I went with o/o (I think) welding cable. Is there a welding supply shop? They are usually setup to make custom cables...Mark

 

The local NAPA dose big battery cables but we have a lot logging and over the road trucks in town. whene I redid my positve side I got the Heavy duty military ends from NAPA and just had them put eyes on both ends of the cable link to ends http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/p...FcFj7AodWSEAqg

 

That's what I had. It looks identical to a group 31 Interstate.

 

Good option, thanks for the reply. H

 

NAPA has two ends of that type you want the heavy duty one's Ken

 

I know I may catch flak for this but I went with walmart EVERSTART MAX at $109 each. Had to get some this past weekend. Here is why I went with them. We use them at work in all the trucks from rangers to F350s. we Have had VERY few issues. Plus we put a copy of the receipt in the glove box in case our guys are out of town and have an issue, there are walmarts EVERYWHERE, so they can warranty them. They have 3 yr free replacement and 2 more yrs of prorated warranty.
Just dropped two In my 03 in Iowa while home for Thanksgiving. Now Im back to some frigid temps in Colorado.
In my experience, ive had poor results form batteries from the following: Napa, John Deere.

 

Cables can also be made by outfits that do fork lift truck repairs. I had the cables and the ends but needed the crimp tool for the 1/0. Stopped buy the lift truck shop and they fixed me up.

 

Just be glad you dont live in the UK. When I picked my truck up from the VPC over here they had to start it using 3 of their jump packs. Somehow they killed my battery in the 3 months it took them to get it over here. People thought I was "taking the ****" of them when I would ask if they had any 1000 CCA batteries. Everyone thought I was joking. It took me a week to track down even a 850 CCA battery that would fit. What was sad was that battery cost me nearly $250. I wanted an Optima Yellow top, but those go for over $350 here

 

Bought the stock cable at my dealer last year 180.00 cdn

 

When I had my truck at the transmission shop for the week they were waiting for the parts, they must have forgot to remove the under hood bulbs and they managed to run the main battery down, when I got there to pick it up, he told me he had been trying to start the truck but the battery was dead, he had it sitting with a 400-amp mains charger connected and his little jumper pack, it still would not start, it would start to turn and then chatter, I said Leo, I told you I have dual batteries, just push the button, the guys took the charger off the battery and I reached in and pressed the button, solenoids gave a heavy clunk then I told him to go ahead and try it, the starter spun as usual and the engine came to life as it always does.
They all thought that was pretty neat.

With 2 switches I can parallel both my Axillary-1 and my Axillary-2 battery bank to the main battery without having to drag out my 35' long 2-gauge jumper cables.

Each button yields an additional 1000-CCA to the system.

Most of the small Jumper Pack's generally have a single 17ah Gell-Cell battery inside and is enough the start most late model automotive engines.

Jim

 

Hi guys!

You all can also get some nice HD battery cables from MAD Enterprises. These aren't welding cable. Welding cable has a soft rubber coating that tears fairly easy depending on quality of cable. These MAD cables have a more specialized insulation, check them out at their web page. Price doesn't seem all that bad to me considering the short length most of us would need?

BTW there's some good Electrical Tech on their website though not diesel specific. Nice folks....

http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/1-0.shtml

 

This is how real men start their dead vehicles in sub freezing temperatures.

I get real goose bumps every time I watch this video, I can just feel the blowing wind.



I think he was really impressed..

Tesla Turbo Start GPU (Ground Power Unit)



This is the ultimate Dry Cell Battery to have.

Jim