I am facing a dilemma here that I need help with. When I bought the wreck in my sig in December 2011, it came with a pair of batteries from Federated Auto Parts.

The batteries are both sealed, Federated Auto Parts brand, part # UL-65 with 1040/880 CCA. The PO wrote on the batteries in paint marker, new June 2011, so they are barely a year old. Apparently there are some Federated's around here, but Autozone, O'Reilly's, and Advanced Auto are all along the same strip and convenient to me.

While the truck sat from the accident until when I took delivery of it (almost two months), the batteries completely drained in freezing weather. Turned the key and got nothing whatsoever.

I charged them both back up with a battery charger and they seem to be holding just fine. They sat for a few months and then recently I put some battery tenders on them. They charged on that for maybe an hour or two and have said full up ever since.

My dilemma is this. I know nothing about Federated Auto Parts or their batteries to know how good they are. A plus is that they are sealed. Right now both V10 Excursions have Autozone's Duralast Gold in them which were new last July/August (they both were replaced within a week of each other). In case you don't know, the Duralast is covered under a 3 year full/5 year prorated warranty.

I'm trying to decide whether to keep the Duralast from the black Ex (which has a lot of warranty left and is the same age as the other) before I sell it to use with the 7.3, or is the sealed Federated battery that good where I should stick with that?

Thanks,
Jon