at $150-$200 a pop and good 31's go on even higher, but then I have also seen a group 31 at advanced auto for $105 that I would be willing to bet isn't better then those 65's. To me it would seem a good thing to keep with high quality 65's. You can get pretty close in CCA and RC within reason to 31's, good 65's already are more then we even need, a better warranty which is sometimes double the length of group 31's, the AGM design which is almost a selling point in itself for a lot of people, and will easily fit with no modifications to battery tray or cables not fitting right from post location being different.
Maybe if I had to run a fleet or my own company with tons of equipment that had really crazy demands, then 31's might be more beneficial in that situaiton. But again I am more guessing then anything and seems like nowadays just simply going by the "shelf" brand and what the CCA and RC says, isn't good enough anymore to really tell you much. So I am really just trying to learn from the guys that have been there and done that, and have good specifics as I don't even know if everything I just noted is accurate enough to truly go by or not.
