battery ideas

[Eagle Jeeper]

A simple fix to a slow drain is to put in a battery cut out switch somewhere.  Bandaid fix but works.

[Justink]

dumb question but have you checked the waters on the battery? or can you even remove the top to look.  Try unhooking your  positive post then when reconnecting it see how big of draw y0u are getting.  (how many sparks are flyin) 

[JackstandJohnny]

thanks for the ideas clay.

waterlevels fine, she sparks lots

we'll see how she starts up tonight after sitting in the garage for 4 days.  if it fires right up maybe she still has some life left in her!

[Justink]

correct me if i'm wrong, but lots of sparks indicates draw doesn't it?  and also at canadian tire i think it is they have a limitor so your battery can only get down to a certain voltage, and then the limitor cuts the  power.

[cLAY]

My '93 sparks a lot too when hooked up, its the factory alarm system.

[Bnine]

Another vote for canadian tire, and a warning o avoid optimas. Two reasons,

1, optimas are hit and miss. I have been through 5 in 4 years between 3 vehicles. Of 7 yellowtops I have only had 2 of them last more then 2 years. The only ones to last have been the ones that didnt see severe winching duty.

2. My beleif is that no battaries are actually up to the task of severe winching, regardless of what they claim. I've killed way to many to think otherwise. That said, crappy tire has the longest warrenty there is on batteries. 3 years full replacement, and pro rated for the rest of eternity after that. Just keep your receipt.


I've treid to warranty an optima before that died in less then a year. I dropped it off at national a year and half ago with a promise from the counter guy that he would take care of it..................................

If it were a crappy tire battery, I would have walked out with a new one that day.

Thats my experience with batteries.

hth

[w squared]

Has anyone tried Oddyssey Batteries? They seem to be very popular with the "expedition" types...I'm just not sure if they'll provide the same sort of service if used for winching.

[mike s]

My red top sat dead for a year in backyard. Jump started fine and been strong since, bout another year since, tested last week @ 1000 CCA. Know I change out alot of CT batteries at work, but winching is real tough on batteries. High load for long time. Not what automotive or deep cycle are made for... Good luck.

[XJay]

I've had similar experience as "Bnine" with Optimas.

Some are great and have seen them in use for 10 years - slow trickle charge is often the way to bring them back from the dead.  Seen this done frequently also.

I had problems with mine especially in the cold(underground parking garage) in my SiR.  They also seem to break down with heavy vibration(poly eng mounts).  Slow charge wouldn't do anything.  Wound up going through several in a 2 year period because they couldn't hold up.  Purchased at Partsource while they still sold them.  I had it in the truck and it was a bit better but if left sitting for awhile it would drain easily.  Exchanged batteries with a regular GRP 58 from the Mustang that was a year old and problems went away.  No other change - batt clamps were always clean. 

In the end i've learned to buy CT batteries for the same reasons mentioned above - there are lots of them out there so when it dies you can easily get a replacement.  I know Costco sells Optimas if you're interested but again if it dies...