Car battery in a tractor

Fred Werring

Well-known Member
Battery was down, thought it wasn't that long ago I installed it.
I was wrong, must have been thinking about the other 5000.
This battery made it 9 years in this 5000.
Never seemed to get as much life out of "tractor" batteries, especially those 4DLT's the Fords are supposed to use. Would only get like 3 years out of them, and they cost twice what I pay for a car battery.

And it's not just the Fords. Haven't bought a "tractor" battery in forever.
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I use to maintain the rural mail carrier's vehicles for many years. he had two pickups and four cars. He didn't want to have a dead battery on the mail route. I replaced his batteries when they were 3 years old (by his request). For about ten years I never bought a tractor battery. I would swap my oldest battery for his "core" battery. Then use my battery as the core. Also used his batteries in my truck. Can't remember any of his batteries not lasting me at least six years.

Right now my wd45 diesel has the battery out of my brothers Buick. His Buick uses a long flat battery under the rear seat. The wd45D is set up for two group 1 six volts. It's the only tractor I have with a battery box biggest enough for the Buick battery to fit.
 
Most of my tractors use Walmart batteries.the $50 kind. I get just as good a service out of those as the more expensive batteries.
 
X2, I have been using Walmart's cheapest group 65 in my Ford 3000 and 2810 diesels at about 30% of the cost of the 4DLT.
 
Walmart must have better batteries now then they did twenty years a go? My brother bought a car back in 2002 with a brand new WalMart battery. It lasted six months. Exchanged it for another one, Same thing lasted six months. Finally put in a CarQuest battery and it last several years.

Walmart is an hour and a half drive from here. Have not been there since 2006.
 
Same here. The smaller stuff gets a Walmart 65, the bigger stuff has group 31 from a heavy truck dealer. The 31s can usually be found for $75-80 on sale.
 
Same here. Tractors,boats and anything else where box will hold car batteries. Kind of like the mail carrier story,I replace car & truck batteries and put old battery on a tractor. When a batery fails or start's getting weak,I move battery from car to tractor and buy new for car. As gas been discussed here 100s of times,battery life can be extended by hooking it to a quility maintainer occasionally. My Deltran Battery Tenders are on something 24/7 365 and I have exelent battery life.
 
Tractor batteries, and most others too seem to last a long time for me. I got 15 years out of a pair on the CIH magnum tractor. Even better on the combine. I replaced that pair on the combine mostly for preventive maintenance a couple of years ago but am still using one of them on the 730 Case diesel. Believe it or not I bought that pair of batteries in 1999. Interstate workaholics. They get no special treatment or abuse here. Just install and leave on the machine all year round. Maybe its the cold weather that helps. Now if I could just get that kind of life out of drone batteries...
 
The battery in my JD 50 has a date of 2004 on it. Ordinarily I would just replace it, but now I'm curious about how long it will last. I haven't started it in a month - it might already be done. The tractor starts on the first spin, so it doesn't take much of a battery to get it going.
 
I won't ever buy another 4DLT.
They cost too much and the warranty on them is about half of what an automotive battery gives you.
On this latest tractor I put together I even went so far as to shorten a battery tray from a gasser to put in it.
These little 3 cylinder diesels start just fine on a car battery.

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I have gradually over the years gotten the idea that battery life is all about a full charge. Every hour that a battery is allowed to be down more than 10% of full charge is shortening its life. A car or truck battery starts the motor everyday then gets charged immediately. A battery in anything that sits will gradually lose charge, and not infrequently will get discharged a little starting the motor and then not recharged.
 
Heat and vibration are not good for a battery, and a lot of tractor batteries are not placed in a good spot to avoid this. Most car batteries are in a better spot.

Ben
 
Not a commercial battery with heavier cell plate , also not clamped down securely ,vibration is killing it bouncing around. Try a rv marine battery made for that bouncy life style and abuse , good luck 🍀
 
How about using a mower battery in a tractor? I use my oldest lawn mower battery in a Farmall C so I don't over power the 6v starter.

I rarely use the Farmall in the winter. I had to use a jumper battery to start it when it was 5 degree. It had not been started all winter. I may have to replace that battery with another old mower battery.
geo.
 
I still have the original Battery in my Kubota M6800 that it came with in 2001. Almost 20 years old. All I know is that it says KUBOTA on it. Have no idea if it was made in Japan? Would sure like to get another one like it someday.
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All my tractors run on car batteries the cheapest I can get. Replaced 2 last year. They were 8 years old or more. I can buy 3 of these for less than what one tractor battery costs. 1 tractor and the combine have room for 2 of these batteries and together they will give you more start amps than the original one.
 

In all my years until reading this thread I never knew there was a difference between a "car battery" and a "tractor battery"! I know marine batteries are different, but other than that a battery was a battery. If you needed one you went to a store and bought one and installed it in whatever it was that you were working on.
 
Currently, a Kubota dealer friend told me Kubota has a national contract
with Interstate Batteries. He orders a battery on his stock order, and the
Interstate dealer accross town delivers it, Kubota sticker and all.
 
(quoted from post at 08:57:54 02/28/21)

I have gradually over the years gotten the idea that battery life is all about a full charge. Every hour that a battery is allowed to be down more than 10% of full charge is shortening its life. A car or truck battery starts the motor everyday then gets charged immediately. A battery in anything that sits will gradually lose charge, and not infrequently will get discharged a little starting the motor and then not recharged.


Bingo! Having a charging system that it up to par and no parasitic drains makes an enormous difference.
 
Well, what I'll probably do, when that time comes, is go to the Kubota dealer and buy a battery and it will probably be the one you describe. Only time will tell if it's any good or not. Thanks.
 
Be sure to check the manufacture date on the battery.
My Kubota dealer was having issues with Interstate selling
him batterys that were 2-3-4 years old, and had never been
rotated out or recharged (or whatever) and they were not
holding up at all.
 

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