Thanks to all for your comments. NRMA batteries installed and fingers crossed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave
Have you cleaned your terminals?
Try cleaning them and another charge maybe there is a chance. Also check water levels.
Alex
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Thanks, but I'm too old to not check that. After a few dozen incidents even I caught on
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beren
Show your Troopie some love, go for a Fullriver battery  |
Interesting, I've never heard of them. there was no time to do research this time but I'll keep that in mind. BTW what is so good about them?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavytone
I'll ask you this: would you get out of bed to rescue some idiot with a flat battery at 2am for $30 ? I suggest not.
If you think that's bad, for a bit of a giggle read this:
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/201...mmerforum-com/
Now.. as for batteries... some time ago I did a study of alternative batteries for diesel locomotives and another for Honda to replace the NiCAD battery in their CR-Z hybrid cars and basically it concluded buy the cheap SLA type and be prepared to replace them every 4 years.
While there are viable alternatives including AGL, NiCAD, LiPo and even supercapacitors, their lifecycle cost is still more than that of SLA's. Some of the alternatives offer better performance (ie better temperature specs, lower internal DC resistance, lower mass) but the the "extra performance" comes at a significant cost which is not justifiable if all you want is a battery to kick your starter motor daily, where a cheap-as-chips SLA will do that just fine.
But SLAs have a very finite life of about 4 years... if you find your motor is sluggish to turn over in cold conditions its time is up.
Bear in mind the NRMA fee covers the call-out and the guys driving time... if you were paid just $30 an hour the $65 barely covers his drive each way, never mind his time to swap the battery (10 minutes) and the price of the battery. Cheap IMHO. |
Thanks for the comments about battery types. I've tried 'exotic' batteries in the past (actually distant past) and never been too happy with them. Perhaps they are better these days but I'll stick to SLA for now.
I'm not too sure about the other comments though. It's not 2am and it isn't the NRMA charging for a callout. NRMA don't charge as I am the roadside service and actually doing something every decade or two is why they get the money every year. Battery World would charge $65 for a call out and that is fair enough. If I thought their batteries were better I would pay the extra cost but if they are all much the same obviously I'll go with the cheaper option.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenswale
Both batteries died at the same time? Do you have a solenoid type system connecting them?
It is not unusual for batteries using a solenoid system to have both batteries die at the same time. This is symptomatic for the system. 'Intelligent' systems generally overcome this, preserving the cranking battery as a priority. I have come across as people in remote areas with solenoid systems and both batteries dead........
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I actually have an earth-side manual switch. That is the setup I had on my old 47 series and it worked great. However I used a different switch this time (physically smaller but with higher amperage rating) and I don't think it's up to the job. So, I got lazy and just ran the two batteries in parallel all the time. Clearly that isn't ideal and this situation is why. I need to get this battery system higher up the to-do list.
BTW the NRMA bloke suggested I get a modern smart charger as they do a better job with modern Ca batteries. In particular they go through a repair or service cycle which runs 17v through the battery for a short time to de-scale the plates. He had a customer who had run his battery on the charger for a couple of hours about once a month and had got 9 years from the battery. Something to consider.
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