Sometimes the HD battery is the only game in town...for my 2004 HD Sportster anyway...! Expensive yes, but if you take care of it with battery tender and such over 8-10 years life is not too bad an investment. :small3d036:
what to expect on a new spill proof battery from dealership?
- Thread starter ron1978
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Jack Klarich
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Jack Klarich
Guest
Good batteries, Sears just signed on with them to make our Die Hards, very well made and more CCA now
Careful Jack about letting the cat out of the bag regarding the OEM of batteries...! Way back Johnson Controls (Corporate is in Wisconsin) made batteries for most all the major automotive stores in the 1980's (Grand Auto, Kragen and they are the make of the Optima batteries). I did not know about Deka until I read about HD using them by one of our posters here.
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Jack Klarich
Guest
Good point NEWHD, bet you did not know Sears owned JC and sold them . Had to go with Exide for a few years, they got a new contract with JC. These batteries for the most part were made in Mexico( Die Hard) lines and were not a good product. Time will tell if the new line will pan out. side note is JC also makes the interstate battery, Capital Jack
Hoople
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It may just be me (I am sure it is) but I have had so many problems with Interstate batteries. Not just a few samples in 1 or 2 different vehicles. I am talking 10 samples in 10 different vehicles. Not 1 battery has ever lived out it's quoted warranty period. Not one. You therefore wind up being married to that battery company.
Yes they replace them free of charge and yes you can find them everywhere,,, but they have left me stranded on the side of the road,,in my garage and even have gone OPEN CELL while driving down the road. Yes, OPEN CELL while driving down the road. I am not talking about 3 failing out of 5 tries in the same vehicle. I am talking not a single one living out the quoted warranty.
Who knows,,maybe they now have their act together and are building good batteries but I am not going down that road again. In my opinion they have issues with their internal "cell jumpers" and "plate jumpers". It is never just a slow dying weak battery issue. It is always a battery that appears to be fine 1 day and dead the next. I don't like not having the "warning" indicators most other batteries give you.
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Jack Klarich
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Seeing soo many batteries fail early i like to check them with a hydrometer, at least I will see when I have a weak cell, but the industry does not accept this as a valid test any more, they would rather load test and pro rate and move on keeping you on the hook as Tank said above, JMO
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Jack Klarich
Guest
True, but we are load testing under charged batteries, with out knowing the state of charge in each cell probably going to fail, I would rather charge it over night remove the surface charge then load her up, still if its not sealed hydrometer first, just my way, Our battery adjustments @ Sears are off the scale