What Truck Batteries Do You Recommend?

Probably not enough time to fully charge making all those stops. Bigger alternator would help. Over the road truck batteries take a long time to charge since we drive for many hours every day. Maybe you have the wrong type of battery in there. I think a day cab would use different type then us.

 

Hi dcwjr, batteries are the "Achilles Heal" of a truck, so to speak, and 12-15 months isn't really that unusual for a multi-start-up business, especially with a 3 battery setup, as 4 used to be the standard, but you can get by with 3. I wish I had a nickel for every battery I went through in my career. In the "for what it's worth, dept.", I hauled a load of lead to a battery mfr. years ago, (Globe-Union) and was surprised to see every kind of battery case known. When I asked the guy unloading me, hey what gives with all these different cases. The guy said, get your best price on batteries, as inside, they are all the same. I've gotten in discussions with people saying that's not true, but I was there. Quite frankly, I've never had one brand of battery last any longer than any other.

 

Perhaps, the Maxwell UltraCapacitor will extend the life of your batteries. i.e. by not using a battery for start up. My current batteries are off the shelf by Freightliner's Alliance parts, AGM Group 31. Originally purchased, Feb.2011.

 

A 06,changed the 2 batteries just before the winter off 11.
They were still working but didn't want to risk a breakdown.(i noticed the truck didn't start as smoothly as it should)
I start it around 40 to 50 times a day.

And before anyone calls BS on this,i will add that my truck runs 24 volt.

 

How you mount the batteries has a lot to do with life expectancy.Vibration is bad for a battery. Keep that alternator set right, the terminals clean, have a piece of plywood under them, wash them off every so often,keep them all the same size and style, and keep your truck tuned to start easy.I always run 4 batteries, 3 will get you in trouble and leave you sitting.
Sometimes I think it just plain luck when a battery lasts a long time. I have had cheap ones last a long time, and high dollar ones give up in less than a year.

 

Thermoking Eon

http://megaholod.net/offers_articles/tk/0042.pdf

 

2 questions for the OP

1°do you have to top off the fluid much?

2°has anyone checked how hot the batteries are running during the course off a shift?

 

Maybe when getting serviced put a charger on them to get a deeper charge ... Or keep some spares charged up with a slow charge and swap out every 6 months or so ... Every 2 or 3 months I give mine a slow charge and they normally go 30 plus months even with heavy bunk heater and invertor usage ..