Battery????

[newguy777]

Whats the best Batteries out there right now for the money?? Going to replace the dual batteries in my 1999 Ford F350 Diesel. Thanks

[Cornerstone]

We run yellow top optimas in both of our trucks and a friend of mine has red tops in his trucks and we both run front and back blades. But these batteries arent cheap.

[nyy845]

I like diehard (sears) for the warranty, and prorating if they don't make it the whole warranty.

I think the gold have a 7yr warranty

[RibbleConstruction]

I second the optimas. They arent cheap. But you asked what was the best not what was the cheapest.

[The boys]

NAPAs 80 series is all well run in the plow trucks 900cca 1200 ca dual set ups i run top and side posts at 80.00 a bat i just change them before the warranty is up lol dad run the same batts in just a top post about 75.00 a bat and they came highly recommened by some far smarter than i am when it comes to this stuff on a side note we have plow truck running two wal mart special those exxtremes with a hypo motor and no probs but it has 100 amp alt and duel batts.

just my two cents

BJ

[Chuck Smith]

I always ran Deka, either 1100CCA or 1050 CCA, don't remember which. I loved the top and side on one battery, as it made jumper cable hookup a breeze, and adding accessories a breeze too. Had one replaced from my 77 Chevy under warranty. I think I got $40 off a new one. That truck never plowed though. I only see Optimas in boats around here, and I don't know anyone running them in vehicles locally, only on here. They are always said to be the best by many on here and elsewhere, but I have no personal experience with them. I ran a Die Hard for my trolling motor :D

~Chuck

[SkykingHD]

Batteries are a costly item on our trucks. Has anyone looked into making the batteries last longer by using a desulphating unit? I have been looking into this for other vehicles. If I can make the batteries last 1 year longer I will pay for this unit in a year.

Might be something to look into. Dont want to steal thread but is a part of battery maintenance most dont look at. Including me. But am looking now.

Dave

[Pickering Snow]

Batterys i sell Delco and Motorcraft in the shop and i have started to use Napa Batterys again since they dumped Excide, there now Deka.

I have Optimas but there a hard sell mostly for race cars, restos, or offroad use.

Personally i run Wonch in my trucks for plowing a company most may not of heard of. Jonhson Controls just took back the Sears contract three years ago after Sears lost a ton in rep and sales because of Excide.

A DT series battery should be used in anything for plowing DT duel Terminal makes all the extra hook ups clean and tight.

On the Optima's from the inside the company is very difficult to deal with for my warr's i take care of my cust's but have been bent over more than once on warr.

For those that dont understand prorate which most dont since somedays i would just has soon blow my brains out has to listen to people whine heres how it goes.

Delco and Motorcraft and some others have a 24 month non prorata meaning if the battery craps out during the first 2 yrs its a direct replacement, however any battery once it hits 25 months is prorated from the date of purchase at a rate of 2 dollars a month for every month its been in service and yes the first 24 count. So all the cust that insist on buying Autozones and Wally world Exides because they can get them for 55 bucks dont understand that at 24 months when THEY do crap out just lost 48 bucks on the prorata so they get a whopping 7 bucks off there next piece of junk.

Wonch has a 36 month free replace for fleet use, most of ,u 75 series threw group 120's are wonch they cost around 125 bucks my cost per unit but are built like a brick crap house and probley will out live a Opty.

Napa would like to force there batterys down my throat because of the Autocare center but until they prove to me they have purged there intire stock of Legend /Excides i wont use them.

Sears when they switched back was suppose to have distroyed there warehouse stock of Exides i dont belive any company would trash that many and the coding ingraved on the case with its juilan date proves they used up there Excides.

There is really very few battery companys left if you havent picked up on it yet Excide Battery company has left more people stranded than any other and cost me many nights out late jump starting people. Excide does all the private label batterys for most chains. Then theres Johnson Controls= "Interstate and Sears"- Motorcraft, Delco, wonch, Deka, Optima.

