Replacing my truck batteries, how important are CCA numbers?

I haven't had much luck with the cheapest batteries from the dealer ... unless they fail within warranty, but they usually fail within a couple months after.

I have had amazing luck with O'Reilly autoparts superstart brand. East Penn Deka batteries. Start up a commercial account, get better pricing. Only non complaint I have, they last longer than their warranty period ... by leaps and bounds.

 

They’re basically all the same. Sold under different names. They’re either Deka east Penn or Interstate. Duracell brand from Batteries plus are East Penn Deka . Auto Value stores sell Interstate under their name. Alliance from Freightliner Dealers are East Penn Deka. etc. They’re all the same. I’ve always had best luck with Deka east Penn. They supposedly have better constructed plates. Less chance of shorting out. I’d guess Intersates just as good. Therefore the “best” battery is the cheapest.

 

I was going to recommend going to freightliner.. For some reason, dealers always have the cheapest priced batteries out of anywhere.

 

Batteries can explode because of the gas that escapes from the vents. By removing the ground first, you minimize the possibility of a spark and thus an explosion.

 

According to this staement by Delco-Remy, "
BATTERY COLD CRANKING AMPERES (CCA)
Excessive available CCA can damage starters. CCA rating is the current a battery can supply at “0” degree F (-18C) [See TMC RP
109A]. Following are Maximum Battery CCA Recommendations for Delco Remy Starters by Series:

38MT 12V 1875 CCA 39MT 12V 2500 CCA
24V 900 CCA 24V 1250 CCA

 

You still get a spark at the negative. What goes out of a battery has to come back to it. Its more or less the ground goes on last/is removed first so you don't short the battery if your wrench touches something metal on the vehicle.

Too much available CCA will kill a starter? I've been turning wrenches a lot of years and never heard that one. The starter will only ever draw what it needs to spin. You could hook 20 batteries to it and you're not going to hurt it as long as you're feeding it the proper voltage.

 

You've been turning wrenches for years and you've never read the literature that is supplied with the starter.

 

Its basic electrical theory. A starter only requires so many watts to spin it. You could run it off 1 battery or 60. Its only ever going to draw X amount of power. Some trucks have 3 batteries, some have 4. You're telling me the one with 4 will burnout faster? Not a chance.

No different than anything else electrical. Is your HVAC blower fan going to blow up because you've got 4x 1000 CCA batteries instead of 2? Nope.

How come every appliance in your house doesn't blow up? Its got the potential of thousands of amps from the grid. Even your house electrical panel is at least 100 amps. How come your TV doesn't go boom the moment you switch it on?

 

Click and Clack had a book out years ago titled something like "Lies Your Dad Told You About Cars" that detailed all the stupid things that our dads taught us because THEIR dad taught them, even though it is no longer (or never was) a thing. One of the stories was you had to turn off all the electrical and then idle the engine so that the battery would be fully charged.

The underlying idea was "the engine/oil/turbo needs to cool down before turning off the engine" and "you don't want any extra draw on the battery when you're trying to start the engine on a cold morning.

What may have started out as good advice for a particular situation morphs over time and people to "rub a banana peal on the battery connections to stop corrosion ".