It seems batteries aren’t lasting long these days, good lorry batteries used to last 5yrs or more, guess they must be skimping on materials to make them a lot cheaper.
Trev_H:
It seems batteries aren’t lasting long these days, good lorry batteries used to last 5yrs or more, guess they must be skimping on materials to make them a lot cheaper.
Perhaps it’s a side effect of doing it more “green” maybe ■■?
That’s usually one step forward and 2 back, goddam polar bears 
Afaik night heaters only pull battery power when in the “firing up” stage, once started they draw no electrical power. Was told this by a sparky years ago, he also recommended that if you have weak batteries fire the night heater up, leave it on full heat but open both windows, that way it only fires up the once.
Maybe he was wrong but I’ve done it that way for donkeys with no problems.
billybigrig:
…Perhaps it’s a side effect of doing it more “green” maybe ■■?
Probably something to do with less lead than previously used maybe? After going through 3 batteries in 3 years on my bike I decided to spend nearly twice as much on a Varta battery, it’s on its second year and still going strong. Maybe with batteries you really do get what you pay for. Buy cheap, buy twice, I think the saying goes. Not that any batteries are cheap these days. 
Harry Monk:
If you ran your dashboard heater fan for nine or ten hours with the engine off, would you be surprised if the truck didn’t start?
The motor in the cab is considerably larger, running a much larger fan.
TerryDactyl.:
Maybe with batteries you really do get what you pay for. Buy cheap, buy twice, I think the saying goes. Not that any batteries are cheap these days.
You certainly do, I always buy the biggest and most expensive battery possible for the vehicle, works a treat got 11 years out of the last battery on one of my cars and not had at least 5 yeras out of others, the ones on new vehicles have possibly been damaged by being allowed to go compleatly flat while the trruck was in storage then jump started rather then charged slowly and fully
I always thought night heaters were Diesel powered, not electric? Or am I missing something obvious? (More than likely)
dew:
I always thought night heaters were Diesel powered, not electric? Or am I missing something obvious? (More than likely)
The Heat as it were comes from diesel however they use electric for pumps, fans and controles etc so do draw a little bit of power however this is certainly less then 1 amp so over 10 hours would take 10 amp/hours from a battery, this shouldn’t bother a 100Amp/hour + truck battery
I’ve got Hawker Energy MoD batteries on some of our plant. One has been on the telehandler (which gets daily use) since 1998.
Only time it’s ever given a problem is when the lights have been left on the machine. Which isn’t the batteries fault to be fair.
Never seen them advertised anywhere else for sale, but they pop up in the Witham sale every so often.
Fantastic batteries.
AHT:
… the ones on new vehicles have possibly been damaged by being allowed to go compleatly flat while the trruck was in storage then jump started rather then charged slowly and fully
That’s a good point. In my experience once they’ve been fully discharged and just jumped off they never recover properly. Alternators don’t fully re-charge them, they need taking off and putting on a proper battery charger until they’re back up to full charge, the slower the better.
Moving chassis/cabs in the winter was a nightmare,unless they were Mercs.
Stored outside from Sept./Oct. for sometimes 3 months,very rare that a Merc wouldn’t start.Volvo and Iveco were totally the opposite. DAFs were 50/50.No idea what make of batteries were fitted though.Also,some modern batteries tend to give no warning.Today,ok.Tomorrow, not.
Batteries have definitely got worse across the board but you have to wonder if it’s customer driven.
We’ve got Banners, which definitely are far from great but if we buy a job lot load at a time we get a good price. This means customers get less of a heart attack when they need new batteries and we actually make something on it as well.
Also part of the problem with batteries on lorries is how they’re used. Primarily, they’re designed to provide high-intensity bursts of electrical energy to crank the engine and when you’re driving the alternator takes the load for headlights etc. Stuff like tail-lifts, side-lights with the engine off and night heaters that slowly drain them followed by quite brutal alternator recharging doesn’t do them much good. In my experience they always last much longer on vehicles where they’re purely used for starting the engine.
Own Account Driver:
Batteries have definitely got worse across the board but you have to wonder if it’s customer driven.We’ve got Banners, which definitely are far from great but if we buy a job lot load at a time we get a good price. This means customers get less of a heart attack when they need new batteries and we actually make something on it as well.
Also part of the problem with batteries on lorries is how they’re used. Primarily, they’re designed to provide high-intensity bursts of electrical energy to crank the engine and when you’re driving the alternator takes the load for headlights etc. Stuff like tail-lifts, side-lights with the engine off and night heaters that slowly drain them followed by quite brutal alternator recharging doesn’t do them much good. In my experience they always last much longer on vehicles where they’re purely used for starting the engine.
we got 10 yr’s out of a 450amp battery on a tddi mk3 mondeo, it was the origional battery that came with the car aswell…
i belive the next owner only got 3yr’s out of the parkinson’s battery that replaced it…
the first garage that i worked at sold banner battery’s over the 4yr’s i was their, only saw 4/5 come back in all…
as for hgv’s where power is needed to run extra item’s like tail lift etc, we need to over to split charge system’s like on caravan’s/campervan’s, where there the vehicle battery just run’s the vehicle as if it is standard, and are charged by the vehicle’s alternator, but it also charges the extra battery’s that power the living area of the vehicle, or in our case taillift’s, in this case if the battery goes flat the vehicle will still start and will recharger the extra battery’s…
philgor:
Own Account Driver:
Batteries have definitely got worse across the board but you have to wonder if it’s customer driven.We’ve got Banners, which definitely are far from great but if we buy a job lot load at a time we get a good price. This means customers get less of a heart attack when they need new batteries and we actually make something on it as well.
Also part of the problem with batteries on lorries is how they’re used. Primarily, they’re designed to provide high-intensity bursts of electrical energy to crank the engine and when you’re driving the alternator takes the load for headlights etc. Stuff like tail-lifts, side-lights with the engine off and night heaters that slowly drain them followed by quite brutal alternator recharging doesn’t do them much good. In my experience they always last much longer on vehicles where they’re purely used for starting the engine.
we got 10 yr’s out of a 450amp battery on a tddi mk3 mondeo, it was the origional battery that came with the car aswell…
i belive the next owner only got 3yr’s out of the parkinson’s battery that replaced it…the first garage that i worked at sold banner battery’s over the 4yr’s i was their, only saw 4/5 come back in all…
as for hgv’s where power is needed to run extra item’s like tail lift etc, we need to over to split charge system’s like on caravan’s/campervan’s, where there the vehicle battery just run’s the vehicle as if it is standard, and are charged by the vehicle’s alternator, but it also charges the extra battery’s that power the living area of the vehicle, or in our case taillift’s, in this case if the battery goes flat the vehicle will still start and will recharger the extra battery’s…
I had two new Banner batteries on one of my vehicles.First cold weather last winter,they weren’t man enough to start the vehicle.Now got Varta batteries,much better.