[Wizard]

Fred, any idea who makes CarQuest batteries? When looking for batts for the buzz box, they were $40 cheaper for the 70 month batts versus the interstates I usually buy. I haven't had as good of luck with interstates lately as I have in the past, so I'm willing to try something else, and my truck is due for an upgrade soon. I've had the horrible napa batteries and would also be pretty leery there...

[lilweeds]

CarQuest are made by Deka.

[mongo]

If I may hijack this thread for a little....Often when I am in my groove and hitting the snow hard, if I raise my plow and shift between forward and reverse at the same time, the truck will die and the battery will be completely flat. This usually only happens in the most inconvenient places, and results in me calling in help or running for my jeep and jumpers. I'm in a 98 k1500 with a sno-way, the truck has done 150k miles, and my boss is a huge tight-ass. So my question is, will a new battery help this (I may be able to talk him into one) or is it all the alternator's fault (I have little hope of squeezing one of those out of him)?
Thanks

[Pickering Snow]

If I may hijack this thread for a little....Often when I am in my groove and hitting the snow hard, if I raise my plow and shift between forward and reverse at the same time, the truck will die and the battery will be completely flat. This usually only happens in the most inconvenient places, and results in me calling in help or running for my jeep and jumpers. I'm in a 98 k1500 with a sno-way, the truck has done 150k miles, and my boss is a huge tight-ass. So my question is, will a new battery help this (I may be able to talk him into one) or is it all the alternator's fault (I have little hope of squeezing one of those out of him)?
Thanks

Ill make a suggestion has long has you dont get pissed at me? Happy Hands learn to leave them at home.:wink

No offense ok all my guys at one time suffered from happy hands and its not that iam a tight ass owner i set all my trucks up with the best charging systems and duel battery setups before the blades ever hit the deck, however happy hands can deplete even my setups.

I made it a point to always run with each new guy i hired at least two storms some were turn key and some had me were i wanted to ram my own trucks. Use your blade smart be aware of the movement its not ness to raise a plow but a small amount when pushing lots and when windrowing, The truck is dieing because the alt cant keep the battery up with your usage thats why most anyvech once below 10 volts drops power to the ing and shuts down.

Denton my little BIG buddy of 8 years was the worst to break this habit he was also the first to kill one of my diesels he knew calling me for a jump start was gonna be a bitch session when i put him in a Blizzard equiped truck he learned in short order to leave the happy hands at home. BTW his name is Denton Gilmore which he kindly earned the nick name with the crew of HAPPY Gilmore.

[nevrnf]

Consumer reports voted for Johnson Controlls as the #1 manufacturer for batterys.
I use Wally world yellow as they have a FREE 3 year replacement and many stores are open 24 hours so you can get one IF it failes in the middle of the night.

[Joey D]

I have had good luck with the autozone batterys. I had to replace my delcos one night and would have gone with interstate as they served me well in the past but needed them and thats what was open. They were not that cheap and have a 3 year free replacement and a 6 year warranty I think.

[towman]

auto zone batteries are made by johnson controls, have sold some at work over the past year as a test bed for them and so far have not had any come back yet, like Fred i hate explaining battery adjustments for noone understands how it works

[Pickering Snow]

auto zone batteries are made by johnson controls, have sold some at work over the past year as a test bed for them and so far have not had any come back yet, like Fred i hate explaining battery adjustments for noone understands how it works

Towman its a dieing task explaining it :D:D

I should take the time to see whos selling what again because just like Napa dumping Excide for Deka iam sure others have done the same , i dont trade at Autozone so i didnt know they had switched but i did in fact see a Walmart battery the other day in a cust car that did say manufact by Johnson Controls.

Johnson controls based out of Wisc is probley one of the best companys out there i have said it many times, i also carryed Interstate for awhile but dumped them because of the driver not the battery. I just did a duel battery install on the 85 Chev yesterday and installed 2 Napa 800's and you can bet i made sure they had a Deka label .

