Cold weather battery blues

[Bernie]

So it's 18* outside, the truck has been sitting since I parked it last night. I need to go to a meeting at the Red Cross so I plugged in the block heater two hours before and... it won't crank fast enough to catch. This has been an ongoing problem for the last month or so and I'm tired of it. The batteries in the truck are less than 2 year old Kirkland's. They were replaced under warranty in the summer of 2012 after my alternator fried and I damaged both batteries by discharging them too low. (I was the tail "chase" vehicle for the USMC Historic Half Marathon and all the warning lights on the truck were in use while creeping along at 4 mph - which was too much load for the system to handle at that low RPM) The alternator and all the cables were also changed at the same time, and the alt is a 140 amp unit, not the stock 100. So the charging system and the cables are known good, and if I put a charger on the truck for half an hour or so it will eventually start. Definitely the batteries, which sucks because a) they're so new, and b) money for new ones is tight right now. (Oh yeah, there's a cutoff on the truck so I know it's nothing inside that's draining the batteries)

So what are some good batteries these days? When I bought them the Kirkland's were very highly rated, 800CCA, made by Johnson Controls, etc., etc., but it seems the quality is going downhill now. Some folks I know swear by the Wal-Mart Maxx batteries, but others I know swear at them. If cash was no object I'd just throw a pair of DieHard Gold's in there, but that's $300 worth of batteries and I just put $1,100 worth of tires on in December.

What do you folks suggest?

 

[ak diesel driver]

I'd be looking at your glows and starter

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[Bernie]

Glows and the relay were replaced in Feb of last year. Starter was replaced in 2009 with a high torque.


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[tanman_2006]

Starter for sure, glows are on the list too. If the starter is weak it takes more juice to spin it.

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

Put a voltmeter on the batteries and see how low the voltage is going during cranking first. Yes JOHNSON CONTROLS is turning to crap, and the walmart batteries are also JOHNSON CONTROL.

 

[Bernie]

Put a voltmeter on the batteries and see how low the voltage is going during cranking first. Yes JOHNSON CONTROLS is turning to crap, and the walmart batteries are also JOHNSON CONTROL.

Yeah, I need to put a real meter on it one of these days when I'm not in a hurry to get somewhere, but going by the dash volt meter it's dropping to about 9 volts when the glows are on, rebounds to about 11 when the relay kicks out, and drops to about 8 within the first few cranks. That's after an overnight cold soak.

If I throw the charger on it for half an hour first then it drops to about 10 volts on the glows, bounces back to about 12, then drops to 10-11 while cranking. Again, that's strictly by the gauge in the dash, which I doubt is accurate.

After starting the volt gauge sits right around 14.5 for the next 30 minutes or so, gradually coming back down to 14 or so.

To me this is pretty classic "battery on its way out". In warmer weather it's fine and usually starts with just a few seconds of cranking.

 

[GM Guy]

I buy my AC Delco Professional Gold 850CCA dual terminal batteries for around 100-110 apiece. have 3 pairs bought, 1 installed a year ago, 1 pair is a year old, needs installed, and 3rd was just bought recently. I really like the installed set, they spin fast.

 

[Bernie]

Time for an update... I wound up replacing both batteries with a new pair of Deka Ultimates after testing on the Kirkland's showed them to be far weaker than they should have been. (Probably damaged over the summer when my alternator failed)

That seemed to have solved the problem, but to help keep the batteries topped off, and reduce the load on them when operating radios off just battery power for extended periods, three solar panels were mounted to the roof, for a total of 106 watts, going through a 30 amp charge controller. Now the system seemed pretty much bulletproof. In strong sunlight I was getting enough off the panels themselves to run all my LED warning lights, and four radios, without ever touching the batteries. Things were looking perfect... until my starter died a month ago.

In the process of replacing the starter my mechanic and I discovered that the guy who replaced the last starter didn't tighten the terminal nut very much and it worked loose, leaving the cable lug making only partial contact and arcing when I cranked the truck. Over the past five years it actually managed to burn the terminal on the starter almost in half, and burned itself loose when one side burned through. Wanna see?


Terminal par KJ4VOV, on ipernity

We cut that off the cable, made sure the cable wasn't damaged anywhere, then swagged a new lug on and replaced the starter with a new one. Final cost was enough ($500+, including the towing from the bank parking lot where it died) that I seriously considered suing the shop that did the original work but decided not to in the end.

Here's a picture of two of the panels mounted on the roof. A third panel was mounted in the open area towards the front a few days later.


New solar panels par KJ4VOV, on ipernity

 

[btfarm]

Nice Bernie. :thumbsup:
Thanks for the update.

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