83 am General Truck batteries

[wauchsam]

yeah it was GSA and the truck was only 3 miles away from my house so I figured I would grab it
My wife Sez: that is not a a normal truck.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Ehh, they all say that.

 

[wauchsam]

well, being impatient as I am I have been charging one battery I tested the battery first with the load tester In the yellow tested weak
after an hour on the charger tested again tested green but after 10 secs on load went to yellow Weak after two hours on charger tested 10 secs on load stayed in the green

I think it's a good battery and needs a full charge


Yes NO Maybe so
??

 

[gimpyrobb]

Hard to say without knowing what kind of charger you have. Mine is a smart charger and has an LED that lights when its done. If I test once its done and the load tester leaves the green, the battery is bad.

 

[wauchsam]

mine has a green led also what mine is doing is that every ten fifteen mins the meter will go to 100% and the led will go on then it will go foo and meter drop down and charge again but each time it does that the drop down will meter a little more than last time the manual sez: that it does not have a cut off but has a timer so I am thinking it charges for a while shuts down and charges more to avoid over heating and explosion

 

[gimpyrobb]

You might have a pulse type charger. I think those help de-sulphate the battery. I would let it go over night.

 

[Warthog]

It takes at least a couple of hours to charge a good battery. One that has been drained may take overnight or even a couple of days.

you should also let the battery rest for 10 minutes or more after charging so you do not get a false reading.

I have some Hawker AGM batteries that are taking a month to revive. They are slowly coming back. Only reason I am keeping after them is that they are $600 batteries.

Check out any of the battery manufactures websites for charging and testing instructions.

 

[BKubu]

I realize you are going to swap all of the batteries, but I was told that the 6TL and 6MF batteries, while equivalent replacements, are not the same from a charging perspective. There might be battery experts on this list who will refute this, but I was told by John Winslow, a guy I respected very much God rest his soul, that they charge differently. Eventually, one will be overcharged and one will be undercharged. I recognize this info is not exactly on point with this thread, but it might be helpful to someone who has a bad battery.

 

[wreckerman893]

You might be able to charge them one at a time and bring them back, hard to say till you do

I'm baby sitting a couple of trucks for a fellow member and I had to charge all the batteries in one of them. Since I have two chargers I set them up in the cab and charged two at a time. I took the cables off, cleaned the terminals and slow charged them overnight. I used a multi-meter to make sure they were fully charged before I hooked them all back up. Make sure all of your connections are tight and clean the inside of the terminals with a wire brush (I have a small round brush that I chuck into a cordless drill for this task).

 

[5tonman1971]

Get 2 D8 battery's they are huge and weight close to 80-100 lbs but it's the cheapest rout to go to replace the battery's. You can find them at a heavy truck dealer/shop or at a farm supply store. I just put 2 of them in my m923a2

 

[wauchsam]

I don't know I got one that charged over night and a 15 "fast count" sec load test showed green at 1000 cca so I assume that one is good.
but the other is just dead dead.. not getting anything out of it.. I took the other two out that are frozen it's 19 degrees out side..

although the 8d's look good at 550.00+ for a set I am looking at 4 that are 800 cca and 1000ca just under 400 for all four I think I am just wasting time playing with these they are 4 years old and even if I could get them all to work how much more life could I get??

4 @ 800 cca should be enough...??

 

[Warthog]

Do you have an Interstate Battery store in your area? Many of us have purchased Group 31 reconditioned batteries for ~$60ea. They come with a warranty and are usually just as good as new ones. You have to ask for them and sometimes they are not in stock.

In your area, the 250 engine may or may not crank with 800. 1000cca would be a better choice. The problem with giving recommendations is that everyone's truck is different. You can have two identical trucks and one will crank with low cca and the other will not. Only way to know is by testing.

 

[atomoros]

Working on my batteries too on a M923a2. It was redone in 2010 and had to be jump started to bring it home from Delaware. Started fine next couple of times then temps dropped. I ran them down trying to start it. I rapid recharged them individually and I think I will let it sit until the temp get back up before trying to start it again. Its been single digit, low teens here.

Recovered a M813a1 last year that needed jump started. Before I left Indianapolis we stoped at a NAPA and replaced them with 4 12's. Fires up fine.

Any thoughts about using trickle chargers during winter months?

 

[73m819]

I use two 8Ds in my 819, they are NEW blems, in 05 they cost $60 each, in 010 one started to give me a problem so I replaced the set, this time it was $80 each, still a price that I can not bitch about, I figure if a pair of 8Ds can start a big cat engine, they should not have a problem with my little 250

 

[joesco]

To assist the batteries in my M931, I installed a 1500w Zerostart Block Heater, plugged him in Thursday morning for 4 hours, at 5am, - 6 degrees and at 9am it was +4 degrees and it took about 3 seconds to start! Well worth the $65.00 and it beats ether! Thanks to the fellow SS members who recommended this upgrade!