DougCruiser
Rising Sun Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2021
- Messages
- 169
Walmart everstart plus AGM battery. Cheap and 4 year warranty.
New battery recommendations
- Thread starter Cruisertrash
- Start date
I laughed out loud as well.
After having 2 Costco's crater on me in a year, I was tired of swapping them out. While the warranty is great, getting stuck with a dead battery isn't.
I bought a pair of Optima Red Top 6V batteries for our two '55 Mercurys in 1997. The one is the Red Montclair lasted, with some abuse, until 2022. The one in the black Montclair was still going strong when I sold the car in 2015. Batteries used to be better built, IMO. Plus, I think the batts cost less than $100 bucks each and the new one I bought in 2022 was $240.
Rzeppa
Rising Sun Member
I had a red top I ran in my '71 FJ40 for about 11-12 years, including winching duties. I too have heard negative reviews of new Optimas though. Since my shop is next door to a Carquest, I've been buying interstates from them that seem to last around 5-6 years.
Cruisertrash
Rising Sun Member
Took @Hulk advice and got a USA/Deka made Duracell. $220 put the door, three year warranty.
Honestly I think my problem was corrosion on the positive post of my interstate. I’m going to clean it up and put it on the charger this weekend. We’ll see if it’s any good … I might have just taken a shortcut to a dual battery setup. Just need a 2nd tray and electronics. In any case a fresh battery going into both the cold snap and winter in general is good piece of mind.
Lots of white crust, plus the terminal and the post are pretty much black. This happens periodically for me.
@DaveInDenver Good call on not leaving my lithium jump pack in the truck in the summer. That thought never even occurred to me. I’ll still risk it and bring it on backcountry trips. I’ve needed it more than once.
Honestly I think my problem was corrosion on the positive post of my interstate. I’m going to clean it up and put it on the charger this weekend. We’ll see if it’s any good … I might have just taken a shortcut to a dual battery setup. Just need a 2nd tray and electronics. In any case a fresh battery going into both the cold snap and winter in general is good piece of mind.
Lots of white crust, plus the terminal and the post are pretty much black. This happens periodically for me.
@DaveInDenver Good call on not leaving my lithium jump pack in the truck in the summer. That thought never even occurred to me. I’ll still risk it and bring it on backcountry trips. I’ve needed it more than once.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Good deal @Cruisertrash. Corrosion is a good bet.
Think about Ohm's Law. If the connection is loose and gets even a little corrosion, say the resistance jumps to 50mΩ. When the starter hits it that's 100A x 0.05Ω = 5V drop. It doesn't take much.
It can fool ya, too. You hit it, the current arcs across and micro cleans and slightly welds things, so the second try is fine.
Think about Ohm's Law. If the connection is loose and gets even a little corrosion, say the resistance jumps to 50mΩ. When the starter hits it that's 100A x 0.05Ω = 5V drop. It doesn't take much.
It can fool ya, too. You hit it, the current arcs across and micro cleans and slightly welds things, so the second try is fine.
I really like the Batteries Plus X2 AGM as they make one in a group 27, OEM 80-series size. Not many AGM 27 options out there. I don't recall the OEM 60/62 series size. No batteries plus in 4Corners anymore so I'm running a Deka Group 31 AGM currently. It's been fine but now that I don't daily my 80 anymore my problem is remembering to turn off my fridge during extended storage. I should probably go back to cheap battery as I'm abusing it in the worst way while not even using it.
Wait what? I’m so sorry to hear this Marco, maybe I missed something but I don’t remember hearing about this. What happened?
62 is a group 27 also. I’ve squeezed a group 31 into the stock spot, it’s tight, and have been using Deka AGMs forever. About five years run time has been my experience.
CardinalFJ60
Rising Sun Member
I’m on 5 years with a pair of x2 batteries in both the lx and 60. I too started with OG Optimas which were great.
LX has the dual battery controller that Kurt sells. National Luna?
The 60 has some cheap ass controller but has been working fine for like 10 years.
I think the key with these batteries is to keep them happy and charged or charging. No scientific data to back that up. But I do have solar panels on the rigs and park outside. So they are basically getting good vibes all day every day
As far as lithium aux batteries for accessories , I know for fact that @dan1554 has a slick setup
LX has the dual battery controller that Kurt sells. National Luna?
The 60 has some cheap ass controller but has been working fine for like 10 years.
I think the key with these batteries is to keep them happy and charged or charging. No scientific data to back that up. But I do have solar panels on the rigs and park outside. So they are basically getting good vibes all day every day
As far as lithium aux batteries for accessories , I know for fact that @dan1554 has a slick setup
My main knock against AGM's is that they just don't get charged well, unless you modify voltage somehow, or augment with a charger at home. that said, I still run them, even just put one in the Tundra as my 2nd... the AGM's in the GX are old and they don't have a ton of capacity anymore, even when I charge them for a while I'll come back a few hours later to see voltage around 12.1 or so... but the car still starts, and if I need to keep a fridge running in the sun I'll add a fold-up solar panel. I like the blue sea VSR's the best...
