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I don't use my truck as a daily driver. I went to start it this w/e after a 500k road trip last w/e - to the Snowies and back. Last w/e it cranked weakly and just started on Sat AM. Was OK in the afternoon and evening.
This week, the weak cranking was not enough to start even when I added another battery with jumper cables.
The old Century batteries were 4 years old.
F250 batteries, I needed to go to a specialist battery shop. The Repco, Supercheap, and Auto Barn shops didn't stock them.
The specialist shop did, 2 in stock ready to go, $462 a pair - that was actually $36 cheaper than 4 years ago for the same batteries.
Advice given was 'anything over 2 years is a bonus - especially in Canberra'
The batteries are each rated at 750 CCA. One of the old ones had dropped to less than 200, the other was closer to 500 - so I kept that one as a back-up spare.
If I'm not using the truck for over a week I connect the batteries up to a Ctek battery conditioner/charger. Maybe that is what kept them going for over 4 years.
However, rather than just waiting until the battery CCA decays to a no-start situation, has anyone got, or can recommend a good CCA tester?
I wouldn't mind having one and doing occasional checks so that I can replace the batteries just BEFORE they get to a no-start situation, rather than currently, where I just wait until a just after no-start situation.
I notice that Ctek does one for about $150. They are plently of cheaper units on Flea-bay.
Hey Simon, that's not good when your batteries start to fail you, I put some Supercharge 850 cca batteries in and haven't had any problems as yet, they seem to be cranking fine,and our weather is pretty much the same as yours (not as cold) , i am like you i don't use my truck for a daily driver so It's left on a trickle charger when it's not in use, (3.0A)
I can recommend a good CCA tester called Midtronics , made in the USA
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