I'm tired of dead batteries

Kent

Last fall I hooked up this 30 watt solar panel to keep 2 deep cycle marine batteries and 1 starting battery topped off. So far, they've stayed at full charge.

These are easy to mount anywhere, just point it south.

A battery disconnect switch like others mentioned, is a good idea on any little used piece of equipment to prevent draining the battery from slightly leaky electrical equipment,plus it reduces the chance of theft or electrical fires. I also am a big fan of the Spiral cell AGM batteries made by Optima and Exide Orbital because they Will not self discharge nearly as fast as a flooded cell battery, they emit no corrosive acid that can corrode your battery terminals or battery box on a nicely restored machine and they are much more tolerant of deep cycling and sulphation in conditions where you may not keep them fully charged. My oldest Optima spiral cell AGM battery has seen 16 years of abuse and is still going strong. If you do go with a Spiral cell AGM battery, make sure you get the cranking/lighting/ignition battery, in an Optima that would be a "red top". In an exide Orbital(1/3 less cost than an Optima) you want the black "select" battery. For a starting application you want the CLI battery, not a deep cycle or marine type.

• Northern tool BatteryMINDer

If someone tells you that you need some sort of "high tech" gel battery, AGM, etc. - don't believe it. They have their advantages and disadvantages like anything else. The "low tech" flooded lead-acid batteries are very tolerant to abuse and many last a very long time.

I've got four diesel trucks, and eight tractors, crawlers, and backhoes that all sit, all winter. If we get a warm-up I start them up for 10 minutes - so maybe they get run twice all winter. Batteries are not disconnected, no float charger used, etc. I've had no problems and all my batteries are conventional lead-acid batteries. Some NAPA (Deka and Exide), some Walmart (Johnson Controls), some Delco, and some Sears Diehard. Out of the whole bunch - I only unhook one Chevy diesel Suburban because it has an analog clock that draws current all the time.

I just changed the battery in my IH tractor that only gets used in the summer. I put it in new 1/31/99 and it just crapped out 1/23/08. So, that's 9 years. It sits all winter, every winter without being started. It was just a conventional NAPA lead-acid battery #7235, group 31P, 1125 CCA - and I do nothing to it all winter - I don't unhook it, no float charger, nothing. I just put in another and it cost $92.

My 92 Dodge truck with the Cummins 5.9 has the same NAPA #7235 battery that is now 7 years old and it too sits all winter with the plates off.

My Deere 1010 crawler (gas engine) has a Walmart battery - cost $39 and is now 7 years old. It too sits all winter without being used.

My Case VAC has a 6 volt battery that is now 10 years old and still holds a charge.

Hope your luck is better.

Gene

Optima (red, blue or yellow top), you may have to jump it but it will stay good after many dead cycles.

My son got 9yrs out of his red top Optima and it was still strong when he sold the pick-up.

My yellow top on my IH706D sits for 6mths without needing jumped and still runs the glow plugs to start.

AZ summers is just about as hard on battery's as you can get, more than what cold weather is.

T_Bone