battery help

[jmoar]

My dad has a 2005 F250 crew cab diesel. Two weeks age I had a compustar alarm/remote start installed on the truck. I have the same truck and have a viper alarm/remote start on and it has been on the truck since it was new.

My dad brought his truck home and used it the following week one time. Then three days later it would not start. I went to the installer who is a very reputable person and he told me that the Ford batteries tend to go bad on the diesel trucks like that and often only last a few years. He had the same trouble with his excursion which is a diesel. He also said that one of the batteries showed a red dot showing it was bad when he was doing the work, but the truck still started fine for him

The truck sat in the garage and the alarm was not engaged so there should not have been a drain on it.

This Fall i have also noticed my batteries being sluggish and they went dead once. I thought I had left something on? I trickle charge them now periodically. This installer told me that is what he did and then he burned out his alternator in the process of trying to save "bad" batteries.

SO....my question is this. Do the factory batteries just tend to have a short life as he suspects or could there be another problem? I'm assuming people have had similar issues with the batteries or have heard of them and am hoping some people can ease my mind.

Thanks so much!

[Raul@Stealth Automotive]

i got 3 years out of my factory batteries... i then replaced them with optima's but those went out pretty quick too... i have since then switched back to motorcarft because 1 their cheaper than optima's and have more cold cranking amps

[rednekexprez]

I had a simular problem on my01 and even if the alarm is not on it has power going to it all the time...I replaced the factory batteries with a couple of 1100 cca batteries and havent had a problem since...change the batteries...get bigger then factory while your spending the mopney you wont be dissatisfied......

[holleywood]

At work we always get the marine batteries for the fact they have such a higher CCA then regular, and we use them on all our dump trucks and they last about 5 years usually, we had one last us 7 years. So i agree with rednekexprez get the higher CCA and you wont be dissappointed

[jmoar]

The batteries in our trucks say 750 cca. when I look up replacements they appear to want to give me 850cca at most places when i dial in my info of year, make, etc.

Where do i go for these larger batteries that you're talking about or is there a specific brand?

thanks for the help!

[holleywood]

I know walmart sells some marine batteries, alot of auto stores as well as if there is a camper place, or a boat place near you, just make sure you know the max diminsions of your battery before you go buy a huge one and it not be able to fit under your hood(dont learn the hard way)

[Jim Carpenter]

I have an 03, batteries are 5+ years, no problems yet. nI have repalced the alternator twice( about evey 2 yrs.)

[vitalidle]

Before you replace them charge them up and have them load tested will tell you if you have good batteries and then you can troubleshoot from there.

[jmoar]

how did you come to know your alternator needed replacing twice? isn't that more odd than the batteries?

[jmoar]

I have had them both charged and have a trickle charger on one right now. If i take them to an auto type store where they check batteries would they be the ones that could load test them? if not, where do I go?

Both of the batteries show red in the window where it should appear green. I"m assuming that means they're bad