Well, it finally happened.

[overl0rd]

Yep, thats right, my batteries are finally done for. 10 years and not problem one, but its getting a little harder to fire up in the mornings...Kind of a sad day. Ah well, that says a lot for OEM motorcraft batteries. Thinking of going with optima red or blue tops to repace them. Opinions?

What's the longest you folks have gotten out of your batteries?

[Worm Drowner]

I considered Optimas myself (I have 2 in my boat) and then got to thinking "I just got 9 years out of a pair of Motorcrafts. Why change?" So I bought 2 more Motorcrafts.

[wesjones]

my motorcrafts are still origional and good, but i work for a concrete cutting company that has all PSD's, when the batteries go bad at work we use generics from carquest and they work very well. the only application we have for optimas is in the big diesel saws; they vibrate so much that the isolated cells are key. as for psd's, i think optimas are overkill...i priced batteries for my truck recently and autozone had the best price @ about 50$....

choose wisely,
wes

[Rodslinger]

Wow overlOrd, 10 years is great! I've been concerned with mine because of my power inverter and winch. I doubt I'll get anywhere near 10 years but I've thought about the Optima if I do have problems, just because I had one on my Wrangler and it worked GREAT.

[99Smokin73Stroker]

Yeah I too think that optimas are good, but can be overkill unless you're running a lot of different accessories or you just need them that bad. If mine decide to go i'm either going to go with motorcraft or another reputable brand.

[99Smokin73Stroker]

Oh and overlord you really scared me at first when I saw the title to this thread!! I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just batteries......and not some other catastrophic event!

[overl0rd]

I am running some serious power drawing accessories like a CB and linear amplifier, and aftermarket stereo and amplifier/subwoofer. I'm leaning toward the motorcrafts, like Worm Drowner said, got so many years out of the first set why change. I do also like the everstart extremes (everstart max now) that wal mart carries, I had one in my 84 that I got replacing a customer battery who had had it a few years before. That everstart is now in my goat, still holds a charge.

[turbotime]

Originally Posted by 99Smokin73Stroker

Oh and overlord you really scared me at first when I saw the title to this thread!! I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just batteries......and not some other catastrophic event!

ME TOO!!!

Yeah, Overlord, I too am running and aftermarket stereo, which powers an MTX amp and two 10"subs. Also have the sirius radio plugged in, which stays powered even when the truck is off, and I know that I will forget about it and leave it plugged in and on for days. I have noticed just this month or so that my batteries have been in the yellow zone a few times. I have to admit, I run my stereo full blasted a lot while the truck is off and I am riding horses, cleaning stalls, or whatever and am a little concerned that I put my batteries though too much with too little charge time. I will keep ya posted on how much longer they hold out.
Oh yeah, and my stupid sensor for the doors is getting faulty so it thinks that the door is ajar for anywhere from several minutes to an hour after I shut the truck off...can not imagine running the dome light for that long is very good for it.
And the other thing that I do a lot is run the accesory lights to the horse trailer off the truck...man, now that I think about it, there is a lot of stuff that I run off those poor batteries!!!

~Turbo

[jwiger]

Originally Posted by Rodslinger

Wow overlOrd, 10 years is great! I've been concerned with mine because of my power inverter and winch.

Keep using that fast idle switch man!!!

[99Smokin73Stroker]

I have an alpine v-12 pushin 3 JL W0's. If it's up loud enough and beating away like mad it will dim the lights slightly when idling.