Printable View
An auto place called Princess Auto, known by most Canadians, has a lawn tractor battery on sale for $55.
https://www.princessauto.com/en/gcu1...t/PA0008680548
A few people are not happy with them but Princess has a really good return policy, and the battery has a no questions asked 6 month replacement. I figure it's good enough to start my 14 Mirage for a couple of years.
Wally - It's worth a try I spose. IIRC, our OEM battery has I think about 330 CCA. You'd be cutting that in half with the lawn tractor battery.
Now down here in the dirty dirty south, where we keep the roofs blazin', perhaps we could get away with it. But up yonder on the frozen tundra, I'd be seriously concerned about winter starts. Maybe less so if you either have a block heater and plug it in, or park in a garage, or both.
If you chance it, keep up posted.
Not sure why two similar threads were started at the same time, but I will say the same thing twice.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7milesout
My concern would be the low 160 CCA of that particular battery. I've never seen a lawn mower battery with a number that low. Our cheap Walmart U1 lawn mower battery has a 230 CCA rating for about $29 USD. A $35 U1 would give you 275 CCA, and a $50 U1 gives you 340 CCA. I will be curious to hear how well that battery does during cold weather.
It's a good experiment to try, especially if you own jumper cables! You'll have to give us updates on it!
A Mirage factory battery is only 356 CCA, and mine is 6+ years old, which is pretty good in my opinion.
A Walmart Everstart battery (group size 35) (cheapest of three offerings) is under $70 & has 490 CCA at least.
The 160 CCA is crazy low, I agree. I'm really curious who made the battery. I gather Johnson Controls made something like 90% of all North American car/truck/yard batteries until they sold off that division. (2017 or so?) I forget who owns it now. But my point is I can't see another company suddenly entering a market that was dominated by Johnson. I can see the new Johnson owners expanding their offerings like including a 160 CCA tractor battery.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I thought of a good compromise, use my existing 330 CCA tractor battery (~385 CCA in reality) as my Mirage battery and use the new 160 CCA battery (actually 230 CCA) in a lawn tractor as designed.
I have another compromise which just hit me. Drive 5 minutes across the border, now open I think, to the nearest Walmart and buy the $35US 275 CCA (close enough to $54 CAN). The downside there is another cross border trip if the Walmart battery needs replacement under warranty. Why bother? since the new Princess battery is actually close enough in CCA to the Walmart $29 US battery just use the Princess. Plus, there's no core nonsense to deal with from Princess. That means a lot to me. I have a use for lead and hate having to give up 30-40 lbs. of good lead to get $30 core charge back.
1st observation. No difference in size from the Princess battery with my old 385 CCA. The Princess battery is actually 230 CCA (219 CCA from the store) so it's likely the 230 CCA Walmart one. Doh. I need to fully charge the 160 CCA and test it under load. I'll put it on the charger NOW.......
The Princess battery fully charged quickly enough, the charger went into desulph mode a couple times. It now reads as 227 CCA.
I think the answer for me is use the 385 CCA in the Mirage (should be plenty) and the Princess 230 CCA in the tractor (again, should be plenty.) I think in a pinch the Princess would do in the Mirage under normal conditions but bets are off when it's -35C outside. Then again, I always carry a 800A LION booster for those days.Attachment 25251
Attachment 25252
Attachment 25253
ETA:
I'm mounting the oil pan heater properly this summer (one corner was peeling) and I will likely break down and install my NIB Kat 400w cartridge heater in my 2014. The 2017 will only get the oil pan heater done right. My 2017 has a 3x month old battery (bought new, $120)
Walmart.ca is very poor, I could not locate and buy an Everstart group 35 but I DID locate and bought a dual terminal Everstart suitable for my Saturn Vue for $99. In Canada that's a real deal.
-35c at Niagra Falls?
If that tractor battery is cute and small enough, an interesting thought is ... why buy 1 when you can buy 2 at twice the price?
Hook them up parallel. I hazard a guess that 2 in parallel (assuming both made at or near the same month), would last longer than even 1 battery with twice the CCA.
Oh wait, me and electrons don't see eye to eye. I can't remember. In parallel, it would still be 12 Volts. But does the Amps stay the same? Or double? Damn electrons...
If the amps double, that would be 320 juicy CCA. And would be so cute!
My Cummins runs two big n ugly (but juicy) batteries in parallel. They've got 6+ years on them right now. Still starting the engine.
I head north of Toronto for concerts @Casino Rama. -35C is pretty common. No plugs at most hotels. Better have a good battery/LION booster/CAA membership or all of the above.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fummins
Ya, parallel doubles the current, so it would be ~460 CCA. More than enough. And I think you're right about increasing the life as the batteries should never discharge deeply, the main killer of SLA tech. That's a good plan for $110 investment. An even better investment if the batteries go on a super sale.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7milesout
How about rechargable AA batteries? Wire up few banks of 9 batteries(13.5V). I watched a video one time where a guy used some capacitors to start his little car. It did work. Kind off. In the end wasn't ideal trying to reinvent the wheel.
A co-worker has a pretty new HRV, last winter the drivers window wouldn't roll up. I pulled it into the shop and got it up for them. I had the key on(engine off) for maybe 5 mins tops. Battery was dead enough that it wouldn't crank the engine...It used some goofy dinky typical Honda sized battery. Off to the dealer it went to get a replacement warranty one...
I have never been impressed with Honda/Toyota factory batteries. Our Mirage gets a decent group 35 and the Honda I saw had a battery that looked half the size of the Mirage. With zero room to install a larger battery.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fummins
Guys have been dinking around with supercaps. They weigh nothing, hold a long charge, can be recharged from a cell phone booster pack and seem to start anything. @$400 they seem pricy but not compared to those weirdo Optima batteries. When the price drops below $200 I'll experiment. They have dropped in price 50%! IMO they are tech of the future. Here's a highly rated booster.
https://www.amazon.ca/Rezervo-Batter...b-f959a9930752