Well, batteries are now completely dead. At home getting a new exhaust manifold put on. Truck sat for maybe 24 hours with APU turned off. Went to start the truck after new manifold put on and truck would hardly turn over. Turned on APU and that wouldn't start either with a code of not enough battery juice to start.
Mechanic put the battery tester on. We can charge the batteries up but have absolutely have no staying power. So, new batteries in the morning. My last free set then it's time for some type of cheap throw away like Walmart.
Mechanic put the battery tester on. We can charge the batteries up but have absolutely have no staying power. So, new batteries in the morning. My last free set then it's time for some type of cheap throw away like Walmart.
for the truck to just sit, and the batteries run down, you have a "parasitic drain" on your system, but alas, you said that your mechanic (ahem...experts), "tested" everything.
you will be buying more batteries than you have ever hoped to buy.
walmart will come to love you.
good luck.
Well, you just showed your lack of knowledge on the subject. There was no parasitic drain oh brain surgeon. They were out of the truck, charged then left over night and tested with a shunt. Do you ever actually offer any useful info?
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
Why were the batteries out of the truck, .. for an exhaust manifold R&R?
If the batteries were fully charged, and the cables were disconnected, and 24 hrs later, they're dead, it's cuz the batteries are junk.
If the cables were still connected, & 24 hrs later they're dead, it's most likely a drain. Did you leave your fridge or inverter on? They should be able to power a 12 volt fridge for 48 hrs & still start the truck though. I don't know about a 120 volt fridge powered by an inverter though.
Gus
What?
I guess we were supposed to know this.
I think you are a know-it-all anyway. Keep buying batteries. See if we care.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
Skateboard, ... when you get your next set, are you going to install them or do they do that for you?
If possible, can you swap 'em out yourself, use the pickup to take them to swap them, so you can avoid putting a starter load on them until they've been charged up by the APU or an external charger that will give them no more than 60 amps total (15 amps per battery)? Lead acid batteries are usually not fully charged when you get them. The very first charge should be at 10-15 amps per battery, it'll extend their service life if you do that, instead of just hitting them with a heavy load and then letting the alternator quick-charge them.
If possible, can you swap 'em out yourself, use the pickup to take them to swap them, so you can avoid putting a starter load on them until they've been charged up by the APU or an external charger that will give them no more than 60 amps total (15 amps per battery)? Lead acid batteries are usually not fully charged when you get them. The very first charge should be at 10-15 amps per battery, it'll extend their service life if you do that, instead of just hitting them with a heavy load and then letting the alternator quick-charge them.
The batteries were out of the truck. My mechanic replaced my manifold in exchange for me re-doing his trashed computer. They had to be replaced anyways but my mechanic wanted to do a test before I got new ones. He charge all 4 of them for the day then we left them on the bench over night. In the morning he put the shunt on and they went from 12.5 to 9. something then nothing in a second.
They are AC Delco batteries. The shop where I bought them only had 2. I left them and went to get 2 air bags for my truck. When I returned I stopped at the shop just as the truck was delivering the other 2 batteries. I am in the Delco computer so no receipt was needed. The delivery girl said Delco knew this was the 6th set of batteries. Corporate wants all 4 batteries shipped back to the company for research.
I bought the batteries at a shop that specializes in auto and truck electrics. He's the shop that put the equipment on the truck last year to look for a drag. The only thing that was running was the truck computer, radio, and Rigmaster computer. When they were disconnected there was nothing.
The girl that delivered the batteries said they are seeing tons more truck batteries being returned in less then a year for replacement. Running down the batteries every single night and recharging every day is not good for any rechargeable battery. They can only do that for so long before they are trash. Same reason you need a new cell phone battery after a while.
She said with more and more OTR trucks demanding more power for all sorts of things this is becoming a problem. I checked with Autozone and they have done away with the 8 year warranty on batteries for trucks. Only 1 year now. The biggest drain on my batteries is my Epsar heater during the cold weather.
This is the first set of batteries that seemed to wait for me to get home then went completely dead. The only suggestion they had was to run my APU every night but that seems to defeat the whole purpose.
They are AC Delco batteries. The shop where I bought them only had 2. I left them and went to get 2 air bags for my truck. When I returned I stopped at the shop just as the truck was delivering the other 2 batteries. I am in the Delco computer so no receipt was needed. The delivery girl said Delco knew this was the 6th set of batteries. Corporate wants all 4 batteries shipped back to the company for research.
I bought the batteries at a shop that specializes in auto and truck electrics. He's the shop that put the equipment on the truck last year to look for a drag. The only thing that was running was the truck computer, radio, and Rigmaster computer. When they were disconnected there was nothing.
The girl that delivered the batteries said they are seeing tons more truck batteries being returned in less then a year for replacement. Running down the batteries every single night and recharging every day is not good for any rechargeable battery. They can only do that for so long before they are trash. Same reason you need a new cell phone battery after a while.
