ArizonaShooting.ORG

XJThrottle wrote: ↑February 27th, 2019, 3:02 pm If 4% of my farts require an underwear change, that's a problem.

4% of a year is roughly 14 days. If your car didn't start 14 days out of every year because the battery was dead, you'd be cool with that?

If that's a passing grade for you Steve, so be it.

Cognitive skills are lacking it seems. You stated as fact, "that the heat is killing batteries" based on replacing the batteries in roughly 4% of the approximately 7800 vehicles you saw in a decade. Yet have no actual knowledge of the specific reasons said batteries died. Sounds more like a parts changer then a skilled mechanic...it's hot and your battery died...so it must be the heat.

Beyond that if "heat killed batteries" as much as you claim it does why didn't the other 7500 vehicles need their battery replaced? There is what, a million vehicles in Phoenix and yet a million batteries are not getting replaced each year. Obviously the heat is not the over riding factor in a battery dying.

I provided just one example of how a perfectly good battery in a vehicle with a correctly functioning charging system could be killed in just a few months and it had zero to do with the heat.

I even pointed out that in CA I live in an area that gets hotter and for longer periods of time then Phoenix does yet we don't have an epidemic of dead batteries. When according to your logic(?) we should see even more dead batteries here. Yet I have had over 15 vehicles (up to 5 at a time) over the 34 years we have lived in the desert and the only battery that didn't last 4 or more years was due to the exact example I gave.

Ranger1 wrote: ↑February 27th, 2019, 8:38 am Ok so by what you just said. My charging system is just fine. My diesel eats a set of batteries every 1 1/2 years. Everytime under warranty. I run the sh%% out of my air conditioner sometimes I have short trips. I run dual batteries 900 cca. My shortest trips are to bashes 7 miles away. I start my truck and let it run for 5 min before I put my foot in it. Dodge says my charging system has no problems. I have 560,354 miles on my dodge truck. I have seen around 10 batteries go in and out of it. Heat is hard on batteries. That's why I have moved my batteries back under my flat bed away from the engine heat. They are doing better now.

I stand by my statement, you either have a vehicle issue, an amp draw issue in use or are buying crap batteries. Repeatedly only getting 1.5 years out of a battery is not normal.

Thanks for your opinion. I will stand by my Dodge dealers professional diesel mechanic. He was trained by dodge. I also took it to a professional diesel shop for some turbo work. They even said nothing wrong with it. Huh. Should I believe you or them.....I guess you should go into business for yourself u will be a millionaire

Ranger1 wrote: ↑February 27th, 2019, 5:45 pm Thanks for your opinion. I will stand by my Dodge dealers professional diesel mechanic. He was trained by dodge. I also took it to a professional diesel shop for some turbo work. They even said nothing wrong with it. Huh. Should I believe you or them.....I guess you should go into business for yourself u will be a millionaire

If they think that replacing batteries every year and a half is "normal" then they aren't as trained as you think. Plenty of piss poor factory trained mechanics out there by the way. Lots of mechs that simply throw parts at a problem instead of getting to the bottom of what caused it.

You see them in the 6.0 diesel world. People talk about how their mech just replaced the EGR cooler on their truck and it has blown again in just a couple thousand miles. This means the mech never bothered getting to the root of the problem. That being the oil cooler's coolant passages are plugged, which since that then disrupts the flow of coolant to the EGR cooler it will be destroyed in short order.

As I previously laid out it is possible to kill a battery without heat having anything to do with it and with nothing being wrong with the vehicle or battery. Heck just having some corrosion on the connectors will do it as well. Corrosion that you don't even see, as it is under the crimp holding the connector to the battery cable.

Bottom line, there is NOTHING "normal" about having to replace batteries every year and a half.

As to going into business, no thanks. I retired almost 4 years ago from 37 years of troubleshooting equipment for the Marine Corps.

Battery
Ham radios. HF and dual banded
Knive
Gun
Rope

Spare tire
Jack
Lug wrench
gas
phone

-Med kit enough to cover all the people who would ride in my vehicle (me + 3 ad pet)
-Dry food and water enough for two days
-communications and chargers for those items
-2 layers of clothing tops (polypro, rain/wind cover brightly colored) for primary passengers (me + 1)
-extra ammunition for daily EDC

My vehicle already has a spare, jack and wrench.

I would suggest not carrying a jump starter in the vehicle as they are known to catch fire. The ones from Harbor Freight have a large litium ion battery that I have witnessed catch fire in a dramtic manner. Seems to be more prevalent when they are stored in a hot environment, like inside the vehicle or outside in a plastic tote. The fire investigator I spoke with told me he had one behind the seat in the truck, but was going to remove it immediately.

Very bad Juju.

1. Mtb helmet. Got to the trailhead too many times having forgotten it. Now it stays in the vehicle.
2. Another Mtb helmet . For the times my son will forget his own helmet.
3. Pistol. Currently G19 with 4 mags.
4. Battery jump start device plus extra jumper cables just in case.
5. Solar flashlight with usb charging ports.

Water
Jumper cables
Basic tool kit
Spare tire
Cell phone charger

WATER 6gallons of water and 6 gallons of full on rear bumper swingout
Full Size Spare - 5 wheel rotations to keep mud tires similar diameters for using lockers
ARB Plug Kit
Recovery Straps and shackles
Dual Battery setup with isolator - Yeah AZ eats batteries so AGM is what I run now
Small First Aid Kit with large space blanket (shade or containing heat)

5 items are just too little as I solo overland
Gun/Leatherman/Extraction tools to pry doors open in case of roll over/ Safety Vest/ Air Tools/Compressor/stove/couple block of 2x4 for under bottle jack/ Highlift/ Ham Radio/winching gloves/ Nitril Gloves / TP and trowel/ hand cleaner/ sunscreen/ bug spray /etc...

Good thread - I noticed some holes thanks for posting guys. Spare clothes, shoes, and some other things i am going to have to add to my kit

1) Water
2) Hat
3) Pistol
4) Tool kit
5) Jumper cables

Good tire plug kit and air compressor.

Changing a spare tire on a hot summer day is a cool breeze with 1/2” impact gun. I won’t do a road trip without mine.
But ya tools, jumper cables, lotsa water, pistola, etc. This heat kills batteries and tires.

62Grains wrote: ↑April 20th, 2020, 8:19 pm Good tire plug kit and air compressor.

That combination has saved my bacon several times, wouldn't have made it out of the desert without it.