Time For A New Battery!
- static
- IAC Addict!
- Location: Somewhere on I-5
- Status: Offline
Time For A New Battery!
I received well over five years of faithful service from my fancy-ass Optima battery, but it is starting to show its age. It looks like it is time for a new battery.
As wonderful as the Optima batteries are, they also cost >$125.00.
Yes, mere pennies a day. Yes, I should just buy another Optima. Sadly, I am not, um, "in the position" to be forking over $125 + for my next battery.
So then, it will probably be a Kirkland brand, but before I visit the mythical land of the Costco, I wanted to get umpteen million opinions beforehand.
This battery, by the way, will live in my 1971 VW Camper.
As wonderful as the Optima batteries are, they also cost >$125.00.
Yes, mere pennies a day. Yes, I should just buy another Optima. Sadly, I am not, um, "in the position" to be forking over $125 + for my next battery.
So then, it will probably be a Kirkland brand, but before I visit the mythical land of the Costco, I wanted to get umpteen million opinions beforehand.
This battery, by the way, will live in my 1971 VW Camper.
- DjEep
- IAC Addict!
- Location: Nowhere, Fast
- Status: Offline
I know a tire shop in south San Francisco where you can get Optimas for $100. I don't know how real/legally-obtained/new they are, as I only learned of this from an employee telling me out the side of his mouth while I was poking some dead Optimas they had in the shop.
"Live life, love life. Enjoy the pleasures and the sorrows. For it is the bleak valleys, the dark corners that make the peaks all the more magnificent. And once you realize that, you begin to see the beauty hidden within those valleys, and learn to love the climb." - Anonymous
Do you want to Survive? Or do you want to LIVE?
Do you want to Survive? Or do you want to LIVE?
- Amskeptic
- IAC "Help Desk"
- Status: Offline
Re: Time For A New Battery!
I have had good luck with the local AutoZone Duralast for $59.95. It is now 5 going on 6 years old.static wrote:I received well over five years of faithful service from my fancy-ass
The Duralast in my Lincoln is 11 (!) years old and sits around way too much, but manages to hold its charge.
Colin
(keeping your batteries well-charged is a key to longevity)
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles
- Amskeptic
- IAC "Help Desk"
- Status: Offline
- Hippie
- IAC Addict!
- Location: 41º 35' 27" N, 93º 37' 15" W
- Status: Offline
Mostly what you pay for is the longer warranty, me thinks.
I have it on good authority that most batteries are made on the same assembly line with a guy putting different brand stickers on them depending on where they are going.
Having said that. My Duralast is older than 2004 when I bought the bus and going strong.
And Colin, sell me that there Lincoln.
Rob
I have it on good authority that most batteries are made on the same assembly line with a guy putting different brand stickers on them depending on where they are going.
Having said that. My Duralast is older than 2004 when I bought the bus and going strong.
And Colin, sell me that there Lincoln.
Rob
- Sylvester
- Bad Old Puddy Tat.
- Location: Sylvester, Georgia
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
I agree, I think I have only had one battery in 20 years that didn't make it past it's warranty, and that one was a Wally Mart buy.Hippie wrote:Mostly what you pay for is the longer warranty, me thinks.
I have it on good authority that most batteries are made on the same assembly line with a guy putting different brand stickers on them depending on where they are going.
Having said that. My Duralast is older than 2004 when I bought the bus and going strong.
I HAVE to say it, "Your going to drive me to drinking if you don't stop driving that hot, rod, Lincoln."Hippie wrote:And Colin, sell me that there Lincoln. Rob
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
-
- Status: Offline
The AutoZone Duralast batteries have done well in the recent Consumer Reports tests. If I catch a sale, they are cheaper than Costco. The one problem with AutoZone is that they want you to "prove" the battery is bad when you take it in for a replacement. Costco just gives you your money back without question.
-
- Getting Hooked!
- Location: Monmouth, Oregon
- Status: Offline
I bought an Everstart from Wally World for my bus in 2005. One year warranty on it. It sat unused in the bus from July of 2005 until March of 2007. It's now on it's last leg. It just isn't holding up. Maybe 30 seconds of cranking then I have to charge it up again. My charger reads it at about 15% charged when I hook it up. The Interstate I had in my Pontiac lasted for about 4 years. I think I may go with one of those. I get them at a local store called Bi-Mart. Pretty sure they are only in Oregon, but they are Employee-owned and have reasonable prices.
- ruckman101
- Lord God King Bwana
- Location: Up next to a volcano.
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
I was thinking Interstate, but from one of their shops, not Bi-Mart. Is Interstate local and employee owned also?NWbuspilot wrote:I bought an Everstart from Wally World for my bus in 2005. One year warranty on it. It sat unused in the bus from July of 2005 until March of 2007. It's now on it's last leg. It just isn't holding up. Maybe 30 seconds of cranking then I have to charge it up again. My charger reads it at about 15% charged when I hook it up. The Interstate I had in my Pontiac lasted for about 4 years. I think I may go with one of those. I get them at a local store called Bi-Mart. Pretty sure they are only in Oregon, but they are Employee-owned and have reasonable prices.
neal
The slipper has no teeth.
- Velokid1
- IAC Addict!
- Status: Offline
Sorry for bumping an old thread, and sorrier for such an elementary question. I'm replacing all fuel and vacuum lines in my bus (German Supply Kits are my X-mas gift from my wife). I haven't driven the bus in 2 years.
The battery is shot and will need to be replaced. I am going the $60 AutoZone route, but what do I need to buy? I mean, exactly? What flavors do batteries come in? Which do I need?
'76 Westy FI for those who have forgotten.
[blushing]
The battery is shot and will need to be replaced. I am going the $60 AutoZone route, but what do I need to buy? I mean, exactly? What flavors do batteries come in? Which do I need?
'76 Westy FI for those who have forgotten.
[blushing]
- Amskeptic
- IAC "Help Desk"
- Status: Offline
A battery.Velokid1 wrote:The battery is shot, but what do I need to buy?
hth,
Colin
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I think the physical size you want is going to have a 42 in it. You decide how many cold cranking amps you want and blah blah blah. I had a 750 cca battery in the Road Warrior. Heck. It should still be good out there in cold Colorado, email Troy and see if it is available.
You do have to do a match-up in most cases. You must have your posts on one side of the top of the case, they must be closer to YOU once it is installed, and the negative must be towards the front.
The footprint must nestle inside the tracks of the battery box, and the base of the battery needs to have the lip that your hold-down will grab.
The height of the battery needs to be modest.
It was the bugs and Type 3s that would burn down when people sat on the back seat because of incorrect battery dimensions and missing positive post protectors.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles
- dtrumbo
- IAC Addict!
- Location: Mill Creek, WA
- Status: Offline
Make sure you check which way the positive and negative posts are oriented on the battery. I believe Colin is right with the 'Group 42' size, but IIRC, it needs to be a Group 42R for 'reversed'. This puts the positive post toward the engine hatch and the negative post toward the wheel well where your ground strap is.
Double check before you go to the store.
Double check before you go to the store.
- Dick
1970 Transporter. 2015cc, dual Weber IDF 40's
1978 Riviera Camper. Bone stock GE 2.0L F.I.
1979 Super Beetle convertible.
... as it turns out, it was the coil!
1970 Transporter. 2015cc, dual Weber IDF 40's
1978 Riviera Camper. Bone stock GE 2.0L F.I.
1979 Super Beetle convertible.
... as it turns out, it was the coil!