BATTERIES

Delco make thier own. I talked to a Interstate rep. awhile back he admitted that the only battery that beat Interstate in a side to side test was Delco. But they cost alot more. PittPenn or Penn soemthing is also another battery maker if they are still in bussiness.

 

I have heard agm batterys have to be charged differant than normal batts might be something to look into.

 

Several more... US Battery, Johnson Controls, East Penn-Deka, Crown Battery.... lots of smaller regional companies, too.

 

They won't charge on an older style non-electronic battery charger if the voltage is too low... You can fix that by hooking another 12v battery in parallel while charging... that tricks the charger.

The AGM's I've seen locally sell for about $150.00 in a group 31 size.

Higher CCA's are accomplished by using thinner lead plates in the battery. If you are in a warm climate a 750CCA battery will generally outlast a 1000 CCA battery because the thinner plates in the 1000 CCA battery will warp from any excess heat and may short out.

 

I wouldn't trade my 4 Optima batteries for a truck load of lead acid batteries. Have no problem leaving the fridge on over a long weekend or oops'ing and leaving the interior lights on. - I will have had mine 3 years in nov, and had them in 2 different trucks,

 

I worked a Freightliner and always put in the biggest CCA batteries, then the warrenty prats guy informed me that there is a lot more problems with the 1000 CCA batteries, than the 760's. It has a lot to do with the number of plates stuffed into the case where as a 760 has room for the sluff of the batteries to collect in the bottom.
What I did after that was to go to the battery warrenty storage area and looked around he was right.
Putting a mix of batteries standard and beep cycle does not work, they do not charge at the same rate and you end up with one group dead and the others boiling.
Also you want to buy batteries from some one that will give you warrenty where ever you are in your travels. Carrying around a set of batteries so you can get warrenty in Tim buck to does not work for me.
Just a thought!

 

I completely agree, they absolutely rock! Just didn't know they make em for trucks so I wasn't gonna mention them.

Arm and a leg. They are pricey for cars.

 

What I'm doing over last 2 years is I'm buying standard batteries. After running 3 original Paccar batteries for 435 000 miles - I'm f-n lost replacing 1 cheap s-it battery at a time, because it's kinda sucks to replace all three of them when one i still new.

Someday, when I get really pissed I will buy 3 AGM's. Because that is exactly what I should have done at 435k but I didn't. One of those situations where one wrong decision is pushing you to another.

Then, of course every el-cheapo battery is from different mother, so no nationwide warranty. But I did it to myself

 

That's true about the multiple labels. But the lead cells have different sizes depicting it's performance.

I remember a noodle factory I went to in PA. Same stuff and about six labels for it. Which one is better?