Larger CCA battery

[California]

[September 2007]

Autozone's Dual Purpose Marine group 27 is only $59.

The clerk said this is what they use on harvesters etc that are parked for months, because a marine battery has less self-discharge than an automotive battery.

It's 1000 Marine Amps, comparable to 1000 automotive Cranking Amps (both @ 32 degrees) which corresponds to about 850 CCA (zero degree cranking amps).

Yanmar specifies 75 amp-hours, this is 115 amp hours.

One year followup:
Works great. It's never had a charger on it since I installed it. Highly recommended!

Two year followup: Same.

 

[California]

...Two year followup: Same.

... and at 2.5 years it died. As I just posted in another thread:

Today that battery quit. 8/2007 to 3/2010. It failed after serving through three (mild) winters. RIP.

The battery was unused for three weeks and it apparently self-discharged. (tractor has no accessories). It measures 10.6 V. One cell won't float any balls in the simple SG tester, several cells float 2 or three balls, only one cell floats all four. The charger immediately brings it to 13.6 volts and cuts off, then a moment of cranking empties it.

I usually put the multimeter on the tractor's battery if I haven't started it for a couple of weeks. I've never measured less than 12.6 volts - until today.

After an hour online looking at alternatives to replace that Autozone high amperage, dual-purpose battery:

1) I suspect it failed due to more vibration/mechanical shock than it was designed for, in boat or RV applications. This stirs up the crud and shorts the cells internally. This battery is heavy, 55 lbs, so I doubt it wore out. Maybe I need an offroad specialty battery for better vibration resistance.

2) A better replacement is going to be far more expensive than the $59 I paid for this one.

3) I installed this in 8/2007 to replace a battery that had served since 11/2003. And that 2003 battery came out of my wife's Subaru where it was originally OEM; new from Subaru in 4/1999. Maybe I'll just bring the present (new 2003) Subaru battery over the the tractor and buy her a fresh one. We use that Subaru for remote offroad adventures where it would take a day or more to walk out, and after six years it is overdue for a fresh battery. I can drive the Subaru down into the orchard to jump the tractor if I ever had to - but not the reverse.

 

[Neat 1500]

i suspected the vibrations will shorten the lives of any wet(flooded cell) battery in these tractors so i have used an Optima yellow top in my 1500. i have 2 of thse which i bought in 2004 for my Landcruiser but latly they have been used for everything else but that. i have done many trips with those 2 batteries as the mains and 100aH Gel as the auxilary battery and had great success with this combination( the australian outback can be hard on vehicles/batteries and shock absorbers!!). i think i will leave the optima in the 1500, keep the other for spare and buy 2 new optimas for the Cruiser prior to the next trip. it may be expensive i guess to use one of these ($300 odd AUD) 0n a tractor but at least you know it will go every time for quite some years,but then again 2.5 years out of a $59 one ain't bad either :thumbsup:

 

[SPYDERLK]

... and at 2.5 years it died. As I just posted in another thread:

I usually put the multimeter on the tractor's battery if I haven't started it for a couple of weeks. I've never measured less than 12.6 volts - until today.

After an hour online looking at alternatives to replace that Autozone high amperage, dual-purpose battery:

1) I suspect it failed due to more vibration/mechanical shock than it was designed for, in boat or RV applications. This stirs up the crud and shorts the cells internally. This battery is heavy, 55 lbs, so I doubt it wore out. Maybe I need an offroad specialty battery for better vibration resistance.

2) A better replacement is going to be far more expensive than the $59 I paid for this one.

I quit using deep cycle in vehicles after having experience mirroring yours twice. It may be that they are more susceptible to vibration like you say. I just dont see any reason to resist the demonstrated better results from a good standard hi cca battery. Iv got 2 in service on tractors doing dual [inverter] duty... 4 and 5 yrs and counting. :ashamed:That reminds me.. I havent checked the water in the one in the 2550 lately. That system floats it at 15V
larry

 

[California]

SPYDERLK, I thought long and hard, and I agree with your advice. I decided I didn't want another Dual Purpose battery after losing this one to vibration/shock.

That was reinforced when I saw Autozone has raised the price for that DP battery to $110!!! The good news was I got $25 cash back for the remainder of the warranty period on my battery that failed. $60-$25 = $35 total cost for 3 winters/2 summers. I guess I got fair value.

I went ahead and bought the top of the line battery for my Subaru, $95, since its battery is now six years old and I don't ever want to be stranded on a camping trip.

The Subaru's six year old battery goes to the Yanmar. The rating on that used battery is 25% greater than Yanmar specifies on new equipment so it should crank this 30 year old antique for a couple of years. Then I'll move the other car's battery to the tractor and buy that car a top-of-the-line battery. I'm cheap. My style is to buy good quality, but not very often. I need the cars to be dead reliable, but if I have to put the charger on the tractor after a while thats no big deal.

 

[clemsonfor]

Cali, not tring to start anything on batteries here with you or anyone else, i am just pointing out something. Anyway when we purchased our 2001 toyota highlander as a used vehicle from carmax last spring/early summer (from carmax) they had said it had a bad/weak battery, being the top notch dealer they are and claim to be they put a brandnew manufacture OE brand battery, it was a Panasonic brand that said toyota on top and had the japaneese symbols on it. Well after about thirty days it would click when starting then start. Then no problem then would do it untill it got so bad it almost would not start. I put the multi meter while running to it, alt was charging. Rest state charge was good, since battery was brand new i figured starter was dragging. After a few more starts and rests, i could go to the battery 10 mins after it was cut off and catch it down to 10 volts? Then put multimeter on it while starting and the volts dropped down to 4 while starting. All these weired 12.6 then 9 volts pointed to a bad battery with one or more dead cells. Went to walmart (had excellent luck with there batteries for the past 8-10 years) bought the 3 year free replacement battery for $75-80 (last one i bought for my ford back when all that was availible was 2 year free replacement was $45)(batteries have doubled in the last 4-5 years) problemm gone and the battery was bad and thats been like 6 months. I know i could have gotten carmax after the like 45 days we had it to give me a new battery or they would send me to the toyota dealer they purchased it from for a free replacement, but the only problem with that is that they were like an hour one way from my house, for me it was not worth my time and the 2 hour round trip to get a free battery (also buying the fuel to get there) when i could buy one for $75 next time we went to town.

All that to say that new (good quality) batteries can let you down unexpectadly. But i must say each time it would start you may had to wait 1 min between starts but we got it started every time.

-Nate