Battery

[TWINKLE_TOES]

I gotcha. Thanks for explanation. West Marine and other sell a line of "Dual-Purpose" deep cycle batteries optimized for high CCA and reserve capacity.
<font color=blue>I'm no battery expert </font color=blue> Maybe so, but I think your doing a darn good job of getting a good system put together for your trailer and you have a real good handle on battery types and uses. I agree with you on the Optima battery also. I will wait until some service history supports their claims before I invest in the big $$$.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

If the battery is free or even a very minimal cost.
Get the heaviest rated / best suited battery that the coupon will allow you to get, and run it !!!!!!!!!

I personally would not put a lot of faith in anything Sears told me when it comes to batterys. Here's why.
About a month ago I was headed into the lake front development where some of my clients live. I crested the hill to find one of the homeowners trying to jump start a fairly new Ford Ranger with his full size Chevy 4x4 with no luck.
We tried everything, but the ranger just wouldn't turn over.
I figured it was a combination of his cheap cables and side terminal GM battery. So I got out my Very good cables. Still nothing.
So I moved my truck into position, hooked My cables to my battery and the Ranger started immediatly. Situation over, everybody goes home.
About a week later the man with the full size chevy is walking his dog, so I stopped to chat and he tells me they found out why his battery would not start the Ranger.
About a year ago when he had the electric snow plow installed on his truck he had SEARS install a second battery in his truck, he figured that having the extra power couldn't hurt.
SEARS hooked up the new / secondary battery to the WRONG terminal, on the new terminal block, they installed in order to tie the 2 battery's together.
So for the whole year he was running on his original battery only and the new / secondary one just sat there till it went dead. No wonder that battery wouldn't start the Ranger. He had one of the local garages install a new battery into the secondary slot, move the cable over one terminal on the block and now the system is working and charging as designed.
I know I can't really blame the whole sears corporation because of 1 or 2 absent minded mechanics, but tho whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth for sears, at least the automotive division.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

My position on Sears and their batterys is very simple, Sears exists cause the government can't employ ALL tie idiots in the world.
Sears batterys are cheap junk! They count on the law of averages and stupid customers who are willing to pay ridiculous pro rated warranty charges to keep selling batterys.
Deep cycle batterys are built to deliver a constant current for an extended time.
Starting batterys are built to deliver maximum current for a short time period.
Neither design has anything to do with time cycle between charging and discharging.
Optima now appears to be another Interstate product, as they are a listed product on Interstate's web page. My opinion of Interstate isn't much better than my opinion of DieHards. Both were once good batterys, but both got too large of a market share and quit building decent batterys.
The vibration factor on a CUT isn't much different than the vibration factor on an automobile. These machines aren't in the same catagory as OTR trucks or earthmovers.
The major cause of battery failure for the last 10 years has been poor intercell connectors. They are both undersized and poorly connected.

 

[justractors]

We have 64 batteries in service on the golf course where I work, not counting the electric golf cart fleet. Most are in equipment that not only vibrates a lot but also vibrates up to thirty hours a week.
All of the replacement batteries in the parts room are Interstate batteries. They bring them to us on consignment, we pay only when we use them, they swap them out semi-annually when we don't use them, and they stand behind their warranty. I only stock top terminal batteries and simply convert any side mounted hookups to top mounts
I will not use a "temporary" terminal and everything is soldered in including any and all splices.
Also I always put in the battery with the most CCAs that will fit in the hole.
Grass doesn't stop growing because the mowers won't start.

Bill

 

[Mark_in_NH]

<font color=red>My position on Sears and their batterys is very simple, Sears exists cause the government can't employ ALL tie idiots in the world.
Sears batterys are cheap junk! They count on the law of averages and stupid customers who are willing to pay ridiculous pro rated warranty charges to keep selling batterys.
</font color=red>

Geez Franz,
Don't be bashfull, Tell us how you really feel. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RobertN]

I'm like an exact opposite to you/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I have run Optima's as has my Brother in law. In my case, I had the red-top in my old F250. It lasted well, till I sold the truck. It was about six years old, and worked great still. I ran with the camper for a while, with only one batterry. I pushed that thing to run the camper, AND start the truck. I did eventually add a deep cycle in the camper with a battery isolator.

