Batteries & D-Min story

[Shelby Griggs]

AC DELCO??

I have a Grand Am (GM Product) that came with an AC DELCO battery. I have been real pleased with the performance, no corrosion, and I am on battery 2. 5 in 12 years and 213,000 miles. The first one lasted something like 7 or 8 years (OEM) and then I bought a replacement at K-Mart. It did not last very long, I think it had a dead cell. It was replaced under warranty and I have been several years now on the current one. I have never had to clean the side post terminals since I bought the car. Pretty good for a sealed up battery in my opinion. I know it is a GM part and my experience is in a light duty car, but wondering if these would be a good battery in the RAM?



Shelby

 

[Great White]

Shelby, if you live in Bend and go fishing or hunting do you really want to take the chance? I lived in Bend for five years and 4 wheeled out China Hat road towards Pine mountain, Paulina lakes you name it I drove it. Pay the price and buy quality once. Optima, Sears Die Hard Gold, Exide.

 

[Matt42]

Optima vs. Brand Ex. The Opportunity Cost

I've been running two Optimas in my `96 for about three years. In this part of Arizona, three years out of ANY battery is almost front page news. Everything I do to my Ram, I compare against the downside or opportunity cost. In other words, what would it cost me to get it towed out of the Dome Rock Mountains, or three divides over near Red Picacho when it's 115 F outside? The answer always comes up at $800 minimum for a back-country retrieval. That doesn't account for the problems actually getting help, or the very real chance of death due to the heat. My pair of Optima batteries were $260 out the door. House brand Ex batteries would run half of that, so I'd have saved $130. But the house brand Ex batteries die without warning.



When I talk to my colleagues in Montana, Idaho, and Oregon about the fried battery syndrome, all they can do is say "huh?". They normally get five years and up from a decent brand ex.



Now at three years, I am looking at putting the "old" Optimas in my wife's and daughter's Saturns, and putting new Optimas in the truck. That's not a completely self-centered idea. The Saturns don't go miles away from pavement, and they are always within sight of help. And they both like the idea of having even a used Optima instead of their Brand Ex or Delco.

 

[Bob Cochran]

Matt~certainly can relate and agree with everything you said. While I don't have 4-wheel drive so with my 1 ton don't go off the road. As you know though lot of places with minimal effort off the pavement and remote I do and can get to with the dually 2wd!!! Soon as these factory batteries start to go which should not be long they have a year on them now will go with red top Optimas and for RV yellow top. By the way I think it is Sam's Club have the red tops for $99 or Costco I sitll have not verified which.

 

[Matt42]

Sam's or Costco

Costco has `em for $99. That's not to say that Sam's won't also.

 

[DSiemens]

I have had more problems with Interstate products than others. John Deere batteries have been holding very well. They were not cheap but I would take them over my interstate experiences. I believe my biggest problem with the interstates were the plates shorting out because the diesel shakes them too much. They say the 750CCamp units don't suffer as bad as the 850CCamps do however.

 

[Bob Cochran]

Matt~ go to both places and always look for the Optima. I never see it at the one only at the other! Now which one

 

[Bad340fish]

The heavier the battery(IE more cranking power) the more fragile it will be. You take two batteries, both the same group size. One is say 600CCA and one is 800CCA. Well they are the same size so the one with more crankign power has alot more plates stacked inside the same size cell. So there is also less acid which somewhat acts as a coolant for the plates. So if your not running a ton of accesories the OEM cranking power is suffiecent and will give you the longest life out of your batteries. 1000CCA batteries are not needed in anything IMO.

 

[Great White]

When I was a kid I watched my father "rotate" batteries in the family rigs. Every spring he would purchase a new battery for the ski boat, The boat battery went into Mom's car, The battery from Mom's car went into his car and his was the "core". I can never remember any battery failures with his program. He also only purchased three year warrentees. He also cleaned the terminals and used grease to protect them.

Rich

 

[EMDDIESEL]

Just got back from Sams club, i checked, no Optimas, they only carry Champion batteries and some marine batteries.

 

[Bob Cochran]

Then it must have been Costco that had them. Like I said go to both so often I forget which one has which. I remember Sam's has Rotella and Costco has Dello!!!

 

[JohnE]

FWIW

I'm an Engineer at a transit OEM. We install batteries spec'd by the customer. The sanity to apply to the brand picked has to do with service. They pick batteries (as most options) where they get the strongest support.

Here's the brands we're delivering this month:

<li>Trojan

<li>Dyno

<li>Interstate

<li>AC Delco



John Deere batteries used to be made by Gould. Gould also used to make the best hearing aid battery.



John

 

[Fred Swanson]

If you want to test a battery, go to where it is HOT! My factory originals(Exide) took a dump after 17 months. But around here, most batteries won't last past 2 years.

The only one that holds up to the abusive heat is Optimas, so guess what I bought. I have a friend that works at Interstate, so I got them for a decent price.

Oh yeah, red tops. They fit perfect on my 2K.

 

[telong]

I replaced the factory batts in mine this past winter with a set of Optima red tops. So far they are working fine. I, too, had the question about the deep cycle batts. So, I sent and e-mail off to Optima tech support. They told me that the red tops would be plenty good enough to handle the climate here in Chesapeake Bay area (hot, humid summers and fairly mild winters). Unless you have a winch that you use a good bit, or a massive set off-road lights, or some other big juice hog on your truck, the red tops should work fine. I paid about $135 apiece from my local 4x4 shop.

 

[KSTRS]

Just for confirmation, Costco sells Optima red tops.

 

[Bob Cochran]

KStrs~ Thanks glad someone has some mind left!!!

 

[AYSCII]

For those interested, here are a couple of links:



Car Battery FAQ Guide

http://nyquist.ee.ualberta.ca/~schmaus/batfaq.html



Deep Cycle Battery FAQ Guide

http://nyquist.ee.ualberta.ca/~schmaus/dcbat.html



Good information there... for instance, how old is that battery sitting on the shelf at the store? Well, look for the date code:



"It is usually a combination of alpha and numeric characters with letters for the months starting with "A" for January (generally skipping the letter "I") and digit for the year, e. g. , "J6" for September, 1996. Like bread, fresher is definitely better. "



What max voltage is put out by our Ram's charging system? Too much for your battery type?



Consider this table for 70 degrees F:



Battery Type Charging Float Equalizing

Wet Low Maintenance 14. 4 13. 2 15. 1



Wet Maintenance Free 14. 8 13. 6 15. 5



AGM 14. 6 13. 8 N/A



Gel Cell 14. 0 13. 5 N/A



Wet Deep Cycle 15. 0 13. 2 15. 8





I use these FAQ's for my battery information for marine and my truck's needs.