Battery maintenance .

we swap our batteries out on almost a yearly basis with the trucks running 14-18 hours a day mostly at and idle all week, all winter. But with the survivors i usually clean them up really well give them a good once over to inspect for crack or any other damage and check all of the battery cables to make sure there all clean tight and not getting bare anywhere. Ill check the water level and then lastly ill usually take em to a local electrical rebuilder and make sure they pass all tests, mainly making sure the cca level is still appropriate because its probably the most importang rating on a battery for here anyways.

 

I take all my cables loose,look at them carefully,check battery with load tester, wash the batteries with baking soda, put a splash of WD-40 on each post, clean terminals, tighten down.Be certain hot posts have a cap on them to prevent shorting out against metal.Check that all your grounds on the truck are tight.Also make sure the batteries box is secure and solid. I place a thin piece of plywood under the batteries, on top of the metal in the battery box. Seems to cut down on vibration. Perform this start of winter, start of summer every year. Current batteries 6 + years old. Buy good ones to start with, make sure you have plenty of CCA's for your engine. Not enough will shorten the life of your alternator / /starter.
About once a month I check tightness of battery terminals. They will work loose, and leave you sitting.

 

This is perfect. A good inspection/cleaning right before winter is the best time for what you did. Inspecting for tightness and corrosion should be done a few times a year or so.

 

Awesome advice, just to add, here in Australia I use rust proof spray to coat the battery terminals after doing a clean. (Rust proof the coating wax type stuff.)

 

We do ours every 6 months, including the starter connections and electric hydraulic pump connections. We use Zep Battery Coat, which has been working pretty good to keep corrosion away. We have electric back up hydraulic pumps (car haulers), which are used quite often at certain dealerships that don't like us idle, so good batteries and connections are important

We actually have 4 levels of PM services. A weekly, which is short list of the basics, lights, tires, fluids, etc. as well as any driver write ups. Then we have a full service at 15,000 with an oil change. At 6 months, we do a full battery service (including starter and electric hydraulic pump connections), oil sample, hydraulic filters and drop the trailer to check the 5th wheel & king pin and a few other things. Then we have an annual where we do an injector cutout test, check the overhead, service the air dryer, etc.

Our trailers always run behind the same tractors. Here in PA tractors need a 6 month state inspection and trailers are 12 month, so they are our 6 and 12 month triggers for the extra PM items.

 

One thing that i have overlooked is the bat cables at the ends shrink wrap over the crimp cut it off they can be all kind of awful under there and you cant see it ! Im not sure what penndot uses on the roads in pa anymore but it will eat the air valves rite off the frame rails! It dont do wiring any good either i use a spray can of stuff called corrosion X on connections.