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Truck battery replacement

That might be old news

I crawled down the rabbit hole some, the $55 dollar "made in Mexico" Wal-Mart batteries were really sweet, likely a top shelf Johnson controls battery with a cheaper sticker

The $55, 75 and $125 battery were identical, minus the sticker, warranty, and price

The group 65 battery was stickered at 650cca and consistently tested at 895cca plus. Now they are made in south Korea and test at 774-5cca

I'm still buying them for beater trucks
 
Napa batteries suck.

O'Reilley are ok if you get the top line it's an East Penn.

Carquest. For some reason they have the best longevity of the East Penn that I've tried.

Cat are hit and miss. I had 1 skid steer go 15 years on a battery, but had 1 mini-ex kill a battery in 2 years. All sorts of in-between.

East Penn is still an OEM, so they build to spec the customer asks for. They're not all the same and yes they'll hit the price point.
 
I went ahead and bought the Duracell for the tow rig.

Been an expensive winter for batteries for me. Replaced the battery in my tractor, 2 for the tow rig and the battery in my RZR is done.. won't hold a charge since it sits so much over the winter.. RZR is 3.5 years old so for a vehicle that isn't driven every day I am not complaining.
 
I have a selection of tractors, 4wheelers, trucks etc on my ranch. Many are seasonal use or rarely used. I have replaced a lot of batteries over time that werent very old but simply werent maintained. I have taken to installing battery maintainers on everything. Anything left outside got a solar panel and a battery shutoff switch. Smaller stuff got plug in maintainers. Solar stuff is dirt cheap if you buy components and wire it yourself and the plug in stuff is not as expensive as it once was. I am finding the batteries last much longer and I am not trying to jump dead equipment all the time. My diesel tow pig has a dual battery maintainer wired up permanently under the hood with the plug out by the bumper with the block heater.
 
I just went with a set of grp 65's from Costco for my 94 Powerstroke. Total was 250, I didn't turn my old in as cores. Not a bad price IMO. I also just had to replace the battery in my Honda Pilot about a month back and hit up Advanced, that battery was 250 itself. Truck doesn't start any different but my old batteries were 5+ years young and didn't feel like chancing it.
Like Clodhopper, I keep a battery tender on all my vehicles when parked.
 
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