I have a 12volt '53. I put in an Everlast 875 cold cranking amps battery 3 years ago. Not a daily driver by any means. Yesterday the truck would turn at all. I put a charger on the battery, when the light was fully charged, I started the truck with no problems. Drove 15 minutes to a gas station for a fill up.
Truck was dead again when I went to start it.

Luckily an Autozone was next to the gas station. I put in a Duralast ( all they had). It started great with new battery.
Why would barely used battery go bad that fast? Could my 12 volt generator be in need of a rebuild because it is not charging the battery? How could I check this?

 

Autozone should have checked out your charging system for free.

barely used is a wierd term.. you had it for 3 yrs, altho YOU didn't charge/discharge it.. IT was working all that time..

Batteries do not have a good shelf life

sam

 

I say 3 is short based on the fact that the first 8 years I had the truck, I had the same battery in it.
And I asked about the charging issue/concerns I had to the flunkie at Autozone. He said he wouldn't know how to check for that...maybe I was to close to his smokebreak and he didn't want to cut into that time??

 

Batteries that aren't cycled much (i.e., used) start to sulphate as they discharge slowly. This is a permanent deterioration of the lead in the plates. Eventually it shorts the plates, or at least greatly reduces capacity. You might want to invest in a Battery Tender, the kind that pulses the battery to maintain it. Better yet, drive the truck more!

This is abig problem with motorcycles when they are laid up over the winter. I don't think I've had one last through more than one winter, even with a battery tender. They live a rougher life than car batteries, tho.

 

Ross nailed it dead on. No further explanation needed.
Battery Tenders kick-A$$. My John Deere has lasted 4 years with a Tender.

 

Could also have been a dry cell...even "maintenance free" batteries loose electrolyte. My next battery is going to be a gel...Optima, etc.

 

Hey Charlie !
Got a job out in your neck of the woods.
MasterCraft Seats in Santee !
Whoo-Hoo !!!

Big in Off-Road Trucks

E-Dawg-A-Saurus

 

Good for you! They make anything that will fit in one of my F100's? Still looking for a deal on a Glide seat...drooled all over a bunch of 'em up at the Western Nationals last week.

 

Naw - It's hard core Dessert Racing and Military Seats for the Heros in Iraq.
They also do Jeeps and anything else you need in the Rock-Crawler world which is new to me at the moment.

 

It sounds like a connection problem to me. Are all electical connections corrosion free, clean and tight? A 15 minute drive sounds way too soon to discharge a fully charged battery, unless maybe you have a dead cell. I would charge it fully, let it sit overnight, and put a load tester on it A dead cell will bubble under load. Any decent (even most indecent ) auto parts store should perform this service for you, and check your generator output to boot. 3 years is too early for a quality battery to fail, unless it had the above referenced drain. I have a battery switch in passenger footwell, and shut mine off and never have a problem. Mine is prolly 5 years old. My $.02