After sitting unused for more than 3 months, a battery that should have had another year or so in it let me down this morning…
…and annoying as that is, the timing couldn’t have been better. I no sooner got the charger on it than I got a text from D&L who wanted to go to town this afternoon. And thanks to a policy of austerity in the fear that the Jeep would cost more than hoped, I was actually able to replace the deader without pain.
On that subject, somebody asked last week whether the Great Transmission Bleg was able to pay for the repair. Having now settled my mind about additional related cost, I can say that you guys nailed the price almost precisely. TUAK contributions specific to the transmission repair totaled $2360, and the actual bill was $2580. And for that, I am most sincerely grateful. Without you guys, the Jeep would be a permanently parked home for rats and I’d be afoot.
Even worse, Tobie would be afoot. And NOBODY wants that.
I’m glad that you were able to cover the cost of a replacement battery. OK Joel, I have to ask… Why do your Jeep batteries only last 4, or 5 years?
I think it’s because they’re seldom topped off. The Jeep almost exclusively does short slow hops: It rarely goes anywhere long enough to fully charge a battery. Now and then I think to put my Battery Minder on it but mostly the battery doesn’t cross my mind until it forcibly brings itself to mind, always in the form of some sort of failure.
Would some sort of on-car solar panel work to keep the battery fully charged? There might be room on the hood to affix one, no idea what wattage output it would have to be.
I tried that once. Somebody sent me a little solar charger which I wired to the battery; it probably didn’t last more than a week or two of bashing around. I could use one if I hooked it up every time I parked but didn’t ask it to survive getting flung around the Jeep willy-nilly, but I could also do the same thing with my battery minder.
“I think it’s because they’re seldom topped off.”
OK, that makes sense. Even my short trips are around twenty miles. I hope that you manage to find a work around. I understand that everywhere is withing walking distance is funny for a comic to say but, in reality, it’s not realistic.
Could be a vampire power drain also?
Had a truck that if it sat for a few months, the battery would go dead.
Turned out to be a diode in the alternator that was sucking a little bit of power out of the battery all the time, even with the ignition off. If driven every week or two the battery would never go dead.
Have a look at
Rejuvenating dead batteries with a welder.
Video is out there. Uncle Tony’s Garage is where I saw it Done. I’d heard about, but he showed it and was using it a Coupla week later.