Battery amp/hour ratings

wa8yxm wrote:
The Exception: OPTIMA batteries are 60% of the above (Other 40% is wasted space that is air).

Optima did for a short while sell an exception to themselves and I have one:

It's a Yellow Top Group 31 size, rated at 95 amp hours, that I've never weighed - but it's a back-buster to lift. They soon took it off the commercial market because the U.S. military contracted to buy their entire output of it.

This Optima easily weighs more than the new 72 lb. Group 31 Fullriver's I recently bought. It's a mystery to me how this Optima can weigh so much with it's cylindrical cells being the only place containing it's lead. :h

A 4-D is SNOT a cyclable battery. A plates per cell count will scream FOUL!

A 4-D will have most likely an 1100-1200 CCA rating. A GC-220 Will have less than half that.

Yet the 4-D will have more ampere hours at the 20-hour rate.

Direct BCI / BCI group size comparisons are useful. The heavier the weight COUPLED WITH the fewer the ampere hours is the hallmark of separating deep cycle batteries from the pretenders.

A group 27 battery made to golf car specs by ABC Battery in L.A. had roughly 55-amp hours and was SEVEN POUNDS HEAVIER than a Sears RV battery. Acid starvation did that project in.

Gene&Ginny wrote:
The lable on the Wally World battery did say "122 AH @1 amp", that really threw me.

I will make it easy for you.

It does not matter (with one exception) who made the battery

A Group 24 is about 75 amp hours
A group 27 around 95
A group 29 around 105
A group 31 around 130

All are plus/minus 10%

The Exception: OPTIMA batteries are 60% of the above (Other 40% is wasted space that is air).

GC-2 (golf car SiX volt can be

210,215,220,230 =,240 or 250 with 220 and 230 being most common.

YOU need to talk to the store about those.

Anothr way is to weight the puppies.. Pounds per watt-hour (12 times amp hours) is right close to a constant.

A 100 pound battery has twice the capacity of a 50 pounder

This is why thy use GC-2 instead of 4D

Each GC-2 weighs nearly exactly half the 4d and since you use two of them in series to get 12 volt.. You get a 4D. Way easier to wrangle
(Cheaper too).

Would not like to meet the mutha that could hand crank a 472 cubic inch Cadillac engine. I learned patience when motoring long distances on very hot days. The starter cpuld have used an extensive heat shield between it and the exhaust but laziness won out.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Would not crank because of classic GM starter motor heat-soak.

There used to be a superior solution to that other than putting better starters in automobiles.

My MG had it decades ago .... a hand crank hole low in the front with the crank for it stowed clamped in neat brackets in it's tiny trunk.

That's the 800 pound problem Gorilla in the reliability room today ... there's not enough back-up solutions provided ... in products or anywhere else.

I used to work in integrated circuit manufacturing. If folks only knew what one leaky junction buried deep in a solid state circuit could do to mess up their modern "high tech" lives ...

I visited a friend in the bayarrhia. His business neighbor was an auto shop. One day the owner came to me and said "I hear you are a troubleshooter". A poor customer had paid over 500-dollars for various parts to stop the A/C from cutting out when the gas pedal was depressed. The idiot had several junk cars parked out back. I spent 3-minutes locating a heater control inline vacuum non return fitting. Problem went away.

Decades before I was southbound on I-5 with my Caddie. Shut it off in a gas station. Would not crank because of classic GM starter motor heat-soak. Pimple-faced kid runs out with his cheese grater load tester. "It's your alternator" he pronounces...

"Sonny, wanna know what I do for a living?"

He vanishes. I get into the car and drive off.

It's no joke. The aptitude or honesty in the repair trade is a disgrace.

I looked up the Trojan batteries mentioned and they actually list the specs. They list AH for 5, 10, 20, and 100 hour rates. If they are so honest with their ratings they may just be as honest with the way they build them. Refreshing. :) :C

Mex wrote:
ARE YOU SUGGESTING?

"What are these Interstate Batteries doing here in place of my pair of brand-new Lifelines?"

"Oh, we did you a favor and tested them and found them to be bad. Two hundred ninety dollaes please"

Yep ... except with these small tweaks:

"What are these Wally World batteries doing here in place of my pair of brand-new Fullrivers?"

"Oh, we did you a favor and tested them and found them to be bad. Two hundred ninety dollars, each, please".

ARE YOU SUGGESTING?

"What are these Interstate Batteries doing here in place of my pair of brand-new Lifelines?"

"Oh, we did you a favor and tested them and found them to be bad. Two hundred ninety dollaes please"