Lesson Learned!!!

[Heavyd1980]

Well I learned a valuable lesson between yesterday and today! when you need a battery replace them both becasue the other will be shortly behind!:banghead: With another cold snap and snow my truck leaves me at work catching a ride with a friend of mine. You must remember this is my first diesel so this winter has been trying for me and this truck!:banghead::banghead: sorry for the rant just been a trying week.

[Mopar1973Man]

Oh I wish I would of known that... Because I already been down that road when it can to my batteries here as the house. I had 1 that failed for sure but the other 7 where right behind it so no matter what I did for the other 7 batteries I couldn't keep them... Yea.. I would of told you to replace both at the same time...

[jlwelding]

Yea I dont know what it is about that. I have a batt out of my old 7.3 that is running my electric gate at the shop, when I put it in I thought it will be good for a little while, and now it's been going for 5 years I just that it keeps going.

[Heavyd1980]

well i replaced the first battery back in september along with the altenator and the other battery tested fine but it failed yesterday! so from now on i will replace both at once. and thank you for the advice.

[flagmanruss]

Well, I have always heard to replace both paired batteries together. I tried replacing just one & ended up replacing the second shortly after. I need to find a use for the orphaned batteries! LOL!

[Heavyd1980]

well i can say from personal experience that both NEED TO BE REPLACED TOGETHER!!!

[Wild and Free]

Heh Heh Heh, some just gotta learn the hard way. Problem now is the first new battery has been compromised a bit now also from the bad battery. Might last just as long might not but it will never have the same power as the newer one.

[Prowelder]

Good info to keep in mind. I plan on replacing both of mine sometime when I get the money but for now I just keep pushing them until they just don't work. Then I'll be forced into buying new ones!! Hopefully they hold out here for a while though!!

[dobienut]

It's funny because I was just thnking about this the other day. I replaced mine last year (one) and one the winter before that. I know that when you do replace them alot of parts stores will reccomend you do both, buti'm wondering if you take one back as a warranty claim, I wonder if they are quick to try and only replace one for you, or if they will in fact do both

[Junkman]

I move the orphaned battery to the boat. I always buy the longest free replacement battery that I can find & note the 1 yr incremental dates in my work calendar. Sometimes It will be degrading & I can get the replacement for free. Keeping a trickle charger on any battery that sits (ie boat during the winter) extends the life. edit: deleted old irrelevant crap so someone doesn't take it as truth.

[Wild and Free]

Never store a battery on the cement shop floor. They always seem to go bad regardless of keeping them charged. At least set them on 2x4s to keep them off the ground.

:banghead: Don't spread these extremely out dated facts around. This was true 75 years ago of the old cardboard / paper cased batteries from the olden days that would absorb moisture and leach out electrolyte when they sat on the floor/ground. This is as far from true as it gets with any plastic cased battery. It is just a tale that keeps going because great grandad remembers the old style batteries this pertained to. They go bad because they are already towards the end of their lives and the scale has built up on the plates and some that settles out to the bottom and touch and thus acts as a small load and drains the batts over time. By keeping a battery tender on them helps prevent the scale build up and does make them last longer, but being on the floor or in the vehicle or on boards doesn't make a hill of beans difference in modern batts.

[jshmohr]

Hey guys I manage a NAPA and my battery rep says that you can store a battery on cement you should not have a problem with that, but yes if you don't use the battery for extended periods put a trickle charger on it or them many people don't know but your alternator will not fully charge a dead or low battery!! Yes also to replace both batterys but I have 2 agm batterys in my truck bought about 1 year apart (didn't have to buy both at the same time) and I did a health test on them and the 1 is a 05 had 90% health and the 06 had 98% and these babys get abused with cold temps alot. The other thing I have found is that 1 good battery is better than 1 good and 1 bad so if you have 1 bad just remove it until you can replace it. Good luck:thumb1:

[Wild and Free]

I think that a battery tender is different from a trickle charger and is better for long term storage. I have not checked into tenders for a while but have had classes that stated this over the years. Not sure how a tender differs from a charger right off "Will have to read up again" But just to put the bug out there that there is a difference.Tenders prevent scale build up in the procees it keeps the battery condition up versus a charger.

[flagmanruss]

I had recently seen testing that debunked the concrete floor issues of years ago. We removed all batteries from the boats in winter storage... put them on plank shelves & rotated trickle chargers among them every few days all winter. Probably had 200 batteries there. This was before the days of battery maintainers, of course. Another prestigeous yacht yard I worked at did the same. I have a trickle charger on my camper with it's bank of 3 RV batteries, my backhoe with it's pair of 6V batteries to make 12... also a trickle charger on that. I run both on a timer to run a couple of hours a day, not ideal but hopefully will not over charge them.I have my mobility scooter which runs on (2) 12V AGM batteries to make 24Volts. 1 of the OEM batteries was junk (probably shorted internally as it steadily lost power just sitting & collapsed under load) but the other tested as new. So I have all 3 of them in the house. I'm rotating a battery maintainer every few days. AGM batteries are very pricy.I have a solar maintainer on the dash of my CTD as it's not used a lot in off season... but it's not really out of service either. I drive it to town every week, just to exercise it. Battery maintainers are more pricy than trickle chargers, but are supposed to be more sophisticated in their analizing ability. I bought one so we'll see if they are worth it down the road.

[Heavyd1980]

Heh Heh Heh, some just gotta learn the hard way. Problem now is the first new battery has been compromised a bit now also from the bad battery. Might last just as long might not but it will never have the same power as the newer one.

Not necessarily the hard way just the uneducated way! and I was curious about the second (older battery) being comprised now. what would be the best way to test/check the life of this battery??

[ronman]

I've had both of mine replaced under their 3-year free replacement warranty. The driver's side died a couple weeks before Christmas, and the other one went out just after I replaced my injector pump and installed the FASS. The latter tested out at 0.2 amp-hours, so it was definitely, as the great Jerry Clower said, "graveyard dead."

[jshmohr]

Not necessarily the hard way just the uneducated way! and I was curious about the second (older battery) being comprised now. what would be the best way to test/check the life of this battery??

If you find someone with a midtronics or similar tester that will tell you state of health some auto parts stores or good garages have them it will tell you what % health your battery is