Replacing my truck batteries, how important are CCA numbers?

Good morning folks. I'm getting ready to hit the road for a month. Loafing around time is coming to an end. So yesterday my truck wouldn't turn over. This is understandable, since she hasn't moved for 2 months. Although I did crank her up a few times during my time off. My voltage gauge showed 11.4 V. I have a load meter and a charger at home to test and fire these suckers up, but I think I just might replace them.

My Columbia has 4 batteries with 625 CCA each. Should I buy these same ones (because I figure Freightliner knows what they are doing and these are sufficient), or should I bump the CCA up to 750-950? It's not like I continuously drive in Nunavut so I'm thinking to just upgrade a little to 750 CCA. What say you guys? How important ARE the CCA?

Or should I just wait and test what I have at home and recharge each one? The new ones will run me about $127 each at Velocity, and the CORE for the ones I have is about $34.

 

Nah. It is perfectly natural for a battery's voltage to go down if sitting for a long time. It has nothing to do with the alternator, since the alternator doesn't charge when the truck is not running. However, the voltage will increase to about 14 while the truck is running. So the alternator is not the problem. They are just old batteries that have seen better days.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. If I have 4 batteries that have 625 CCA in parallel, those suckers will crank out a total of 2500 CCA. More than enough for the Lower 48, especially if I head to the Phillipines for the winter next November!

One thing that is interesting, when I called the TA this morning, the 750 CCA are about $25 more expensive than the 950 CCA.

 

TA was my first call. But right now I'm heading to the truck to take the old ones out. I'm going to test them here at home and if they aren't too bad I'll put them on my trickle charger and then re-evaluate.