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Batteries

RI Chevy Silveradoman said:
I re-used the battery covers that came with my OEM AC DELCO batteries with my Odyssey batteries. Not sure if they helped or not. I still have them and re-used them again.
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I've found they are a sub-standard substitute for thermal barriers when used in a 6.5td application. I compared my two Suburbans one equipped with a 454 CBB the other a 6.5td the 454 loots like a CSB in the Burbs engine bay while the 6.5td occupied almost all of the engine bay which impairs airflow inside engine bay compounded by the cooling fans rotation with resulting heat buildup heating the pass/side battery.

Suggest adding a thermal barrier to those covers!
 
jrsavoie said:
On a related note, what does everybody recommend for a trailer with electric brakes, hydraulic lift and large winch - 12,000 lb. I haven't started winch shopping yet.
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I still have the same Optima red top mentioned a few years ago in my trailer. For brakes, I do have a separate self-contained brake-away with its own battery. Had to replace the brake-away's battery. An isolator separates the Optima and brake-away.

For winch, I just have not had much success and after two going dead within two years, I decided to just use elbow grease and a come-a-long. Sure the come-a-long takes a lot longer and has much more effort to winch a vehicle up on the trailer, but at least I do not worry about whether it is going to work.
 
JayTheCPA said:
.For winch, I just have not had much success and after two going dead within two years, I decided to just use elbow grease and a come-a-long. Sure the come-a-long takes a lot longer and has much more effort to winch a vehicle up on the trailer, but at least I do not worry about whether it is going to work.
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It was for those reasons that when I installed a winch on the trailer that I had, I went to ebay and got a BeeBee hand crank 5 ton winch. It is a heavy unit but pulls a wehicle onto the trailer with ease.
It was shipped from way back along the eastern seaboard, fedEx shipped it, weight was 90 pounds without the cable. LOL
 
So an update related to post #50 as the very last Optima battery I was cursed with and gave away finally totally died at a little over 7 years old. It was showing cracks for years at the unused top post terminals, but, not yet leaking from them. The cracking is a covered by warranty event so I am being generous by saying it was still good even with cracks. (BTW You get 3 years warranty now with zero prorate after it. Unlike the longer pro-rate warranties of the past.) Over-discharge was it's final killer. IMO it didn't used to be this sure of a death with Optima's.

Refresher on Optima Red Top fleet: 4 total batteries in two 6.5TD's ALL failed 2x in under 2 years. Ten total Optima batteries and only one goes the distance in "light duty". As posted earlier the initial failures were due to cracking on the unused top post and starting to leak from the cracks. The refund and warranty exchange left me with 2 new Optima Batteries that, bluntly, I gave away. Mainly because Optima made them a Royal Pain in the A$$ to get warranty on by using different part numbers for the same battery. This means Interstate Batteries and online retailers sell a different part number than say O'Reilly Auto Parts. No one is paying anyone to be in on the weekends at Optima to authorize any retailer to handle "other" part numbers. In my case Interstate Batteries is a 2 hour round trip from me to get warranty. Unnecessary aggravation intentionally done by Optima Batteries to make warranty exchange harder. Why? Everyone including Jim's hot stand sells the damn things, but, may not warranty all of them. You had better have your receipt as well or No Warranty ... due to free batteries that are given away. Yeah you may win a half-assed free battery with NO Warranty. :finger: Screw Dealing With This! Esp. on a weekend in the middle of nowhere.

The above said in the past I have dived in battery piles looking for batteries to power a CB Radio (anyone recall these?) Yeah in the 90's. Optima Batteries gained a Zombie reputation to be able to come back from the dead. (Over-discharge conditions where the battery is below 10v and sometimes at 0V. )

The last two Optima's both died in gas engine rigs from over-discharge. The first one may have even been under warranty at the time. So 50% failure rate to start with. Now the one that went the distance (light duty in a garaged GMC Yukon used by retired folks) was finally done in by over-discharge sitting at a body shop waiting for parts.

Not sure what's different, but, recovery from over-discharge isn't as reliable as it used to be with Optima's. Welcome to the same as everything else on the market category...

I have posted AGM Deka batteries, post #5, that were worse for taking the heat under the hood of Patch. Also Odyssey Extreme AGM batteries where over-discharge kills em. So again you reach for an AGM if you want longer storage life from less self discharge and less chance of acid everywhere eating wires and harnesses up. Just Vegas Odds here as Dry Cell's can leak and damage things just not in the constant wet cell acid spray build up from their normal changing.

An update on warranty for Odyssey Extreme AGM that voids my past post on they should be able to take Over-discharge: but we won't warranty it anymore. Like I said: welcome Optima and Odyssey to the SSDD club.

Odyssey understanding your battery warranty:

Understanding Your Battery Warranty | ODYSSEY® Battery

Understanding Your Battery Warranty. Learn more about ODYSSEY® Battery including news & events at OdysseyBattery.com.
blog.odysseybattery.com blog.odysseybattery.com

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About the winch/trailer:
For car trailer, I put a hitch mount on the front of the trailer, and have a winch on a draw bar. then a front hitch on my pickup. run the 2/0 wire from battery through resettable fuse to a connector at front and rear of truck. the frame handles the ground with a short loop to the mounting bolt (not on hummer frames though as they bolt together). then I make a 20' jumper cable to plug into them for jump starts and a 20' extension cable that connects winch to truck when on the trailer. (a friend copied my set up except used one 30' extension cable and put the connector on his old jumper cables that were only 6' long). Now the winch can be used front/rear of truck as well as trailer. jumper cables plug in easy to front of=r rear of truck for easy use. When a friend borrows the winch, he gets the cables and just uses the jumper cable to draw power from his battery.

Front mount hitches can be ordered by any u-haul since the 90's- now you can just google them. They are made for all normal production trucks and only take 30 minutes or so to install. then a couple times I found it useful to push a trailer into position with the front of the truck in certain situations.
 
That's the thing with AGM batteries. You really can't " charge" them. They only respond to the snoflake setting. Not sure how our trucks charge them.
When mine failed, that was it. Just stopped. Bottom fell out. Not much warning. I was able to jump right away, but...not impressed with them. And most definitely not for the extra money.
I went back to traditional batteries.
 
The cranking/starting Interstate battery that is in the 78 K20 that I sold, it was from the boat, was installed in 2005 and still cranking the old 350 engine like there`d be no tomorrow.
I think when it comes time for new batteries for the K3500 that I`m going to seriously consider the Interstate units.
Its Delcos in there now and they too are holding up very well.
 
ak diesel driver said:
I have interstate batteries in my truck, they're about 3 yrs old now. Not impressed they don't have much reserve in them. As long as it starts right up it's fine but if it needs extended glow time or cranking......
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I never tried Interstate very many times. No longevity the fewvtimes I tried. Its been many years ago
 
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