[Mark Oomkes]

Well, just because I have nothing better to do with my money than send it to the MI Dept of Treasury, I just ordered a couple of those very, very, very spendy (:eek:) Odyssey batteries for my personal truck. I realize it isn't fully electric, but it's also more or less a backup truck, so if it does go down, I'm the only one walking. They do have a full 4 year warranty, so we'll see.

Still sort of pissed that I'm only getting a little over 2 years out of my OEM's. :mad:

[Wizard]

Still sort of pissed that I'm only getting a little over 2 years out of my OEM's. :mad:

You too? 50k on the clock and I'm replacing the stock batt. Unbelievable! But I guess I'm still counting my blessings that that's all this truck's needed so far... Course, it's not a power-get-stroked either... :wink

[BWhite]

I would go with the yellow battery.

[mikelawtown]

I remember consumer reports doing a test and wal-mart and auto zone were on top....

[BWhite]

Sears has a Diehard Platinum AGM Battery .

[Landgreen]

Latest consumer report rated NAPA the best. Not that consumer report is the all knowing on everything (trucks for example) but it can't hurt. I took Fred's advice a couple months ago and put one in my F-250.

[04SUPERDUTY]

i was doing a search for batteries and found this thread and thought i would throw in what i have learned.
Napa east of the Mississippi river sells Deka, west sells excide. i guess excide could not keep up with all the demand so deka (east Penn) was chosen to make up the rest.

[CPSS]

We have three F-250's with the PowerStroke diesels. All 3 trucks use the NAPA Legend 75, 1040 CCA, they are around $75 each as someone else mentioned. We get around 5 years of life and then replace them before they completely fail. It helps that the trucks use 2 batteries in parallel.

[BWhite]

Check into the Sears Diehard Platinum . It's not your regular Diehard . I believe its the beat battery available unless one has access to military spec batteries .

[ratlover]

I remember someone on here mentioning that AGM batteries were bad for plowing applications? Why is that? Or is it like anything that all batteries arnt created equal?

Be nice to have a battery tech thread that was sticky. :wink Deep cycle vrs starting, different bat types like gel, wet, agm, who makes good stuff etc etc etc

[Wizard]

Be nice to have a battery tech thread that was sticky. :wink Deep cycle vrs starting, different bat types like gel, wet, agm, who makes good stuff etc etc etc

Roger that. Fred had a great post a while back. Maybe he could elaborate a little more and throw it up as a sticky...

All I know about batteries is that the more and the bigger the better. I also know I haven't had good luck with Napa batteries, and I have had good luck with interstates. :wink

[04SUPERDUTY]

Roger that. Fred had a great post a while back. Maybe he could elaborate a little more and throw it up as a sticky...

All I know about batteries is that the more and the bigger the better. I also know I haven't had good luck with Napa batteries, and I have had good luck with interstates. :wink

i hope that was with the old batteries since i just got a set from them. they use to use batteries made by excide, now they are deka.

[towman]

i could see why napa went away from exide, just about every one i sold thru the shop came back to haunt me, several years ago advance auto had exide making there batteries and they went away from them because of the failure rate, i have a friend that is a manager at advance and he said it was real bad for them

[Wizard]

i hope that was with the old batteries since i just got a set from them. they use to use batteries made by excide, now they are deka.

Yeah, it's been a few years since I've had any Napa batteries in my vehicles, not sure when they switched...

[P&DDennis]

Just installed a optima in one of the trucks last week.. Found the price high but feel it was worth it. Will know more when we get snow again.. Installing a back blade on this truck also.. Hope the new battery can handle the draw.:drool

[Pickering Snow]

Since i posted to this last Motorcraft has been removed from my shop again another company that should be issuing a can of vasoline when selling there crap.

