black2000xj

well after many frustrating nights, my 3 year old interstate battery took a crap on me

wont charge up

looking for a suggestions.

Im looking for a good battery, I dont run a stereo system of a ton of offroad lights so a optima is not needed

A local guy who I trust alot sells wolverine HD batteries and they are 129 for the most expensive....and these are way better quality that duralast for the same price

any other suggestions? oh and whats the most cold cranking amps I can get without doing any damage to the starter?

salad

What use case are you going after? There are different parameters for battery selection, such as:
- condition of your starter
- average temperatures in your area (though I see your profile says Michigan)
- standby power requirements (starting vs. deep cycle or in the middle)
- ruggedness for wheeling
- do you plan on rolling the Jeep?
- winch
- lights

Some applications you NEED AGM, others you need sealed, others you need density and can live with a flooded lead acid, others you want ruggedness as the main priority, maybe you need a large reserve capacity for a winch

There is no "best battery" unless you have a large budget.

TrollHammer

For my daily driver, I just use whatever's cheap, usually from Bimart, and haven't had any issues with them running 5+ years.

I'll never buy an optima, for any reason. I'd use one if it was given to me and it worked, but I don't see the point feeding that beast. They don't really have all that high of capacity, they are just non-spillable and used to be shock resistant. I've heard nothing but problems the last few years though. I'd rather just get a sealed Costco battery for half the price and twice the capacity.

Anyway, I just run Costco and Bimart batteries, and have been happy. Sealed and shock resistant for off road, high capacity if I plan on running a lot with the engine off. Otherwise, cheap and simple wins for me.

We have arid conditions, occational sub zero temperatures in the winter and 100+ in the summer.

red4dr

you already made fun of my battery, so i guess my opinion is invalid :P i have the autozone gold battery

Radi

Hah. I know how feel .
Not only do I have an Autozone, but it's the cheapest, crappiest, wimpiest looking (who does yellow block letters on black? Really? could we scream 'cheapskate' any louder?) battery they sell with the correct group number. I'm surprised they didn't make me take it out the back door in a brown, unmarked bag. It isn't even a Duralast, I think it's called "Shame on You".
"you know that battery only has a 1 year warranty sir"
Look at the rust under the jeep and tell me what point a 2-year warranty would serve.....
"would you like the anti-corrosion washers with that?"
Again, look under the jeep, that's a cruel joke.

But it starts the thing just fine, so good enough.



Your starter doesn't care, it will draw whatever current it needs and no more. Anything beyond that is just reserve capacity which, since you live in MI, is a good thing.

salad

Joking aside, there's actually an advantage to a lower CCA battery. In the cheap flooded lead-acid batteries the posibility for damage is actually pretty high. The OE spec for my 1999 is 550 CCA. The largest flooded lead acid I can pick up for cheapish, $120 neighborhood, is over 1000 CCA in the same group! The way they pull this off is by increasing the density internally, so your lead plates end up tighter together. For some reason all of these people getting "200 more CCA for only $10 extra" report a high failure rate and lots of dead cells... hmmm

I grabbed the lowest capacity battery with the best warranty. Parts guy looked at me like I was nuts. It's still 50% better than the OE spec

mr white

That's weird. My last interstate lasted about 15years before it started losing its oompf.

Firestorm500

Interstate batteries were good back in the '70s, but now they're crap.

I use O'Reilly's Super Start in everything I have. And I have a lot of vehicles.

bulrid8

I will say that in my bronco I had a Duralast marine starter battery. It was a starter/deep cycle battery with 650CCA. It was in there for 4 years, before I sold it. Just a few months ago I left my headlights on for 9 hours one day. Went out and the thing started right up. I have never had a battery hold that long with lights on and start the vehicle. Autozone may have crappy parts, but their batteries are pretty good!

I ran Walmart MAxlife in all my diesels and never had a problem with them. Normally get about 5 years out of them.

Corvette1099

i think as long as you dont get a Interstate battery you'll be fine my interstate battery just took a **** and I dont have the $$$ to replace it....

black2000xj

well i brought the battery away to 3 different places and it came back fine

so it turns out now it isnt the battery and its something else with my jeep

But when i do get a battery, I will refer back to this thread

bulrid8

Did they just use their little electrical tester on it or did they load test it?

I had an f150 that i fought problems on. Replaced starter and alt. Battery kept testing fine. turns out it was a dead cell in battery that was shorting out. Make sure they load test that battery!

black2000xj

it tested 660 cca
new is 700cca

they told me if I had a bad cell i wouldnt be anywhere near 660cca

to answer your question tho....they just hook what looks like a battery tender on it and it reads it...i dont know if thats load testing or not ...it was batteries plus

mikesignal

from what I was told by our battery salesman at work (I work for a class 1 railroad) there are only 3 major battery manufacturers left in the U.S. So if you buy a battery from a store, any store, it's more than likely made by one of 3 companies. I beleive there are smaller companies, but the big chain stores will get there battery branded by the big 3.

Firestorm500

1. What makes you think the battery you buy is made in the US? It could be made in a foreign country. Or using parts made in a foreign country.

2. The manufacturers vary the quality of the battery up or down depending on their customers' requirements.