Randy has had his yellow tops(what I'll put in my Kubota when I need a new battery) for over eight years now. He runs duals in his Jeep. He has done serious winching with them, as well as runninf offroad light(he actually uses he off road lights, unlike most who add them for looks and a ride down an easy trail once every ten years). He's run the offroad lights with the winch a number of times while wheeling at night.

He also had a winch power cable rub through on the body a couple years ago; it made massive sparks and smole till they got the bateries disconnected. He made field repairs, got in, and fired righ up. Those batteries put a lot of power out fast, but still work great.

In his case, he can charge them well too. He has the Premier welder with low rpm, hi-current alternator. It's made to charge while running low rpm during rock crawling expeditions.

The Optima's are more expensive, but from what I have seen, they tend to last a long time too. And, you do not have to worry about it leaking.

As your dealer mentioned, they are expensive. But, when put in the environment they were designed for, they seem to work great.

As a side note, all the Medic units in the local fire district run optima's(heavy lighting loads). So do the Battalion Chief's rigs, since they have additional radios and put them to heavy use in big incidents.

Of course, this is all IMHO/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>I'm like an exact opposite to you</font color=blue>

Young, short, thin, undereducated and bald with a real job? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Sorry...just couldn't resist. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Seriously, I don't have any experience with Optimas and never claimed to have any. I only repeated what the dealer who handles them here told me. I don't know one way or the other.

If you've had good luck with them, then, by all means, continue to use them in equipment you're looking keep. I'd heard of them on TBN so called the guy here who handles them, told him of my application and he recommended against one and I took his advise. I didn't see much future in resolving any problems with them if I bought a battery he recommended against. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[bgott]

Maybe the reason that dealer doesn't like those Optimas is that the profit margin isn't as high as it is on the wet cell batteries.

 

[RobertN]

<font color=blue>Young, short, thin, undereducated and bald with a real job?
</font color=blue>
Oh man, way off /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Is late 30's young? Tall, thin except around the central beer storage area,, educated enough to be dangerous, and left the big stress corporate job to do a small business with my wife who also just left corporate stress job(we are doing a small landscape business, and specialize in edible plantings).

I actually do not have any Optima's now. The car uses an odd size battery. The truck is only a year and a half old, so it has original batteries. The tractor, well the battery died a few years ago, and I replaced it with a regular battery, mostly because the only Optima battery dealer is 35 miles away, in bad traffic; I needed it running right away.

The Harley's, we put in Harley branded gel cells. They are lasting much better. Not sure the real brand though.

Yes, it is hard to explain when you return something that they recomended against. They tend to look at ya kinda with a odd expression(not look at you personally, but at people who do that, if that makes sense).

By the way, how did the trailering of the car go? I didn't catch the follow up to that?

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Robert,

I noted one thing on which we definitely differ. I'm a Goldwing guy from way back. I just prefer the comfort and reliability.

As to "the car trailering," I think you may have me confused with someone else who was trailering their Corvette to a buyer somewhere. I offered them some advice on securing the car safely to the trailer.

I have a tilt bed trailer and haul cars (actually trucks) quite often with no problems. That's where I use my 1000 CCA Marine deep cycle/starting battery. I bought the trailer used and have enjoyed upgrading it with new wiring, LED lights (which I highly recommend), a new 7,000 lb. drop jack and some additional attachment points on the steel diamond plate floor (there is no such thing as too many attachment points).

A guy who works for me is enjoying teasing my about my "Million dollar trailer" now. I recently bought a new 8,000 lb. winch, a couple Geneva top load tool boxes with diamond plate tops and sides and a new pair of diamond plate fenders. I'm afraid I'm going to have to wait until it gets warmer here before I can install those as it's a bit cold for welding in an unheated space. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

The good news is that will probably happen about the time I'm getting through with my MIG welding class so I'll be able to MIG weld it all myself. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif