Truck Battery Question

[greg334]

Call interstate and ask them where the dealers are who handle the truck batteries.

What kind of tests did they run to find the bad battery?

Resistor tests don't seem to show much.

The truck batteries will hold up to fridge and other small loads - especially having four of them.

I got one truck with batteries three years old, they tested out great but are being changed monday before the truck goes south for its work. The system in the truck cuts the everything off when it gets below 12.1 volts. When spring comes, I will rewire the sleeper for separate set of batteries in order to add more stuff in the sleeper.

 

[Monty]

Something I always do, when I am using the microwave or coffee pot, I always start the engine first. Allowing the alternator to take a hit on the surge power needed.

 

[Turtle]

The truck batteries will hold up to fridge and other small loads - especially having four of them.

Depends on the fridge and what other loads are placed on the batteries at the same time. For truck and marine batteries, a "small load" (Peukert positive) is defined as anything less than 3% of the total rated amp hour capacity of the battery (or battery bank). For four 100 amp hour Group 31 batteries, that means 12 amps (which should get you about 18 hours before they draw down to 50%). That means if the fridge, lights, laptop, TV, inverter and whatever else is drawing amps, if the total is more than 12 amps, it's no longer a "small load" and the battery won't be able to hold up under that kind of stress over the long haul. Instead of lasting 3 years or more, they'll last 18 months or less.

An Igloo Koolmate, for example, draws about 5 amps, and is precisely the kind of sustained amp draw that four truck and marine batteries are designed to accommodate. But once you start piling on other inverter loads, things change. If you have a 120-volt fridge that draws 12 or 15 amps DC to begin with, you're gonna need at least two more batteries if you want to use other inverter or 12-volt appliances at the same time. Or, be prepared to swap out batteries more often than you'd think.

For 4 years I ran a bank of 12-volt Everstart Maxx Marine batteries from Walmart, running a fridge and lots of other things, knowing full well that I was just murdering the batteries in the process. But they were cheap, and I killed them before the replacement warranty ran out and got free replacements (not only do I know how to properly care for and extend the life of batteries, I also know how to kill them dead). Now I use heavy duty high end deep cycle batteries, mainly to extend the interval of having to replace them.

It's funny how people will turn that flashlight off in a heartbeat in order to save the batteries, and then turn it back on only when they need the light, yet they'll abuse the pee out of their truck and house bank batteries by running high amp loads or letting parasitic loads run unchecked, or by having unnecessary or unneeded loads drawing from the battery. An inverter, powered on but with nothing plugged into it, will draw an amp or more from the batteries. Leaving that on when not using it will decrease the life of the batteries. Every amp counts.

 

[greg334]

Yep I agree, the fridge in that truck uses a 12volt compressor like many others, the lights from the factory are LED and there is no Microwave that works when the truck is off, it has to be running in order for the inverter to turn on for the load that large. I measured the total draw the other day with the overhead lights on at 6.2 amps.

 

[Turtle]

I use a Xantrex Battery monitor, so I always know exactly what's going in or coming out. It's amazing how much some stuff draws.

It's also amazing at just how wasteful I can be by letting things run when I don't really need them, so my last paragraph above is meant to be ironic.

I did get an extension cord kill switch for the satellite receiver DVR box. That thing draws 5 amps even when it's turned off. Mine doesn't, but many TVs will draw 2 or 3 amps when turned off. Things like that need to be unplugged, or plugged into an extension cord with a toggle switch to in effect unplug it. I can't do it with the fridge plugged into the inverter, 'cause a 120 volt fridge needs to be plugged in all the time to keep from killing the compressor, but otherwise there are many times when I'd have the inverter switched off.

 

[greg334]

I have never heard the fridge with a sealed compressor needed to be plugged in all the time. When I used the 120 volt models, I just wait for it to cycle off and then disconnect the thing from the power then kill the inverter. I haven't lost one from doing that.

 

[Turtle]

You're lucky then. The compressor isn't the only thing that's running on a fridge. Oftentimes when the compressor isn't running, refrigerant and compressor oil is still circulating. Many times with the compressor not running, you can reach back there and feel the hot coils. There's lot of stuff a fridge does when the compressor is off. A Kill-A-Watt Meter (or a batter monitor) will make that evident, as current draws ebb and flow even with the compressor cycled off. There are people out here expediting that frequently unplug and plug in their little fridge, and can't understand why they keep needing to replace it after 12-18 months.

When you unplug it (or turn the inverter off) and then turn it back on, all that stuff the fridge does needs to be started over from scratch, including cleaning out the compressor oil that's still in the lines because it was unplugged before it could complete the circulation cycle, making it work a lot harder than if you just leave it plugged in. Also, and it's what happens mostly, is that uncirculated oil that's left in the lines will eventually clog the lines. Areas of the country where they have frequent power outages, like out in the county where I live, they go through a lot of refrigerators and freezers, for that very reason.

Unplugged (or power outage) for a few minutes won't mess it up, but anything longer than an hour and it needs to stay unplugged for at least 8 hours to ensure the oil leaches back fully into the compressor and separates from the refrigerant. When I go home, rather than run the fridge off the batteries, I plug it into an extension cord from the house.

 

[Rocketman]

Our 2006 Columbia has 4-1010 CCA batteries that are 19 months old.
I had them tested a few weeks ago and one was not as strong as the other three, but I was told it would be OK.
Yesterday they were fully charged. This morning after the truck sat for 22 hours with just the fridge running it would not start.
I am replacing the one known weak battery tomorrow.
Will one bad battery draw the other three down?

If you...or anyone for that matter... needs an extra oem FL battery box (mounts to the frame rails), I have one that I'm going to sell. It is all there except one of the angle iron mounting brackets and I might be able to come up with that...no promises though. It holds four batteries.

I also have a couple of nice side boxes that I'll be listing in the classifieds soon.

 

[greg334]

If you...or anyone for that matter... needs an extra oem FL battery box (mounts to the frame rails), I have one that I'm going to sell. It is all there except one of the angle iron mounting brackets and I might be able to come up with that...no promises though. It holds four batteries.

I also have a couple of nice side boxes that I'll be listing in the classifieds soon.

How much?? I'm looking for a batt box.

 

[ATeam]

We have five batteries on our big-sleeper truck. Four power the truck engine, lift gate, sleeper and everything else but the reefer. The reefer battery is isolated and powers the reefer only. It gets charged by the reefer alternator.

In July, 2009, we installed four Optima YellowTop batteries. Almost 2.5 years later, they remain trouble free. We noticed an immediate benefit in reduced generator hours.

The batteries we replaced (and the ones before that) would power the sleeper most of the night when the truck was parked overnight. Then around 5:00 a.m. the generator would kick in to bring the batteries up to full charge. When the Optimas were installed, it might be noon or later before the generator kicked in. (The generator recharge feature is why we built the truck without house batteries; saved weight, space and reduced the number of batteries to deal with.)

I don't recall the warranty details but the people at the Petro where we purchased the batteries said any Petro or TA can provide warranty service.

These batteries have been great. They seem as fresh and crisp today as when we bought them. The terminals stay cleaner too.

 

[jjoerger]

I was thinking of ordering the Optima batteries and installing them when we come home for Christmas.
I picked up a replacement for the bad one I had today.
The truck went 21 hours on just three (still had cranking power) and they were not fully charged. Taking out the bad one prevented it from killing the good ones.

 

[chefdennis]

The old batteries will now draw te new one down to their level rapidly.....

 

[jjoerger]

The old batteries will now draw te new one down to their level rapidly.....

At least I will have four fairly good ones until I can replace them all.

 

[nightcreacher]

Our 2006 Columbia has 4-1010 CCA batteries that are 19 months old.
I had them tested a few weeks ago and one was not as strong as the other three, but I was told it would be OK.
Yesterday they were fully charged. This morning after the truck sat for 22 hours with just the fridge running it would not start.
I am replacing the one known weak battery tomorrow.
Will one bad battery draw the other three down?

replace all 4,the three that are not new will drain the new battery.also the higher the cranking amps,the life of battery will be shorter.I never go over 850 cc amps

 

[nightcreacher]

jj you could of just kept the 3 batteries and left off the third.Freightliner has a system that three batteries are for starting,the 4th runs the electric,but if you take the 1 battery and thro it away,the truck wont know the difference

 

[Rocketman]

How much?? I'm looking for a batt box.

Sending you a pm.

 

[greg334]

You didn't have to tell me I have a PM, I already read it and sent another back to you -

 

[joe31467]

yes batterys wil try to balance the voltage out between all 4. if you have a week cell in one the other three the other 3 will be drawn down because of the cell being bad. if the bad battery is the first one from you alternator, it will make the alternator work twice as hard to charge the other 3. recomend changing battery that is bad and having a battery stress test done on the other three to make sure they werent danaged. also check your alternator out put should be close to 13.5 to 14volts (1 volt for voltage drop) if your parked more than 5-6 hrs recomend investing in a rv outside plug adapter so you can plug a extention cord into the outlet at home. another option is invest in a optima blue top deep cycle battery and a small inverter. fully charged it shoud run a small 400 watt inverter for 24hrs and when you come back out to work use a deepcycle trickle charger to charge your optima battery back up. charge time about 4-5 hrs. plug your second 400 watt inverter into your ciggerett lighter outlet for the charger.

 

[joe31467]

One thing to keep in mind is when you using a inverter watage shows 1500 watts its actualy 1200 watts this is the inverters safty feature. When you run a microwave its 6.5 amps out the front side of the inverter (ac side) but on the back side (the dc side from the batterys) its pulling 65 amps so if your alternator is only 80 amps you have 15 amps to charge you batterys and 65 amps to run your microwave. Watch you volt gage when you run your engine with the microwave on you will see the difference