Cranking battery life?

My Defender is now 5 years old and touch wood, it is still running its original battery. When new, I installed a second cranking battery (Bosch N70Z) which is also still working. I regularly swap between the two (manual changeover switch) and the last few months I have been on 4 or 5 day camping trips a number of times with the fridge running and using general lighting etc.

No 1, I believe, may just last out this winter, as occasionally it is a little slower to turn over. Cold winters here. The vehicle sits idle for 2 weeks out of every 4 also.

My D2 is now 12 years old. Can't remember when the original battery died but the only replacement in the vehicles lifetime is still going. So on average, cranking battery lifetime is at least 6 years. From memory this seems to be better than battery lifetime on previous vehicles I have owned.

Last battery I replaced in the defender had lasted just over 8 years (Optima yellow top) started fine in the morning failed just after lunch with 2.4V across terminals, replaced in Cairns on our trip to the cape last year. The second battery is now just over 9 years old.



Martyn

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Most definitely is not! I attribute the fact that my tractor battery has lasted seven years so far to the fact that, while it is only used occasionally, it has a very small solar panel connected all the time it is not in use, and I would suggest this for anyone who has a vehicle that is only used occasionally. (Before I got the solar panel, average life of batteries on it was about two years)

John

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Totally agree with this suggestion. Nothing seems to look after irregularly used lead acid batteries like a small solar panel and if you keep the size to no more than 10w of solar panel for every 100Ah of battery capacity then you won't need a solar regulator and this makes a small solar panel a very cheap bit of battery "life" insurance.

Furthermore, and this is a personal opinion, but I believe solar powered battery maintenance is actually far better for batteries than leaving them on a battery charger.

I regularly see D2 and Td5 Defenders with the original Delphi 900A batteries after 7 or 8 years finally pack it up. We replace them with Delkor 31-900A ones that are a direct replacement and seem to be lasting just as long.

Short drives are a real problem with any battery, as Tim says solar or trickle charging will prolong the life. Or just drive it more- you know you want to!!


JC

Mine is 3 years. Though it was dying but it turns out the aux bat fried itself.
I would see 2.5 years as a min and not be to happy if that was all I got out of it.

The answer, in general, depends on a multitude of circumstances as variable as the weather, but the best I can report is seven years from a Century lead-acid battery fitted to my V8 Chev. And the big engine was only started every now and then, and spent most of it's life lazing about in the garage. All I had to do was give it an overnight charge, and the big V8 would roar to life.

Seems to me it generally pays in extended battery life to buy the largest one that will fit into the compartment. In cold weather/ difficult starting conditions often less power is taken out of a good battery because the motor starts sooner with faster cranking speed. ie Bigger battery effectively gets abused less in similar application so probably deteriorates at slower rate. Also can be provide adequate power when in worse condition that smaller battery.
My 300TDI Defender has the standard sized N70 type when I first got it. However, the slightly bigger 86 will just fit. This is probably the most common 12 volt type used in trucks and tractors and the most battery capacity for the money.
In recent years the only batteries I have bought are Century 86's, which have been swapped around at times between Land Rover and tractors. They have generally died for this purpose at about 6 years old.
In XY Falcon ute I drove for years, had modified compartment to take 86 battery. Very handy when good battery could be swapped with one with insufficient power to start a diesel. Often this was still adequate for petrol motor. Have even had ones that would no longer charge up enough to start diesels work satisfactorily for another 12 months in petrol vehicles.

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Originally Posted by mox

Seems to me it generally pays in extended battery life to buy the largest one that will fit into the compartment. In cold weather/ difficult starting conditions often less power is taken out of a good battery because the motor starts sooner with faster cranking speed. ie Bigger battery effectively gets abused less in similar application so probably deteriorates at slower rate. Also can be provide adequate power when in worse condition that smaller battery.

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X2. There's no substitute for a big-as-possible battery. 8 years is my record for a N70EX in a LPG V8, driven 2-3 times a week. Then it dropped dead all in a rush.

My D2 battery is about 4 years old, its only a supercharge N70 and the car is only driven on weekends and I've had no trouble, I have just had the battery disconnected for the last two weeks while I was doing some welding on the car and tonight it fired up with no hesitation. The best life out of a battery I have seen is 10 years in my ex wifes 2000mdl holden astra, daily driver almost 200k when battery replaced, only thing I thought might of helped battery life was that it was contained in a thermal type cover in engine bay.
Cheers Matt