She said with more and more OTR trucks demanding more power for all sorts of things this is becoming a problem. I checked with Autozone and they have done away with the 8 year warranty on batteries for trucks. Only 1 year now. The biggest drain on my batteries is my Epsar heater during the cold weather.
This is the first set of batteries that seemed to wait for me to get home then went completely dead. The only suggestion they had was to run my APU every night but that seems to defeat the whole purpose.
Gus
What?
Ever think of a second set of deep cycle batteries for running cab draw? I set one of my trucks up with 4 on an isolator so they wouldn't drain the truck batteries. I ran the Espar, fridge, TV, inverter and bunk plugs off the deep cycle. The truck batteries lasted 4 years and the deep cycle were still going when I traded it.
Micabay
Land Dweller
When they were out of the truck, did you store them on a concrete slab? Dunno how much truth but my grandpa always told me to put battery's on 2x6 wood blocks, when we took them off of trucks for the frame rail replacment, as the concrete kills the batterys. May just be a old wife's tale, but why chance messin with old wives?
I don't know if that was true either. The batteries were on a bench.
Gus
What?
I ran 4 deep cycle. You aren't going to strain an alternator. They are designed to charge batteries. Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged and recharged. I never had to change an alternator in the 5 years I owned that truck.
Like I said, you seem to know it all, so keep on keeping on. The battery companies will like the additional business.
yes, put them back into the truck and check for the parasitic drain..
you NEVER mentioned they were out of the truck....duh...
that was actually true "back in the old days", when i ran a shop and turned wrenches. had something to do with the material of the battery back then, somehow it allowed the battery to discharge, but i cannot fully remember every little detail about it.
today's batteries, or shall i say batteries made from about the 1990's and up, no need to worry about leaving them on a floor, concrete, or otherwise.
ya wanna know how we used to convince customers to keep thier batteries clean and filled with distilled water..?? so that they would last longer..???
we used to put a test light probe on the positive battery terminal, then run the pointed end on the radiator hose, if it lit up..??? the battery had acid all over the top, even though you could not see it. customers would gladly ask for us to clean the battery, cables, and refill for them.
no extra charge.....
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
You are deep-cycling your batteries that are designed for shallow cycling.
Every time you discharge a battery and then recharge it, that's called a cycle. When you run it down to 50% of it's charge, that's called "deep cycling". Regular batteries aren't designed for that and it will damage them.
Deep cycle batteries are designed for being discharged to 50% and then re-charged at a rate of 15% their amp hour rating. (for a 100 amp hour battery, you'd give it 15 amps to recharge it.)
If you're going to use deep cycle batteries, you'll want to start by figuring your total amp load during your 10 hour break so that in the morning, your batteries are at 50% state of charge. Actually since batteries lose their capacity as they age, I'd do the math so they're at 70-75% state of charge in the morning.
Having too much deep cycle battery capacity is also bad, because shallow-cycling deep cycle batteries is also bad for them. I ruined a set of batteries totaling 150 amp hours in my camper by shallow-cycling them all the time. I was using about 9 amp hours and then charging them back up. (My 200 watt stereo, at normal speaker volume, used about 1.25 amps and my hidden, multi-colored LED lights totaled at one amp. After 4 hours, that's 9 amp hours.)
If you insist on using regular thin-plate batteries, there's a formula out there somewhere for figuring out their amp hour rating. Automotive & truck batteries are rated in cold cranking amps, ... how many amps they can deliver all at once at zero degrees when they're brand new. But when you figure out the amp hour rating of your set of 4 regular batteries, if you get big enough batteries that they're above 80-85% state of charge in the morning, preferably 90% actually, it shouldn't hurt them.
Don't look for words like "gold" or "platinum" on the batteries either. They're just words that mean nothing. Look for the biggest amp hour rating, ... yeah I know they're rated in CCA but like I said, there's a way to convert that to amp hours, ... I just don't remember what website I saw the conversion formula on.
I tried the deep cycle batteries and they didn't cut it either. Tried Optima Yellow Top also, same thing. Cycling a battery can only do that so many times and I'm hitting the limit. I'm running a 110 volt fridge off my inverter and my Espar heater in the winter which is a pretty big draw. It really doesn't matter even if there was a parasitic draw. Like I said a few times already, I have a Rigmaster that starts up at 12.2 volts and runs for 1/2 an hour. The main problem is that batteries in trucks like everything else including cell phones can only be pulled down and charged up so many times before they've lost their starting power.
Believe me, I've extensively looked into this problem and had people who specialize in auto electronics go over my truck. I've had my trucks computer, radio and Rigmaster computer disconnected from the batteries for 3 days and no discharge at all.