DougCruiser
Rising Sun Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2021
- Messages
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This was what worried me about running an AGM. Been running a “voltage booster” from these guys in AUS. Bumped voltage .5V to try to properly charge the AGM and prolong its’ life. https://www.hkbelect.com/product/104-mk3-mini-blade-75a-electronic-fuse-version-2000/
CardinalFJ60
Rising Sun Member
i did this for my LX. Definitely makes my national Luna Control thingie light up all the lights
Did you order directly from the Aussie company and have it shipped from there?
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
FYI, a cheaper option is using a diode Ford uses in their harnesses:
GX470 dual battery install
Chris, as far as I know Matt @ offgridengineering is the only one who makes a plug & play harness for that switch, he's where I bought mine. It's likely the nicest looking loom in the whole truck. And yes as you found I've run solar under the rack on a couple different vehicles now... it's...
risingsun4x4club.org
FWIW BTW OMG, I dislike the diode trick. It pushed my voltage too high in the summer AFAIK. My $0.02 is AGM means a controlled charger, be that regular wall plugged one, a solar controller, some sort of DC-DC charger. This isn't simple with the starting battery if you just want a stock truck but relatively easy on the house.
This was the dual set up where I was chewing through Odysseys, just a simple VSR (ML-ACR) so there was no special handling of either side and I surmise this was especially tough on the nominally house side.
Keep in mind this is the battery temp, so consider how warm it is under the hood.
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DougCruiser
Rising Sun Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2021
- Messages
- 169
The ford diode was considered, but I didnt feel comfortable using it to protect the circuit as a fuseFYI, a cheaper option is using a diode Ford uses in their harnesses:
GX470 dual battery install
Chris, as far as I know Matt @ offgridengineering is the only one who makes a plug & play harness for that switch, he's where I bought mine. It's likely the nicest looking loom in the whole truck. And yes as you found I've run solar under the rack on a couple different vehicles now... it's...
FWIW BTW OMG, I dislike the diode trick. It pushed my voltage too high in the summer AFAIK. My $0.02 is AGM means a controlled charger, be that regular wall plugged one, a solar controller, some sort of DC-DC charger.
Keep in mind this is the battery temp, so consider how warm it is under the hood.
View attachment 125410
DougCruiser
Rising Sun Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2021
- Messages
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Purchased directly from hkb & shipped by them. It takes a few weeks to get here
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
I understand your concern.
It never bothered me when I considered that it's essentially just a 1N400x diode molded into a case with leads. That is rated 1A average forward current and will handle about 50% more constant current before overheating the junction. The ALT-S is a 7.5A fuse.
So if the alternator sense circuit was to short these would burn up long before the fuse would have. I'd worry more about it opening too soon. Nice thing about a PTC is it should close when it cools so the device doesn't self destruct like this diode would. I could never figure out what the PTC curve for those is so I wasn't sure if it was the same as an ATC fuse or that it wouldn't start to impede at high underhood temps and affect charging. I assume since they get very hot down under that they'd have accounted for that.
Just to complete the thought this was how it was installed in a 2008 Tacoma.
One advantage to a diode is that it's a negatively proportional device, so forward biased the voltage drop goes down as temperature increases. This is favorable to the application and tends to avalanche when overheated, also a fail safe.
So I tinkered with a way to do both. It wasn't reliable enough and wouldn't ever really soak full enough to stabilize and charge following any predictable way. I eventually just concluded using a diode drop to trick the alternator is just too variable to be of benefit. But should mention this is a 3A Shottky rather than a general purpose silicon rectifier, so the voltage drop was lower and more consistent part-to-part but temperature dependency is slightly worse in constant conduction.
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I'm still on AGM, I know I gotta pay a little more (prices getting pretty high these days for sure) but to me they're a good balance between conventional chemistry and keeping acid off my junk.
Good AGM life takes a bit of luck (from the factory) and proper charging for sure. I'm on Optimas, the pair in my 100 are from 2016 and still performing well so I can't complain (maintained by a nice Victron solar charger). I'll probably go some type of AGM again when the time comes.
Anything Li in a old 12 volt system has usually has control electronics involved (in the battery) to manage charging, cut off, safety, etc... So I'm letting that tech mature a bit longer and waiting for the OEM's to adopt it first before I pony up. I'd run one for a house battery for sure, just not as a primary drop in starter battery yet.
Edit: I also run a diode inline with the alternator sense line to boost the voltage up into AGM land like Dave shows above.
Good AGM life takes a bit of luck (from the factory) and proper charging for sure. I'm on Optimas, the pair in my 100 are from 2016 and still performing well so I can't complain (maintained by a nice Victron solar charger). I'll probably go some type of AGM again when the time comes.
Anything Li in a old 12 volt system has usually has control electronics involved (in the battery) to manage charging, cut off, safety, etc... So I'm letting that tech mature a bit longer and waiting for the OEM's to adopt it first before I pony up. I'd run one for a house battery for sure, just not as a primary drop in starter battery yet.
Edit: I also run a diode inline with the alternator sense line to boost the voltage up into AGM land like Dave shows above.