I figure what happened with my Champion battery was that in order to cram more plates into the battery to get the high CCA rating they left the plates unsupported and driving over the speed bump knocked a couple plates into each other shorting out the one cell. But since the lab tech swore that there was nothing wrong with my battery I'll never really know for sure, except I know you could charge it for 24 hours, remove the charger and in about an hour it would test at about 10V, not the normal 13-1/2+ a fully charged battery should show. And since GNB was more interested in fighting any and all claims from dissatisfied customers who had battery problems with their junk, (I talked to no less than SIX lawyers working my way up the chain of command in their legal dept. about my claim, I still have my folder of notes in the shop from ALL my phone calls to them) they didn't really care how the batteries held up in the real world. I mean my truck at the time was a SWB reg cab '87 F150 with minumum power options, no A/C, tilt, cruise, PW/Power locks or mirrors, just had power brakes & steering which aren't electric, no added lights... Ohhhh I did add a little radio amplifier that pulled maybe 5-10A, but seldom if ever listened to the radio. It did have the heaviest spring/shock package FMC put under half-ton pickups, frt & rear sway bars, quad-frt shocks, rear over-load springs, but I drove it like an old lady, never went ditch-banging or off-roading. I'd seen a lot of kids fly over that speed bump 30+ MPH leaving football practice in their old beaters! I'd crawl over it idling in low gear slipping the clutch until that one time.
Back when I still worked at FARMALL, batteries were one of the commodities I scheduled. First year I was in Mat'l Scheduling Delco in Olatha, KS had the contract for the two part numbers of batteries FARMALL used, all the 86-series got two of one part number, the 2+2's & Steiger-built 4X4's up in Fargo got 2 or 3 of the bigger batteries. Second year Prestolite from Toledo, OH had the contract, third year the contract went back to Delco. You hang around the RPM forum and if the topic of batteries ever comes up the 86-series tractors have the reputation of having the longest lived batteries of ANY tractor IH ever built. Many didn't need new batteries for 10 years. 7-8 years was very common.
Delco wouldn't mess around with customers buying batteries at cost from them but I did buy new batteries from Prestolite for my '77 Firebird & '78 F150 while I worked @ FARMALL. They shipped dry-charged batteries to me UPS for around $35/$40 each, when I got ready to install them I bought a gallon of acid from the local auto parts store, put the acid in then, then charged them for a couple hours. I kept both vehicles about 3-5 yrs after installing both batteries and they worked great. With the IH decals on them both brands of batteries looked identicle, and because both companies cared about making a quality product there was no difference in how they held up in the field.
NORM B. - I would say most of the batteries JC makes would be identicle, and ALL would be similar, but I would expect to see differences between some brands. At first glance a battery just seems like a plastic or hard rubber box with dividers inside stuffed with rigid lead plates submerged in acid and there's connecting bars of lead cast onto the plates to transfer the current to the two posts, but the differences would be in the details of how the plates are supported.
SON used Optima red top batteries in his '93 Lightning p/u for many years. It was one of the few batteries with both top posts & side terminals that he needed to wire up his stereo. He had a 200+A alternator on the truck, huge 2-0 fine stranded copper welding cable with copper end clamps for cables and the factory A/C was removed. Truck still had power windows, locks, tilt/cruise, etc. They seemed to live about 3 yrs, maybe 4 tops. Best battery he ever had was an Interstate he bought when he worked at the local appliance store who also sold high-end car stereos. He got it for cost, put it in the '88 Mustang which had a BIG stereo for 2 yrs, then transferred it into his Lightning for at least another 3 yrs.
Think I mentioned in another post the Motorcraft batteries in my pickup are proving to be really good. Stock the truck had two 850 CCA Motorcraft batteries that lasted 6-7 yrs of daily use and I replaced them with two 875 CCA Motorcraft batteries 9-10 yrs ago that still start the truck fine. And it sits for a month or more between starts with no battery tenders. Only time I've had problems starting was when I left my Escort radar detector on for six weeks and drained them, and another time I left the parking lights on for a couple days and drained them again. IMO those batteries don't owe me a thing. When they die I'll go back to my local Ford store and buy another pair. I bought the pair of batteries in there now for $150-$160 for the pair, about what one Optima would have cost.
The batteries I'm using in my CC's are just what's available from the local Blain's Farm & Fleet, the grp #26 in the #72, and the big L&G battery in the 982, think it's the 350 CCA version. The #70 has a HUGE battery, think it's the same size as my pickup uses, 750-850 CCA. That's why it got used the last several years to run the 12V sprayer. If any of them wouldn't start I'd charge them for a while then use my charger on the 100A boost setting and start the engines, but I haven't had a problem for 4-5 yrs on any of them. The 72 was the last tractor to get a new battery 4-5 yrs ago, and the 982 a year or so before that.
