Battery Replacement - HELP!!

PuffTheMagicDragon

PuffTheMagicDragon

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One of my two batteries has suddenly decided to call it a day, just when I am due to leave on an extended cruise in a couple of days. The two batteries are identical and AFAIK have the same age.
The battery is marked "DELCO HEAVY DUTY FREEDOM BATTERY, Cat # 31-751, 750CCA, Load Test 370 Amps"
Questions:
1. What would be a close replacement?
2. Which standard of CCA does this refer to? (I understand that there are several systems)
3. What is the significance of the 'Load test' figure?
4. Do I look for 'Marine'? 'Truck'? Other? How many Ampere-Hours?
5. Is there a direct Delphi replacement? I ask because the Delco's were on the boat when I bought her in 1997 and the latest possible date shown on the battery sticker is '1994' - not a bad performance, I think.
6. Should I replace both?

Thanks for your time and any ideas.

Fair Winds!
 
You have a choice .... pay out a lot and get similar again ... probably means a bit of running around to find a supplier ... Google may help !

Or a run to local breakers yard and pick up similar rated battery and charge it up before putting on boat ........... at far cheaper cost .... in fact probably cheap enough that you can afford to get the correct one when you get back and keep this as a spare !!

EG - My Suzuki 4x4 has a daft size battery ... cost me near 50 notes for new one 2 yr ago .... it failed earlier this year. My brother who looks after it while I'm away .... AFTER failure of the battery I must add ........ couldn't start or rely on it - so he paid a fiver in local breakers yard .... garage load tester showed this battery to be as new !!! 8 months later its still going fine ....

I cannot believe that your battery requirements are so tight that you must have exactly the same as before ????

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Picture a 3-dimensional jig-saw puzzle? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Cyano is an A-layout Centaur with the batteries beneath the Starboard coffin berth. Worse - there are two little plywood/grp webs that reinforce the engine bearer. Each battery just fits athwartships between the webs. Placed fore & aft only one would fit. Wouldn't like that as engine has no hand-start.

Thanks for suggestions. Very down to earth, as usual!
 
Typical problem .... my boat has two battery's under port aft divan berth ..... plywood divider making it impossible to have girt big battery's.

BUT .... trip to local breakers yard and a tape measure can often turn up a Heavy Duty Diesel starter battery of a van or similar ...

It's funny actually as I had 2 identical large truck battereys of about 110 - 120 A/hr each. One died and I was loathe to pay the price for same again ......... I went to a local battery dealer and he took the notes and basically asked about servbices / charging etc. He then pointed at a smaller HD Diesel starter battery of about 80 A/hr .... saying why go bigger - it will fit in the slot easily and will give good service ........

3 yrs later - he is still right !! That battery sits there abused and forgotten ........ I get back to UK, press the button and engine starts OK ......... sometimes I give a bit of mains charge ex shore power if I have time ...

IMHO - there is a lot of good advise on the forums etc. - but I also believe that a lot is overkill .... I don't have fancy charge systems, I have a 1-2-0 switch .... standard alternator etc. etc.

Honest find the best fit to the available hole .... and enjoy the boat ......

I'm not the only one who frequents breakers yards for batterys / solenoids / cables / amp-volt-rev-oil pressure meters etc. etc.

/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Thanks Nigel. Will try that too.
Unfortunately local breakers' yards might be somewhat different to what you are used to. Like, people still drive Ford Prefects, Morris Minors (split windscreen) and so on; and I don't mean just the Classic Car Freaks!
When something is thrown away, most people (1) make sure that it really is dead and, (2) see what they can recover for it if possible. E.g. take a battery apart, melt down the innards and sell the recovered lead to fishermen - screw the enviropnment!
Still, there's one way of finding out... !

Thanks once again and,

Fair Winds!
 
Sorry ........... I should have seen the Malta bit ...

We tend to forget the international status of the web .. and think of local to us ....

I can imagine that its same for you as here in ex-soviet land .... NOTHING goes to waste .... if its scrapped - it's DEAD !!!

I have the battery from one of my staff's cars .... 3 yr ago it was taken out ... it's now on my w'ender boat ..... needs charging about once a week ... but still it does the job - so why worry !!

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Sounds like you have had your money's worth out of those two batteries, I'd change them both. I don't know what make of battery is available to you so couldn't advise other than to say you should have a couple of deep cycle batteries of around 120 - 200 amp hours capacity, whatever fits in the battery storage area. Your CCA figure is Cold Cranking Amps and is only of use in measuring the starting capability of a battery not it's deep cycle capability. It is a measure of how much it loses when cranking for 30 seconds at 0 degrees F. Hardly applicable to you! If you rely on your batteries for refrigeration you should probably have two identical batteries the maximum size that will fit where the present ones are located. (You can crank an engine with deep cycle batteries, but you can't deep cycle starting batteries). If you don't have refrigeration and your boat is typical you can live with considerably less house battery capacity so you could have a dedicated starting battery and a deep cycle battery. My own choice would still be for two deep cycle. Long distance cruising, particularly anchoring out a lot, can be miserable with a dodgy battery/charging set up.
 
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