I left my trailer hooked up over the week end. Got in today and batteries were dead. One battery is all wet on top like it's leaking. I assume it's bad, and the drain finished it off. After I jumped it, and drove it for awhile I can hear it gurgling.

A dealer battery is $70,,,and 750cca. A O'riely battery is $75,,,but 1000cca Can I upgrade just the one battery, or would I have to change both going to a bigger cold cranking amp. Do I even need more cca. I really don't want to change both unless I have to. Should I just put the one factory battery back in and forget about. Or will the other one be right behind the first going bad. Please advise. Thank's.

 

This is just a guess, but your trailer might have drained your batteries. They aren't that old. Before shelling out for two battries I would take them and have them recharged and load tested. It is advised to replace the battries in pairs.

 

I'm sure the trailer did drain the batteries. It has a break-away that charge's while hooked to the truck. As I think back, that one battery has been wet around the cap's for awhile. I'm sure it's bad. I just hate to have to change both.

Do you guy's think I should go with the factory, or the O'Reily's with the more cranking amp's. Do I even need more ccr. Thank's.

 

Always change them both at the same time.

You'll severely shorten the life of the new one, if you leave an older one in with it.


phox

 

Ok guy's,,,,should I get the factory one's,,or the O'Reily's. Or does it matter.

 

I would get a battery that doesn't have removable caps on the top. The ones that do always seem to barf out acid everywhere and corrode the connections and hold-downs. The Mopar replacements don't seem to be any better.

 

I went with the o'reilly's batteries because it was cheaper than the dealer and easier to get to. It doesn't matter what you do.

 

My factory ones are both 6 years old, and have survived 6 hot summers and 6 cold winters without a hiccup.

That's gotta say something.


phox

 

Good point about the cap's. I guess what I'm really asking should I go for the more cranking amp's. Is there such a thing as too many. Would the 1000cca be ok compaired to the factory 750 cca. Thank's.

 

Personally, I would guess that the factory setup of two 750 cca batteries would start the truck in most any situation with power to spare, as long as the batteries are in good condition. More capacity (like two 1000's) wouldn't hurt anything, so it's up to you.

It isn't unusual for a battery to give off vapor and acid when drained flat dead. Draining a starting battery down to zero will greatly shorten it's life, especially if allowed to sit in that state. If this only happened once and the battery is promptly brought back to full charge it may not have been destroyed.

With any system of batteries in parallel, the batteries should be the same type, capacity and approximate age.

 

Buy the most CCA you can for the battery that will fit in the available space!

 

Have you looked at Wal Mart? The "Maxx" batteries they have are hard to beat in terms of price and warranty. They have something like 3-year 100% replacement and then a 100 month pro-rated warranty. The next best place to buy batteries is Costco (maybe Sam's too but I don't shop there).

Like was already said, the more CCA you can get the better.

 

I like to use the blue-top (marine) Optima batteries, since they have so much power and reserve in the 34 series.

We keep a lot of accessory loads on the service trucks, so "too much is not enough"!

 

You should check the trailer battery. It should not have pulled the truck batteries flat unless it is bad also.

Mike

 

I could be wrong, but I took this to mean that the break-away got pulled while the truck was still hooked up to the trailer. If this was the case, having full power going to the brake magnets would kill the batteries in the trailer and truck in short order. This would also have been hard on the trailer batteries.