What brand do you like and why?? It's coming up on 5.5 years on the OEM's, and I need to start looking. I've been looking at Optimas and Odyssey batteries, and while they look like great batteries, the price is staggering!!!!! Post up friends!!!

Any kind of lead/acid battery that is maintainable... Mine are over 8 years old and still strong as ever. It all about maintenance of the battery and consideration for charging times. Then also how clean you keep the battery itself. Believe it or not dirt is a great path for current... I also take time now and then and overcharge the batteries to stir the acid/water mixture to keep it from rotting out the plates on the bottom. Alway use distilled water too... (Ramblin') So if I was to buy batteries it would be a good CCA rating battery for a average price. Maybe WalMart, NAPA or similar... You got to remember my entire house is power from batteries... They are closing in on 20 years old! :eek:

My batteries in the 2002 are the OEM original batteries when I bought the truck new. I recently replaced the batteries in the wife's truck with the Walmart batteries. They are about the best deal going around my area. Just be sure to pick out the batteries with the most recent production date off of the rack.

My personal bout with optima's has not been good. If you notice I have a ford also.... takes forever to start in the winter and the optima's just fall flat on their face, they have no capacity. It would crank good for maybe 20 seconds then it was pretty well done for. I found some graphs a while back showing the current coming out of them and it showed how optima's were better than lead acid for about 5 seconds then it would drop like crazy while the lead acids would be more gradual. As for which brand of lead acid, my brother has many trucks he tinkers with and never bothers to put alternators on so all the batteries he uses end up dead, but everstart maxx yellowtops gave him one hell of a fight before they finally gave up, they were drained to nothing several times and would always charge right back up and last a long time. Sadly, it wasn't the cranking that killed it, he left one in a truck with the key on and lights on for days on end. That maxx came out of my dodge and the other one is still in my dodge running top notch.

Edited November 18, 200915 yr by ISX

My personal bout with optima's has not been good. If you notice I have a ford also.... takes forever to start in the winter and the optima's just fall flat on their face, they have no capacity. It would crank good for maybe 20 seconds then it was pretty well done for. I found some graphs a while back showing the current coming out of them and it showed how optima's were better than lead acid for about 5 seconds then it would drop like crazy while the lead acids would be more gradual. As for which brand of lead acid, my brother has many trucks he tinkers with and never bothers to put alternators on so all the batteries he uses end up dead, but everstart maxx yellowtops gave him one hell of a fight before they finally gave up, they were drained to nothing several times and would always charge right back up and last a long time. Sadly, it wasn't the cranking that killed it, he left one in a truck with the key on and lights on for days on end. That maxx came out of my dodge and the other one is still in my dodge running top notch.

Everstart Yellow tops, aren't they available at WallyWorld??? If so that's great, got one real close, and if something ever happens to one, they're everywhere...........except around Mopar1973Man!!!

Everstart Yellow tops, aren't they available at WallyWorld??? If so that's great, got one real close, and if something ever happens to one, they're everywhere...........except around Mopar1973Man!!!

Hey now I resemble that comment...

True I'm no where near a Big City or Large Town... The closest Wally World is about 120 miles one way. :eek:

But remember if you take care of those batteries they will last you...:stir: (Remember mine are nearly 20 Years old!)

I was at wally town yesterday and they still got the same ones. 1000CA 875CCA.

Well the guy next to me at the apartments has an identical ford and while he was trying to find the problem, I bet he cranked for a grand total of 5 min without it ever starting, and this was some fast cranking the entire 5 min it never really slowed down. Upon going out and looking at his batteries, they were everstart maxx same ones, and he said those were from wally world. I heard a lot of stories of walmart degrading things to not exceed their low quality standards but that just proves those batteries are bulletproof no matter where they're sold.

Thing is you could buy a expensive name brand batteries and have then fail quick too. The whole thing about a lead acid battery... 1. NEVER let the batteries stand dead for any amount of time.2. ALWAYS recharge a battery back to full before shutting down the truck or recharging dead batteries.3. ALWAYS use distilled water to top off the batteries4. NORMAL voltage for a battery is 13.5 to 14.5 for charging. 12.8 for rest voltage. 5. If adding distilled water to a battery make sure and charge the battery to mix in the distilled water (use a battery charger and place on a 10-20 AMP charge rate to produce a slight boiling effect. Just a few quick tips...

Great info Mike!!!!! ^^^^^^

The handling a battery recieves can make a lot of differance. My brother went to pick up batteries from a distributor for a customer at our Marina. The fool dropped one off the hand truck. My bro really pissed them off when he made them leave the dropped battery on the counter & go get one that had not been dropped. (At least not in front of us.) Of course, dropping them off the dock into seawater kind off messes with them too!I agree distilled water only. I've had decent luck with Sears Diehards... very available & seem to last the warrentee pretty well. I replaced the OEM batteries in my 01 CTD last fall... so that was 7 years. They were pretty weak in the winter before, would start the truck easily if it had been plugged in but if when not. Not often below 32 degrees. I think they'd have been fine in a gasser. Russ