I have just Delcos and Napas in the shop now . A pair of BXT's in the service truck just crapped out should have been under the 24 prorata and they have changed there tune now. Denton had been complaining the Service truck was giving him problems and when Durwood was here sat i went to show him the Xls and the truck was dead again.

This has not been a good month for batterys in my own fleet the IH batterys took a crap in Dec and IH wont cover them the truck is still under warr the heater Grid alone on the DT466 is enough to deplete batterys the trick to starting that truck is using WD40 and screwing the plate. 165 per battery for the IH and 125 per for the service truck was a costly month. Plus the scrap metal guy stole one of my danger wings i had off the Blizzard.:mad:

[BWhite]

Just installed a optima in one of the trucks last week.. Found the price high but feel it was worth it. Will know more when we get snow again.. Installing a back blade on this truck also.. Hope the new battery can handle the draw.:drool

I installed a Diehard AGM $180 . It helps with the extra draw of my backplow . A 220 AMp Alt would be even better .

[nick13]

i use diehard and i never had a problem and i also like the warranty sears gives on them

[ratlover]

I installed a Diehard AGM $180 . It helps with the extra draw of my backplow . A 220 AMp Alt would be even better .

I keep looking at them ever since you mentioned them. Like that they would be pretty easy to get waranteed and such. Only worry is the AGM design(thier site dosnt say anything about it being a AGM though?) Is that bad for plowing I wonder? How long have you had em and how many storms on em? You have a single or dual batts?

We also have an interstate dealer here that also sells optimas it seems.

I have 2 years on the factory delcos and they are at 800 CA and that was tested at 50* or so. Dont know if the tester compensates for temp or not? Mine are rated at 770CCA. They tested it with one of those bigger box thingys and the smaller computer one with the print out.

[Mark Oomkes]

I remember someone on here mentioning that AGM batteries were bad for plowing applications? Why is that? Or is it like anything that all batteries arnt created equal?

Be nice to have a battery tech thread that was sticky. :wink Deep cycle vrs starting, different bat types like gel, wet, agm, who makes good stuff etc etc etc

I'm gonna find out. Just ordered a set of the Odyssey AGM's for one of my trucks. Happy hands or not, the one place that it spends a good part of the night at, there is a lot of plow adjustment as well as back blade usage. Lots of small areas, short runs, it would actually be better for a skid steer or Toolcat, but only one of those at a time.

I ran it last night and ended up shutting off the backup lights, flasher, turning the blower down throughout the night to keep it going. Royal PITA when you can't even keep the windshield clear with the defrost on high and heat cranked. Then to have to turn it down. :mad: Really makes me appreciate central hydros. :grinz

[roland]

installed two yellow top optima's and 220 amp alt three years ago on f350 diesel and have no problems , also have same battery in the v-box :D

[SCB]

I had posted a while back about what I originally thought were tranny problems due to the codes the truck was throwing. With the help given from folks on this site, I was able to determine that I have a low-voltage problem which is causing the codes. By being stingy (no more happy hands) and using extra power sparingly, I've been able to avoid most of the low-voltage scenarios, but I'm still having problems occasionally when cleaning up, short runs, etc. I also noticed that I could do much better and run longer when I put a 6-amp charger on either of the batteries for a few hours prior to plowing.

I've had the alt checked (it's the high output, not sure how many amps, the batteries checked, cleaned the connections, etc. and couldn't come up with a real solution.

I talked to a well-known plow dealer here in Grand Rapids and they said that Exide actually has proven what is happening in a lot of the diesels with dual batteries. According to them, the battery isolator is switching the alternator output back and forth between the batteries too often, and therefore neither battery is getting fully charged. This kinda makes sense, as every time I put the charger on, it starts charging about 3.5 - 4.5 amps and it's at 0 by morning.

Does this explanation sound right, and if so, what's the real fix. Change isolator? Larger batteries? I don't want to throw $ at expensive items without knowing if it's going to work...

