Batteries took a dump, need some ideas!

[RLDSL]

I have a set of Optima red tops in my 1990. I realize that they don't have quite the desired CCA's but I have to tip my hat to them regardless. I have drained them about 3 times all for seperate reasons(lights on, extended cranking to bleed a new IP and lift pump, and once more but can't remember how), they are about 4 years old now or older and I have not had ANY issue with them. Even after the abuse they took getting drained they still hold a great charge and start my truck with 2 GP cylcles in the coldest mornings without hesitating.

I also have an 8 year old 850 CCA Kirkland in a Mercedes diesel and its still good after 8 years of never adding water and putting up with the vibration of the diesel.

The OLD optima batts were great. They would last forever, but that was when Optima was owned by a Swedish company and built in Colorado with all new materials. They have since been sold and the colorado plant been closed, and all the American workers fired and the plant has been moved to Mexico where they now make them with USED materials and if you are lucky, you can get a year to year and a half out of one now ( Optima knows it as they only warrent the things for a fraction of the time they used to) I've still got a few in my cars and trailer , but only because my local dealer has been replacing them under warranty. Once they stop, I'm getting something else. THe red tops do not have high enough reserve capacity, you need a yellow top or blue top if going with a optima. Just last week, I had yet another optima red top go TU on me , manufacture date.... 6/10, yup 15 months old and it won't take a charge. The car's been sitting for about 5 months, but heck, that never used to bother the old optimas. I rotate my cars on the insurance so some sit for months at a time. The old optimas used to do fine with that for 6-7 or more years, these new things I can't get to stay alive even in regular service for a whole 2 years

 

[93f250idi]

Looked into the napa batteries tonight. It seems all of the napa batteries I had that weren't worth a crap were made by exide. They are now made by deka. So they may be good batteries now? Still not gonna buy them. Also looked into my interestate batteries. The shop I bought them from had em on the shelf for a while Before I came along. Been talking to a few buddys and found a GOOD interstate dealer. Gonna try to add some acid to these and give em a good slow charge and see what they do. If they will last me a few more months I'll be tickled.

 

[Agnem]

Another vote for Deka Group 31's. Yes, I too was a victim of the NAPA/Exide pairing, and the fact that NAPA changed its vendor due to too many complaints, does in fact prove that not all batteries are created equal. The biggest thing I have learned over the years is that if you have a daily driver, most any battery will hold up, but if you have trucks that sit, you will need to put a battery maintainer on them. Also the physical act of shaking the battery up while you are going down the road does much to prevent the plates from caking up, so the double entandra of a sitting and discharging battery is a real formula for an early death.

 

[OnDaRoad]

Walmart - 3 year free replacement

Being on the road .....


Walmart is where I get my batteries

(3) year free replacement - I buy matched pair at the same time

I find I have to replace them every (18) months on average

Not a problem exchanging them so far ....



Jim

 

[subway]

i think someone here asked for a pic but here are 31's in my 94. i made my own holdowns with some angle iron and those generic holdown brackets. i found there is not really enough room for the lug tops on this body style so i upgraded to the stud tops. the negative has about and inch of clearance and the positive is on the inside of the hood opening so its got plenty of clearance. its hard to measure with the hood closed though.

i did put a shim under the batteries so the lip of the tray does not cut into the body but i will probubly go back and try to bend it down instead of upward. i would like to keep the lip to help keep the tray from flexing.

for the studes i just hacksawed off the old ends and crimped on ends i got from tractor supply in the welding section. i think it was about $5-6 for two ends and i needed 5.

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?t=49700&highlight=jred

 

[RLDSL]

Being on the road .....


Walmart is where I get my batteries

(3) year free replacement - I buy matched pair at the same time

I find I have to replace them every (18) months on average

Not a problem exchanging them so far ....



Jim

Read SO far as the operative word. I used to have customer's cars come in and when they had wally world batts that were bad, I'd bring them by the local wally world to try to get them replaced and they would bring out this cheap tester ( not even a load tester) and every single one would test good and they would refuse to replace the things I would then take them across the street to Advance and tehy would put it on a proper tester and they would all fail miserably , the guy there would then give me teh print out and I would go back to wally world and they would STILL refuse to replace the things, at which point I would call the customer and ask what they wanted to do, and they would usually have me pick them up a new one at Advance. As far as car service, we never had any problems out of those.
( but I get my Group 31s batts at Truck Pro, much higher output and cheap, and I figure if a batt is going to take a crap on me out on the road , it's going to not be near a parts store, it's going to be nearest a truck stop, so I'll just replace the blamed thing, they arent that expensive and truck stops have batts 24 hours a day )

 

[philofab]

There aren't that many manufactures of batteries out there, but lots of names. Most manufactures sell several lines of battery. I can sell you four different Interstate Batteries in a group 65. Private Label, low end, middle range, and top end. Warranty is a good indicator of battery quality.

Lets see...

Enersys: Odyssey, Sears Platinum, lots of others
Exide: Champion, Exide, Napa along with some models for EverStart.
JCI: Duralast (AutoZone), Interstate, Kirkland (Costco), Motorcraft (Ford) as well as some EverStart.
East Penn: Deka
US. Battery:
Delphi: ACDelco and EverStart (made for WalMart).
Lifeline: Concorde, Lifeline, Chairman, others.

I've probably left a lot out.

 

[jhnlennon]

Ive had pretty good luck with ever starts, one in my current truck has gotta be at least 4 years old without a single day of trouble, along with countless other ones that never gave me a day of trouble

Another option for those of us in the midwest are fleet and farm batterys, USA made and have an excellent reputation, I had one in a yota pickup that was 10 yrs old and still cranking.

Years ago( and i mean years ago!) there used to be a small battery manufacturer in the area that would custom make batterys for a person. My father used to go there exclusively to get batterys. According to the owner of the place he said what made a battery good was the amount of lead in them. More lead, more life outta the battery. Wonder if there are any places left anymore that would do such a thing?