Battery's

[Rawze]

Chapter 13 in my book..

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Vibration and motion may not be so good for your connectors but it actually helps batteries. Lead-acid batteries actually perform better when the acid gets regularly 'stirred up' by the motion of a vehicle. Did you know there are 3 basic types of batteries for trucks? There are starting batteries, deep-cycle batteries, and hybrid batteries. Most trucks you see have starting batteries.

These type of batteries are designed to provide a lot of power all at once in quick, short bursts. Most of the time they are rated more for their 'Cold Cranking Amps', rather than for their 'Amp Hours'. All lead-acid batteries loose the amount of power available as they get colder, so starting batteries with really high 'Cold Cranking Amps' will help get your truck started in below freezing temperatures.

The downside of these batteries is that they are not designed to provide constant power. The more powerful the cold cranking amps that a battery has, the thinner the lead plates are inside the battery. They make the plates thin so that more of them can be placed inside. The more plates, the more cold cranking amps. Because they are so thin, it is easy for them to overheat internally when there is a slow, constant drain on them. This means that when your truck is turned off and you are using power from them to run an inverter or anything else that needs a significant amount of constant power, you are likely shortening the useful life of those batteries. It should also be noted that most starting batteries will only tolerate being completely discharged a few times before being irreversibly damaged.

Deep-cycle batteries are designed to provide power on a more constant basis. The lead plates inside these batteries are thick, keeping them from overheating, but because of this, they have a lot less cold cranking amps. This means they will make starting your truck a bit harder, especially in colder weather.

You can certainly use deep-cycle batteries in your truck if you need more constant power, but you might need to do a couple of things to ensure you do not have problems. It is possible you may need to add an extra battery to overcome the lower cranking amps, and/or you might also need to replace your starter with an after market 'Geared Starter'. Geared starters require a lot less cold cranking amps to get your truck started.

Denso makes some pretty good after-market gear reduction starters for class-8 trucks, so if your starter ever does go out, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get one of these vs another OEM. Hybrid batteries come in a few different flavors. They are an attempt to get the best of both high 'Cold Cranking amps' and still provide a decent amount of continuous power without overheating.

Sometimes these type of batteries are referred to as Gel-cell, Nickel-Cadmium, or Glass-Matt (AGM) batteries. Gel-cells are pretty good batteries for extreme environments and off-road use, as the liquid inside is fixed in place. One of the problems with gel-cells though, is they can be damaged very easily from constant charge/discharge, or from overcharging.

If your alternator produces a slightly high voltage, then it is likely that gel-cell batteries will have a short lifespan in your truck. Nickel-Cadmium batteries are more like Deep cycle batteries except they offer more charge/discharge cycles before they go bad. The downside of them is that they consume a lot of excess energy while charging, costing you fuel. Glass-Matt, otherwise known as AGM batteries, are usually much more expensive.

With their higher price, comes some pretty good benefits though. They are tough, like gel-cells, but they charge more like starting batteries, as well as providing the ability of constant power. They are actually about 25% more energy efficient than any other type of truck battery, actually assisting you in saving fuel as well. These type of batteries are definitely the way to go if you plan on installing any type of sizable inverter because they will pay for themselves long term both in lifespan and energy savings.

No matter what type of batteries your truck has, to be cost effective long term, you need to always ensure that the batteries are not only of the same type, and capacity, but also close to the same age. Keeping your batteries as a 'Matched Set' as much as possible will increase their lifespan greatly. As a comparison to this analogy, think about your truck engine for a moment.

What do you think would happen if each cylinder of your truck engine was a different size and/or type. Your engine would not only run very rough, but the cylinders doing the most work will always cause you the biggest problems. Truck batteries need to be the same capacity, type and roughly the same age to ensure they perform together as a group. Buying used batteries, and/or mis-matching them will only result in more battery problems long term, costing you unnecessarily.