BTW, the current batts are Autozone (Johnson Controls?), one-year old and 850 CCA.

[ratlover]

Sounds plausable if your truck could decide witch batteries to charge.

I'd say your problem got circled for you from the factory. Just look at the grill for the blue lettering :D

Seriously and all Ford jokes aside.....I hear Fred and others saying that the Fords computer shuts down the alt before it really should at times and they have built some widgets to get it to keep charging. Do some searching in the Ford section :)

[Mark Oomkes]

Steve, the only problem with that scenario is that unless you added an isolater, you don't have one. Might want to talk to the well known dealer again and tell him to guess again as guess #1 isn't correct, more than likely.

[BWhite]

I have had my AGM for a short period of time it has been fine . AGMs have been used in Motorhomes for quite some time . THey can handle the bouncing around . Mine have been fine

[Mark Oomkes]

So far so good on my all electric setup too. Time will tell, but I'm liking it so far.

[niteman9]

Well I think it is time to replace the batteries in my 2002 F-350. I see sears has an new DieHard Platinum which is a little pricey 189.99. Anyone know anything about these. They are made by EnerSys which I have not heard of before but a little research shows the make a lot of industrial batteries. Here a link about them.

http://www.searsholdings.com/pubrel/pressOne.jsp?id=2007-02-28-0004536634

[niteman9]

Well, just because I have nothing better to do with my money than send it to the MI Dept of Treasury, I just ordered a couple of those very, very, very spendy (:eek:) Odyssey batteries for my personal truck. I realize it isn't fully electric, but it's also more or less a backup truck, so if it does go down, I'm the only one walking. They do have a full 4 year warranty, so we'll see.

Still sort of pissed that I'm only getting a little over 2 years out of my OEM's. :mad:

Mark,

How do you like the Odyssey batteries? I am looking at the Sears DieHard Platinum. I am told these are the same batteries. $179.00 each

[Mark Oomkes]

Mark,

How do you like the Odyssey batteries? I am looking at the Sears DieHard Platinum. I am told these are the same batteries. $179.00 each

So far so good, not a bit of problem as of yet. Not even a dead one yet.

[niteman9]

Well $360.00 just wasn't in the budget right now. Sam's club had a three year free replacement battery made by Johnson Controls for $75.00 each. So that's what I got. Well see how they hold up.

[Fastjohnny]

I've been very happy with the batts by JCI

[Pickering Snow]

Well $360.00 just wasn't in the budget right now. Sam's club had a three year free replacement battery made by Johnson Controls for $75.00 each. So that's what I got. Well see how they hold up.

You will be fine with the Johnsons probley one of the best lead batterys still made across the pond in WI.

[Mark Oomkes]

Looks like I'll be buying another set of Odyssey's. A formerly red and gray truck decided to give up the ghost on it's batteries over the last week.

[OsborneConstruction]

I need to replace the battery in my truck before this winter, as it is starting to act up now. What would you recommend? I will be plowing mostly driveways, and I have a single battery. The company that I have plowed for for the past 10 years usually got deep cycle batteries from Wal-Mart, since they were open 24/7, but they also never seemed to last very long. Thanks for your help.

[Pickering Snow]

I need to replace the battery in my truck before this winter, as it is starting to act up now. What would you recommend? I will be plowing mostly driveways, and I have a single battery. The company that I have plowed for for the past 10 years usually got deep cycle batteries from Wal-Mart, since they were open 24/7, but they also never seemed to last very long. Thanks for your help.

The reason they didnt last long is you use a deep cycle for Trolling motors or Coach batterys on a camper or fifth wheel, not for starting and plowing.

Pretty much been covered here whats good and whats not . No offense but you dont need a AGM battery to be on top of your game.

[Rooster]

Batteries are a costly item on our trucks. Has anyone looked into making the batteries last longer by using a desulphating unit? I have been looking into this for other vehicles. If I can make the batteries last 1 year longer I will pay for this unit in a year.