Hence the topic of this discussion about Auto Zone batteries and their warranty. I know about the terms Gold and Platinum and your just paying more but in the Auto Zone case the Gold offered an 8 year warranty which has since been discontinued for commercial trucks. That would have given me 15 sets of new batteries at the rate I'm going.
So, I have two paths I can go down. Run my Rigmaster much much more or buy Walmart batteries at $90 a piece and keep replacing them under warranty for 3 years until Walmart figures it out.
Keep in mind, I'm out on the road for 5 weeks at a time before I come home. I run 600 miles pretty much every day then shut down for up to 13 hours. During that 13 hours my fridge is running, my Espar in the winter, over head vent fan and a 32" plasma display TV for a few hours.
For the first 3 months with new batteries I can run all night and my Rigmaster never starts up because the batteries never fall below 12.2 volts. Then it goes down hill from there. The Rigmaster starts up when I wake up in the morning and start my Mr. Coffee and so on.
Deep cycle batteries are not meant to be charged quickly in a truck or car. They need a slow charge over a long period of time. The plates are different then a normal truck and car battery. That's why they can last much longer before being drained. Their main purpose if for Fred. He heads out every Saturday with his boat and electric trolling motor and goes fishing. When he comes home he puts his little Walmart charger on and leaves it all week until the next time he goes fishing. If you read how to take care of a deep charge they will tell you to slowly charge them over a period of time.
A truck needs to run pretty close to 10 hours before they fully charge 4 large batteries. This is the reason almost all trucks have brushless alternators. If they did have brushes they would burn out much quicker having to work so hard every morning charging 4 batteries. Ambulances have a large rack of batteries and 2 very large alternators. They almost never shut the engine off when on a call and they are put on a charger when not in use. There's a lot of equipment inside that stays powered up and ready to go.
Believe me, I've extensively looked into this problem and had people who specialize in auto electronics go over my truck. I've had my trucks computer, radio and Rigmaster computer disconnected from the batteries for 3 days and no discharge at all.
Hence the topic of this discussion about Auto Zone batteries and their warranty. I know about the terms Gold and Platinum and your just paying more but in the Auto Zone case the Gold offered an 8 year warranty which has since been discontinued for commercial trucks. That would have given me 15 sets of new batteries at the rate I'm going.
So, I have two paths I can go down. Run my Rigmaster much much more or buy Walmart batteries at $90 a piece and keep replacing them under warranty for 3 years until Walmart figures it out.
Keep in mind, I'm out on the road for 5 weeks at a time before I come home. I run 600 miles pretty much every day then shut down for up to 13 hours. During that 13 hours my fridge is running, my Espar in the winter, over head vent fan and a 32" plasma display TV for a few hours.
For the first 3 months with new batteries I can run all night and my Rigmaster never starts up because the batteries never fall below 12.2 volts. Then it goes down hill from there. The Rigmaster starts up when I wake up in the morning and start my Mr. Coffee and so on.
Deep cycle batteries are not meant to be charged quickly in a truck or car. They need a slow charge over a long period of time. The plates are different then a normal truck and car battery. That's why they can last much longer before being drained. Their main purpose if for Fred. He heads out every Saturday with his boat and electric trolling motor and goes fishing. When he comes home he puts his little Walmart charger on and leaves it all week until the next time he goes fishing. If you read how to take care of a deep charge they will tell you to slowly charge them over a period of time.
A truck needs to run pretty close to 10 hours before they fully charge 4 large batteries. This is the reason almost all trucks have brushless alternators. If they did have brushes they would burn out much quicker having to work so hard every morning charging 4 batteries. Ambulances have a large rack of batteries and 2 very large alternators. They almost never shut the engine off when on a call and they are put on a charger when not in use. There's a lot of equipment inside that stays powered up and ready to go.
Bite the bullet already, and go buy yourself some quality batteries!
Geez!
Walmart,Autozone...etc. are CRAP! Same goes for Delco qnd Die Easy(DieHard).
I've been a tech for 25yrs, and the best batteries (in my professional opinion) are, without a doubt, Interstate Batteries. The Intersate Deep Cycle batteries are a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
...or.....keep dealing with cheap crap and costing yourself $$$ in downtime and headaches.
If it were my rig, I would only want the best parts for it. Better reliability. It is your money maker isn't it?
Cut your losses now, and save yourself hassles.
Buy Interstate Batteries!
Geez!
Walmart,Autozone...etc. are CRAP! Same goes for Delco qnd Die Easy(DieHard).
I've been a tech for 25yrs, and the best batteries (in my professional opinion) are, without a doubt, Interstate Batteries. The Intersate Deep Cycle batteries are a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
...or.....keep dealing with cheap crap and costing yourself $$$ in downtime and headaches.
If it were my rig, I would only want the best parts for it. Better reliability. It is your money maker isn't it?
Cut your losses now, and save yourself hassles.
Buy Interstate Batteries!
Had Interstate also, same thing. I guess logic has gone out the window with all you truckers.
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