[AT] Battery Charger recommendations

Mon May 2 15:32:37 PDT 2016

Charlie:
In 1979 we bought a 75 IHC 1600 Loadstar box truck from the OK 
publishing company here in OKC.  It had been used delivering papers for 
the first 75K miles then had a big heavy braced bumper on the front and 
they used it around the shop for pushing the other trucks and as a back 
up truck...    It had an AC delco battery in it at the time, I assume it 
was the original.   In 1990 we replaced that battery.  In 2006, I 
replaced the Sears Diehard we put in it.   At one time we had a deal 
with Sears when they had a commercial tire & battery division here...  
Now it has one of those Car dealer Sam's club batteries they sold for a 
while, it has not been started in nearly a year, but I would bet that it 
will still start without jumping.   I attribute the good service to the 
regulator in the alternator it keeps the battery at the proper voltage.  
The alternator has never been worked on and it has nearly 300K miles on 
it...  345 V8 and 4spd with a straight axle..  The biggest problem was 
keeping exhaust pipe gaskets on it...   I finally just gave up.  I never 
saw an IHC that did not leak at the pipe to manifold junction...
Another bad brand of battery for me has been those Everstart batteries 
from Walmart, I had a 94 Suburban that went through 4 of those, they 
lasted about 15 months.  When it went out it was without warning, pull 
into a parking space and when you came back out, the engine would crank 
over 2 times and then quit...  I had to leave my wife sitting in it one 
night outside a Mexican restaurant at 10pm while I walked 1/2 mile to a 
Walmart to get a battery.  The battery would not roll the electric 
windows when it quit..... I finally broke the sequence with an 
Interstate Battery and then parked it....

Cecil in OKla

On 5/2/2016 11:54 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Cecil,  I have to agree with you.  I never..... NEVER...  had decent
> service out of an Interstate Battery.  Two years was about max on
> them and I'm talking about in my daily driver vehicles.  I know others
> love them but the ONLY way I'd buy one is that I was stranded and that
> is all I could get.  The battery that I have had OUTSTANDING service
> from over the years is AutoZone's Duralast Gold series.   I know most
> folks aren't big fans of AutoZone and neither am I for the most part
> but those batteries do a good job.  I had one that I used interchangeably
> over the years in a boat, a tractor and an old truck that is seldom used.
> The terminals got so worn down from changing it from one vehicle to another
> that I finally sat it aside to run a 12 volt transfer pump and a spot
> sprayer with.
> Alligator clips were about the only thing I could get to stay fastened to it
> by that
> point.  That thing just refused to die.  When it finally did I tried to
> figure out
> how long I had it but never could put a date on it. It had to be at least 10
> years
> and a lot of that time it was sitting on a wood block out in the weather and
> only
> charged when necessary.  Although I did try to make sure it was charged
> when freezing weather was coming.
>
> The genuine GM AC Delco battery that came new in my 06 GMC lasted 3 years.
> I replaced it with a Duralast Gold that is still in there and has never
> failed me yet.
>
> Charlie
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cecil Bearden
> Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2016 10:16 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Battery Charger recommendations
>
>
> Ed:
> That is much better life from an Interstate Battery than I ever got.
> Back in 2010, I got hooked up with them for fleet sales. They came buy
> every other Wednesday morning at 5am..........    I spent about $800 the
> first couple of months on their batteries. Even had 2 of those Work a
> holic batts.   Within 2 years every Interstate battery had to be
> replaced.  However, a year or so earlier, I bought 10 of Interstate's
> "Blem" batteries by trading a bunch of cores I had here on the farm.  I
> replaced the last one of those in my Generator this winter.  I don't
> know why the blems were better service batteries.  They were switched
> from tractor to truck to whatever.  The high priced ones were put in
> trucks and suv's that were used daily and did not last.  The longest
> lasting battery I have is in my 2000 C3500, it was bought at Oreilly's
> in june 2007, in an emergency.  The truck has a 4 ton electric winch,
> So I bought the best AGM battery they had.  it was nearly $200 at the
> time.  It is still starting the truck in all kinds of weather...  That
> is over 8 years.   AGM batteries have the best life if you can afford
> them....
>
> Cecil in oKla
>
>
> On 5/1/2016 8:17 PM, Edchainsaw at aol.com wrote:
>> In a message dated 4/28/2016 12:03:23 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> at-request at lists.antique-tractor.com writes:
>>
>> Subject:  Re: [AT] Battery Charger recommendations
>>
>> We have  at least 15 chargers (nessessity--- we have 5 locations all a
>> good distance apart and my sister has run over 2 and I left 2 out and rain
>> came
>>    we are hard on them)
>> I am swaring off the Schumacher  chargers  I cant get parts like  knobs
>> from them--- they told me in an official email they dont sell them-- I was
>> to
>> get them from Century Ghargers----  I have a century and Like it a whole
>> lot better ( I got it at an auction)  they are a TON$$$ more
>>
>> we are hard on them (our hired help has pulled the wires off 2 in the last
>> year ) again not the Century but the Schumacher-- again--- got to Century
>> for  parts...
>>
>> I have about 6 of the Harbor Freight trickle chargers and all work yet  ,.
>>
>>
>> I would suggest the Century models ----  not sure but think our John
>> Deere
>> chargers are Centruy's as they have held up -- 1 was even nicked by my
>> sister's car back in 1984....
>>
>>
>> One other item battery related and old tractor related:     battery life.
>>      In  December of 1999 dad and I  purchased a MF 2805 that was sitting
>> on
>> a dealer's lot because the owner  couldn't pay the repair bill  ($12k)
>> The dealer put new batteries in when the repair work was done in October
>> of
>>    1999.
>>
>> 2 wks ago one finally died!     I use this tractor  fairly regularly on
>> our
>> grain vac and for some years back the grain drill and  BushHog (R)  mower
>> when we had it.    I dont rember  replacing the batteries ever...  the
>> chads
>> are chipped out for  October  and 9.    Unless the battery fairy replaced
>> them in  09  they are OLD.
>>
>> I checked the one with my checker and it had 12v but dropped the second
>> load hit...  the other still had 12v and was still good..
>>
>> these are  Interstate Work-aholic   battieries.....     I tried to send
>> picks to   Interstate but they refused my emails..  LOL   oh well..
>>
>>
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