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i want a battery to last 5 years or more, am i dreaming?

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Chris

Yes, you are dreaming.

Seriously, here is the deal. The old damp dry batteries had numerous problems. They gassed out, they prematurely failed, etc. The new sealed batteries are definitely an improvement. The problem is two fold, we are asking a battery to last a long time when they stay stagnant for months at a time. I know that some use battery tenders and trickle chargers which work fine, I just don't think that it takes the place of discharging and recharging the car constantly as you would with your daily driver. Another issue that I have always thought was problematic is the fact that many of these cars have old wiring that is loaded with resistance, especially in the ground circuit. This causes the battery/alternator to have to work extra hard. Maybe if a more prominent battery mfg. made them they could be improved, but??

Till then, I guess we just have to look at it as one of the costs of ownership.

Mike

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i want a battery to last 5 years or more, am i dreaming?

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Chris

Yes, you are dreaming.

Seriously, here is the deal. The old damp dry batteries had numerous problems. They gassed out, they prematurely failed, etc. The new sealed batteries are definitely an improvement. The problem is two fold, we are asking a battery to last a long time when they stay stagnant for months at a time. I know that some use battery tenders and trickle chargers which work fine, I just don't think that it takes the place of discharging and recharging the car constantly as you would with your daily driver. Another issue that I have always thought was problematic is the fact that many of these cars have old wiring that is loaded with resistance, especially in the ground circuit. This causes the battery/alternator to have to work extra hard. Maybe if a more prominent battery mfg. made them they could be improved, but??

Till then, I guess we just have to look at it as one of the costs of ownership.

Mike

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we dont use the cars enough for the system to work as designed to go along with the aging wires.

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Sorry: I don't buy that. I use non-restoration batteries in my cars and they last typically 6 or 7 years. I try to drive my cars as much as I can but my Hemi car had been sitting for 7 weeks until I started it up yesterday.
I know our collector car usage is harder on the batteries but the typical auto-store batteries seem to last okay.

Sheldon

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I think you are making an argument for the oposistion.

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Does the tech archive have the post about gutting the old repo, and installing a smaller batt into the shell?

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Does the tech archive have the post about gutting the old repo, and installing a smaller batt into the shell?

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I got 6 years 8 months out of my lead acid resto battery and it was still going (although it started dying if I didn't use the car for a week..thats why I did this....)

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