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21 450 still running stock batteries. Figure any time now they are going to die with all the heat we have had of late. This am I crank up and get the following faults. Could be the wiring harness behind the spare but it has never done this to date. I'm guessing battery time.
That said I have run Napa gold batteries for years now. I don't see them listed on their website any longer.
What aftermarket batteries are you guys running and would recommend?
Besides the small boutique battery manufacturers....there are three main companies that supply batteries to the aftermarket.
1. Excide
2. Johnson Controls
3. East Penn
That said, Consumer Reports did testing years ago that showed the EverStart Maxx (Walmart) batteries are great. These are made by Johnson Controls. I've had good luck with them over the last 20 years....great 5 year warranty. Always close to a Walmart if I'm on a road trip when I have battery issues (warranty swap needed).
I've always had good luck with Interstate. My brother's 91 Chevy in Michigan had an Interstate in it for 11 years before he replaced it and it still has the 2nd interstate in it 8 years later.
I couldn't get an Interstate for my OBS same day when it died so I bought a Duralast AGM and its been 3 years and it always started even below -20.
My 2022 with dual batteries and a build date in early April has just under 10k miles and both of my FoMoCo batteries are leaking already. Ive never owned a vehicle with leaking batteries before and I never though a $70k truck would be the first.
Odyssey AGM or Northstar AGM
I have Odyssey, Autozone carries them
I had Odyssey AGMs in my 6.0 at about $292/ea. I had to warranty 1 of them because my voltage was jumping all over and it turned out to be a terminal that would spin. odysseey changed their warranty (mine was covered but a hassle) and the warranty is 36 months. For a battery that cost that much money I could have bought 2 interstate batteries for that price but you would think a $300 battery would be warrantied for longer than 3 years when an Ever Start from Walmart has a longer warranty.
Well, I'm cheap and want to get as much use out of things as possible, so before throwing $400-$600 worth of new batteries at it, I'd get the current batteries LOAD TESTED. Just remember that the batteries are interconnected, so you have to disconnect at least one before testing them.
I had Odyssey AGMs in my 6.0 at about $292/ea. I had to warranty 1 of them because my voltage was jumping all over and it turned out to be a terminal that would spin. odysseey changed their warranty (mine was covered but a hassle) and the warranty is 36 months. For a battery that cost that much money I could have bought 2 interstate batteries for that price but you would think a $300 battery would be warrantied for longer than 3 years when an Ever Start from Walmart has a longer warranty.
Agreed. I looked hard at the Odyssey & Northstar batteries...went down the rabbit hole of learning about what batteries were made by who and where...yadda, yadda, yadda...
In the end, I couldn't justify the cost. I got both my Interstate AGM's for the price of one Odyssey.
OEM batteries used to be good. I had a 1997 F150 with the original Motorcraft battery that lasted until 2008. It was my fault it died. I added a 1,000Watt subwoofer/amp at that time, and the alternator kicked the bucket, which killed the battery. I was driving home from work at 2am with just the fog lights, and popping it in neutral to keep the engine from dying at stops.
I had a 2007 Dodge Ram with the original battery in 2016 when I traded it in.
A big part of the blame these days is the extreme use of electronics in vehicles (and ones that run and/or keep memory when the vehicle is off)
A while back I bookmarked the X2 AGM batteries. There was a thread going that several folks recommended these due to the high cranking amps and that they are AGM. I don't know at this point which ones I will swap my OEM's out for specifically, but these are definitely on my list, and I do know that I am going to go AGM.
A while back I bookmarked the X2 AGM batteries. There was a thread going that several folks recommended these due to the high cranking amps and that they are AGM. I don't know at this point which ones I will swap my OEM's out for specifically, but these are definitely on my list, and I do know that I am going to go AGM.
Those are made by Northstar as an off label for Batteries Plus I believe. Good units then if that's true.
I worry less about the batteries themselves and more about the warranty and the number of locations I can use the warranty at. If your battery dies when you are not near the store that honors it, it's worthless.
