[AT] Battery Charger recommendations

Mon May 2 09:54:49 PDT 2016

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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