Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Car battery

Recently it seems my batteries fail without warning. One day they work. Next day they don't. I bought a tester off Amazon; tests battery, alternator and starter. Didn't cost much. Handy size and it's paid for itself several times over in two years or so. I wouldn't be without it now as I run a lot of batteries.

Hydrometers never lie.


If you aren't testing the chemical, you aren't testing the battery.

YMMV.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

TM

i wpnt understand the [urpose of this thread, if you battery is dead. recharge it or get a new one....Simple.

2011 Tundra original battery. Replaced it yesterday after two dead episodes where door and rear cargo lights were on for 30 minutes.

It was time for new 😎

Batteries are like tires; no one knows or give two schits about em until they fail, then its either some unexplained phenomenon or some manufacturer just known for making junk....

Blasphemy

We run batteries for a long time and have been fortunate. Some are 12 years old, a couple are even older than those. I replace one when it starts to say I'm quitting" via the hydrometer and retained voltage - quitting happens infrequently. I've never plugged in the engine heater in winter and, or the first time in 19 years, on a minus 20 morning last winter our Dodge Cummins did not want to spin - "click, click"- and I felt certain that the two Optima Reds in there were not spoiled.. It did not want to spin with help from a booster cable from a Chevy. So, I hooked up a small charger at 5 amps for 15 minutes, then put the charger in "start" mode, and the Cummins fired right up. For some reason, the cold snap that time put the batteries to sleep. They are still in there 7 months later, and doing fine.

With a bunch of 45 to 50 year old vehicles, i do keep a fresh batter (usually a blem from Morco) on a trickle charger and ready to go. The spare "ready to go" has been sitting there for 15 months. Of course, these old trucks/car do not have lights/clocks/computers running as they sit.

Here's the little bit I know. A batter kept up to - or close to - full charge at all times will live much longer. I keep trickle chargers going on all batteries where the vehicle is used infrequently. A battery in which the distilled water level is kept proper will live longer. A battery which has been drained dead - or even near to dead - is difficult to re-charge properly and has seen its death notice. In some cases, very good jumper power from another vehicle battery to the terminals of a dead or badly wounded battery will not spin the starter of the dead vehicle - something goes dead in bat land and that's it. The only cause I've ever seen for battery explosion has been when the bad battery is putting out hydrogen (has no odor) and an errant spark from a "jumping" process ignites the hydrogen. The moment will tend to concentrate your mind. There may be other causes, but I've been fortunate not to experience those.

I wouldnt replace it til it is dead.

That is never not funny

Solid advice.

I buy interstate batteries

Observe during winter. Wet cells wear out by loosing reserve capacity and an ever increasing self discharge rate. Last winter if it didn't fire right away (as usual) when cold you could hear the starter struggle as the voltage sagged. Also got in the habit of running the charger long enough to give the battery a surface charge (~20 min.) if the truck hadn't run for 3 or 4 days. Works absolutely flawlessly now but I'll need to replace before winter. Swapping out batteries is easy (for the most part anyway) but no fun when it's 10 above and the hawk is flying.

Or have it tested under load as someone said. That'll give you an idea of how it'll handle cold conditions.

Hey, changing valve cover gaskets was something I could do in high school without screwing up too badly. And the valve covers leaked (warped I guess) until I discovered Permatex #2.

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Occasionally a battery will drop a cell particularly if it's abused by a hard starting vehicle. Grind and grind and not only does the deep discharge wound the battery but you can generate enough heat to the point where the plates warp and short out. Getting the vehicle tuned up so it starts easily is half the battle. (Geez I'm wordy this morning)

I never got less than 10 years service out of the original battery the auto came with.

I can always tell when mine are about to go. After hearing it start thousands of times if it starts a little slow then I can expect about one more start and it will not start again.

Had one explode once was pretty scary and a real mess to clean up. The battery was 15 years old and the original. Shorted out when i tried to start it and when it blew up it was like a bomb.

Same with me. Woke up half the town at 6AM.

Had one blow up in the battery box on a Mack. The battery box contained the acid from flying all over the place.

^^^THIS^^^

Had 2012 GMC with all of the bells and whistles. It was about 3 or 4 years old. All of a sudden, it would be deader than dead. You'd have to keep the cables on it for about 15 minutes, then it would fire right up. It would be fine for several days or a week, then it would be dead again. Thought it was kind of an electronic problem and was going to take it to the dealer. One Saturday morning I went hunting. There was about a foot or so of snow on the ground. I go out and shoot a big ass 8 point. I got the deer out to the edge of the field. Go back to the truck, it start right up. I drive across the field and shut it off and load the deer up. Get back into the truck and the bastard was dead. Walked about 1/2 mile back to the barns and got the farm hand and he brought a tractor out there and had to keep it on the cables for about a 1/2 hour until it started. Went directly to the battery store that I use and they load tested it and found a dead cell. It would be fine one minute and dead the next.