Truck batteries-

[Dick Strauss]

Short trips are hard on all batteries, especially in colder climates because as your guy stated, the car doesn't run long enough to replenish the charge used. Do that often enough and your battery is dead. Running heated seats, headlights , etc., make it that much harder to maintain a charge.

Battery tenders are your friend in that situation!

[Monte Milanuk]

Gotta love the timing on this thread... I traded our '18 F350 SCLB SRW 6.2L gas for a '22 F350 CCLB DRW 7.3L gas a few months back. Got the '18 when it was about 2 years old, and we also have a '17 Ford Fusion that I got @ 1 year old (former rental car). Both the '17 Fusion and the '18 F350 needed a new battery within the first year, as the OEM one was crap. There were zero maintenance records on the '22 F350, so I took it in for the 15k service. I was a little skeptical when they showed me the report, saying (among other things) that the battery was 'good' at 85% capacity - after only a year!

Since then, I got an alert on my FordPass phone app saying remote start was turned off due to the truck battery charge level, and suggested driving around for a while to charge it. This is an 'extra' vehicle, primarily for hauling a slide-in truck camper and the occasional trips to the big box store or the lumber yard. I don't know about you, but I have absolutely zero intention of 'driving around for a while' in a crew cab long bed dually just to charge the <bleep>ing battery. I did let it sit and idle for a while, hoping that would help. Nope, next time I went to actually use it, it barely turned over.

Now, I suppose the charging system *could* have gone TU in the relatively short interval since the 15k service/inspection... but I doubt it. I think it's just time for a new battery - again. But I am beyond frustrated with my experience with Ford's OEM batteries. I might get one of those battery minders also.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Who do you think makes Ford's OEM batteries? Do a little research. Might surprise you as to the answer. Batteries are built to customer's specs. As an example, when I last bought batteries from Walmart (4+ years ago), a group 65 was $49.99, with a one year exchange warranty. For $79.99, I could get a group 65 with a two year exchange warranty. Both batteries were made by Exide, had same CCA, and weighted 42.5 pounds. This tells me they were the same battery with different stickers and prices. At that time Rural King sold same (Exide) battery for $59.99, with a five year prorated warranty. Here locally, Car Quest, AutoZone and O'Rielys are the big vendors of batteries. You will have customers with a bad battery come in and swear they would never have a battery from the other parts store as they are JUNK! Then they buy a battery from this store which was made by the same exact company and to same specs, with only the sticker being different.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a set of four group 31 AGM batteries in my converted bus from 2010. I swear the Series 60 still starts on the first revolution with these batteries. I keep them on a Battery Tender when not on the road so that helps.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

We planned a Pawpaw Christmas vacation for West Yellowstone for an ex-DIL and 3 youngest grandkids, twin 12 year old granddaughters and their 10 year old brother for Dec. 18--Dec. 23, 2022 for multiple tours of Yellowstone National Park. 10 days before going I got to thinking about the fact that the battery in my 2013 Honda Pilot was original. As a kid I lived for over a year just south of Yellowstone and was quite aware of the weather potential in the area. It was high 30's here before the trip and I elected to take the chance.

We rolled into West Yellowstone, MT on 12/18/2022 and began with everybody taking the next day as a day of relaxation. The next day we began our winter tours. Wednesday night according to the hotel staff it got down to -38º F with a wind chill of -57º F. Thursday morning at -27º F, my Pilot wouldn't start. The hotel maintenance personnel jumped it 3 times, twice with their truck and then retrieved a professional battery booster/charger from a garage and it still wouldn't start. They then contacted that garage and they towed my Pilot to their very large heated garage, checked the battery, removed it, replaced it with a new battery from NAPA and charged me $250 total. I checked with the nearest Costco in Bozeman and the battery alone would have been over $190 and taxes. I thought $250 for the labor, battery and tow was more than reasonable.

BTW we got over 20" of snow while there on top of what was already on the ground. We had a ground floor suite of 2 bedrooms. Check out the snow outside the window on top of the pool cover.mr2.jpg

And yes, properly clothed, you can have fun in sub-zero weather!

[Warren Lake]

just had the saturn not start and walked home. 2 Year old well known battey Before it had a Delco for 8 years and before that a delco that only lasted two years and was replaced for free.

On the counter wiht the fancy meter they told me it was fine, one guy three times. Even did a printout from the meter. My mechanic had shown up earlier with a load tester. I asked them for a load tester and one of them listened and got a 2k load meter. Set to cold crank amps for the battery it went down and in seconds dropped below 9.2 and fail started at 9.6. I suspect a proper load test is longer than the maybe four or five seconds. I took photos of it with the meter in the fail zone and left with a new battery. This was not the battery I wanted as I always go higher if it fits and on this car planned to cut the bracket that held the battery in so I could do that but was short of info at the time plus this car the battery is vented so that being a part of it as well. Lucky my old mechanic friend came by with his 40 plus year old meter earlier. I learned Amps and volts are two different things I think I was showing 12.55 volts on the bench till the load meter. I'm losing my faith in these batteries even if they are a top company. Batteries used to weigh as much as my car, now they almost float in the air compared.

[Rick Potter]

For those who have little used cars, I strongly recommend using a battery tender. I have several for my toy cars, and the batteries last a long time, as well as staying strong. Also have an old Toyota mini van we use only every few months, and it always starts right up because of the tenders.

I use Deltran and have had no problems with them.