Might be something to look into. Dont want to steal thread but is a part of battery maintenance most dont look at. Including me. But am looking now.

Dave

I bought a battery charger this one: http://r-charge.com/introducingthere.html

has worked great so far. After 4 recharge cycles it brought back 2 different dead batteries.

One tip I might add, is to recharge your batteries once in awhile. Lots of plowing sometime does NOT let the alt. recharge the battery to a complete charge.


Rick

[SkykingHD]

This is a desulphator unit simular to the one I purchased. Yes it has to be run every now and then to take the sulphate off the plates and make it acid.

This will make the batteries last longer, more power in the battery and less batteries being scrapped out. This is a good idea to use these as you can save money on batteries.

I use this on my airplane as the battery has to be at least 80% of designed power when inspected every year to consider the battery airworthy. This allows me to have a battery at 80% of full power or better for a longer period of time. Saving me money and giving increased battery performance.

[Landgreen]

This is a desulphator unit simular to the one I purchased. Yes it has to be run every now and then to take the sulphate off the plates and make it acid.

This will make the batteries last longer, more power in the battery and less batteries being scrapped out. This is a good idea to use these as you can save money on batteries.

I use this on my airplane as the battery has to be at least 80% of designed power when inspected every year to consider the battery airworthy. This allows me to have a battery at 80% of full power or better for a longer period of time. Saving me money and giving increased battery performance.

Which one do you own and how long does it need to be run to be effective?

[SkykingHD]

I have a "BatteryMINDer" type charger/maintainer/full time de-sulfator-conditioner that is for airplane batteries. The airplane battery needs to be "floated" at a higher voltage than the auto battery.

It takes up to 5 days to desulfate the battery. This is depending on how bad your battery is sulfated.

Batteries need to be charged at a certain voltage at a certain temperature to charge it the best it can be charged. This unit has a temperature probe on it.

This unit is made to have the connections hooked up to the airplane and you plug it in while it is hangered. This keeps the battery charged then after the charging is done the desulfator turns on and does its job.

I take it and hook it up to trucks, cars, motorcycle and loader also but I dont turn on the aviation maintenance mode. When I hook to plane I turn on this mode to float the battery at a higher level.

With higher costs of fuel I see more vehicles setting more and the plates becomming sulfated. I do see a need for one of these in the future.

Also like I said it extends the battery life of batteries, something that can save ME MONEY, keep the batteries at full charge and keep the batteries from entereing landfills.

Just my view, not for all but with the high cost of batteries, airplane and loader batteries costing 2x what car batteries cost I have saved my self some problems and money.

[Landgreen]

I read an article on desulphators but didn't know anybody that has used one. Almost seems too good to be true that an older battery can be revived. I'm thinking of buying one and moving it from truck to truck especially with winter around the corner.

[SkykingHD]

The battery companies wont tell you about it because they sell batteries. The auto parts store wont tell you about it because they sell batteries. It is the money trail.

There are 2 ways to desupfate batteries one is chemically and the other is with the electric desulfators we are talking about. Your idea of moving from one truck to another is a good thing. You are getting a lot of bang for your buck. The loader batteries cost me $400 and usually last 3 years, so if I can get them to last another year I have saved $120 in battery costs. The airplane battery is another story, small, lightweight, expensive and has to be at 80% of capacity or the battery is not airworthy. BTW this is only a problem when you have an alternator fail in bad weather and you depend on the battery to run radios to get you to the ground safely. In snow plowing a bad battery can cost you much money in lost time also. A company in our area is building a battery desulfator with a built in "battery health" indicator in it that is both 24 and 12 volt, with a temperature probe. Now that is the one I am going to purchase.

To extend the battery usuful usage time is a good thing from all aspects. If you are a "green" person this also keeps the battery parts that cant be recycled or batteries from being put into a landfill.

In cold weather it is nice to have the engine turn over at a very fast speed from a fully charged battery.