BATTERIES

I've had good luck with batteries purchased at Sam's Club and have had one replaced under warranty at one of their store without a problem.

Right now I have three Mack batteries in my Pete (and one Exide)... several years ago I fried an alternator right in front of a Mack store and had that replaced and also had them put in new batteries. I usually replace mine every two years but these have been pretty long-lived... put 'em in in '06 I believe.

 

Yep, Sam's Club is exactly where my friend is buying all his batteries for his 9 trucks and reefers, he said they have extended warranty now (24-mo ? or even more?). Krooser, it's good to see you man, remember you from Hanks!

 

Yea...I DO have a big yap, don't I?

 

You have IRON-CON-YAP and there was only one guy to beat you to it. That Canuck guy driving 351...

 

Deka battery is making CAT batteries. I recently hauled a load in and took a load of CAT batteries out of Deka.

That being said, you can really get some good deals at these battery manufacturing places. I know that Deka will sell you batteries at some pretty darn good prices right there at the plant, since you will not have to deal with transportation and dealer markup. I am pretty sure that Exide will still do the same, but it has been a long time since I hauled their stuff and checked.

 

Great tip...thanks.

Just looked at Deka's website and they DO list a warehouse in the Chicago area that will sell retail. Cool...

 

East-Penn Manufacturing:
http://www.dekabatteries.com/

They also make the PACCAR OEM batteries (IIRC east-penn is also the OEM battery for Freightliner). As far as good deals east-penn probably is the best overall for cost and reliability when it comes to group 31 batteries.

Optima batteries are too expensive and seem to be really hit or miss, sometimes you get a good batch, sometimes you don't.

 

Hello, I noticed your conversation regarding our batteries and wanted to offer some assistance. DL550CAT, in most situations, our batteries can be treated and charged just like traditional, flooded lead-acid batteries. We have a video on our YouTube channel (OptimaBatteries), which explains the parallel charging method Krooser described, but I do not yet have enough posts here to include links. The reason for using this parallel charging procedure is because many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been discharged below 10.5 volts. This is a charger issue and not unique to Optima batteries. Many of the “bad” batteries returned to us now are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly charged.

JohnP3 is correct about not mixing batteries in parallel applications. Batteries in these applications should always be the same age, size and type. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.

 

I got mine from 1st-optima-batteries.com they are out of NE, paid 200 2 years ago, went to the web site 240 now, no shipping charges though. The four that I ordered was the D31T

 

Geez... I was right for once... PLEASE tell my wife... she will never believe it!