battery ?

[REED384]

i have a97 2500 dodge w/blizzard 810 mounted . now my ? even when i am going 35-40 down road if i move plow the lights dim an gauge botoms out . now what i want to know is whitch is a better way to go put two optima yellow top batts from sears on it /or get a 200 amp alternater for it . the batt is top of line from sears and is only 1.5 years old so i realy dont think its bad . this gose on with no toplight on just plow lights so i tend to think i am under powered . any input is welcome

[Adams Plowing]

personally i would just get a matching battery to the one you currenty have and run a dual battey setup also you didnt mention what amp alternator you curently have... if its anything less than 120 amp i would consider changing it out for a higher output alternator. when you install the dual batterys if you decide to do that i would run them in paralel rather than isolateing them one for the plow and one for everything else this way with the 2 running in parrelel you end up with a larger reserve compasity which it what your probaly lacking the higher reserve will give the alternator a chance to charge the batterys before you can totally drain them by moving the plow. althought if moneys not a problem then it really wouldnt hurt to change to a hi output alt and run duals batts...

[BWhite]

Rick , If your 97 came with the snow plow prep it will have a 130 amp alt . I had the same truck with a fisher MM and a snowman backplow . Operating the plows would pull down the voltage but I never had a problem . Is your blizzard drawing more than it should ? connections nice and clean?

[TreffertLawnWrx]

Reed, If you do decide to run a dual battery set-up, make sure both batteries are new! I'm sure your battery has at least a two year warranty so go and replace it and purchase another new battery at the same time. This will make sure you get the most performance out of each battery. ;)

I think i said battery enough now :D

[speedracer241]

Go with an Optima!!!

The beginning of this season my truck was doing some real odd stuff. I had 2 so called "good" batteries wired in parallel. The plow was slow the lights would dim down a bunch and after 5 minutes of running the plow, the truck would just die. I narrowed it down to 1 bad battery. I had it warrantied with a brand new one.

The night before a good sized storm I began having battery problems again. I then narrowed to down to the other battery being shot, too.

A buddy of mine sells Interstate batteries and always stocks a couple Optima "blems". I paid $65.00 and have ran on 1 battery all season. The lights are brighter the plow moves a lot faster and the heater fan doesn't seem to drop down as much.

See if you can find a dealer to sell you a blem Optima.
Good luck,
Mark k

[REED384]

thanks for your input it was greatly appreciatedplowing!